Jīngāng bānruò jīng yī Tiānqīn púsà lùnzàn lüèshì Qínběn yìjì juànshàng 金剛般若經依天親菩薩論贊略釋秦本義記卷上
The Diamond Sūtra: Record of the Meaning of the Qín-translation, Briefly Explained Based on Vasubandhu Bodhisattva’s Treatise-Praise, Upper Juan by 知恩 (撰)
About the work
A late-Táng Buddhist commentary by Zhīēn 知恩 of the Xījīng Chóngshèngsì 西京崇聖寺 (Chángān). The unusually long title is doctrinally precise: the work is a brief explanation (lüèshì 略釋) of the meaning of the Qín-translation (秦本 = Kumārajīva’s Chinese version) of the Vajracchedikā, based on (yī 依) Vasubandhu’s Vajracchedikā vyākhyā and praise verses (天親菩薩論贊 = T25 no. 1511 prose treatise + the metrical praise apparatus). Only the upper juan (卷上) survives, recovered from Dūnhuáng. Preserved as T85 no. 2736. notBefore / notAfter set conservatively to the late-Táng (750–800). Catalog dynasty 唐.
Abstract
Zhīēn opens with the standard Táng wǔmén fivefold hermeneutic frame: jiāng shì cǐ jīng wǔmén fēnbié: yī biàn jiào yīnyuán; èr dìng jīng zōngzhǐ; sān míng chùhuì; sì xù fānyì; wǔ zhèng shì wényì 將釋此經五門分別: 一辨教因緣 / 二定經宗旨 / 三明處會 / 四敘翻譯 / 五正釋文義 (“In explaining this sūtra, five gates of distinction: 1. discriminating the teaching-occasion; 2. establishing the sūtra’s school-tendency; 3. clarifying the place-and-assembly; 4. narrating the translation; 5. proper exposition of the text-meaning”). Within the first mén he sub-divides into ten reasons-for-the-teaching (shí yīn 十因), the first being wèi xuānshuō púsà xíng gù 為宣說菩薩行故 (“to expound the bodhisattva-practice”). The body of the surviving juan presents the early sections of the sūtra under this scholastic apparatus, with the Vasubandhu vyākhyā schema as working frame. The work is one of the most rigorously Yogācāra of the Dūnhuáng-recovered Vajracchedikā commentaries.
Translations and research
- See KR6c0107 for general references on Dūnhuáng Vajracchedikā commentary scholarship.
Other points of interest
The explicit naming of the Qínběn (Kumārajīva translation) as the commented version is significant: it shows the late-Táng monastic tradition still treating the choice between Kumārajīva and post-Kumārajīva translations (Bodhiruci, Paramārtha, Dharmagupta, Xuánzàng, Yìjìng) as a live methodological question, rather than defaulting silently to one. Zhīēn chose Kumārajīva while basing the doctrinal apparatus on Vasubandhu’s vyākhyā, which had been translated by Bodhiruci — a deliberately hybrid choice.
Links
- 知恩 DILA
- CBETA online
- Author: Zhīēn 知恩 of Xījīng Chóngshèngsì — see person note 知恩
- Doctrinal substrate: Vasubandhu Vajracchedikā vyākhyā (T25 no. 1511, Bodhiruci tr.)
- Commented text: KR6c0023 (Kumārajīva tr.)
- Kanseki DB