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金剛般若義記

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Text ID
KR6c0112
Date
600–900
Dynasty
唐

Jīngāng bānruò yìjì 金剛般若義記

Record of the Meaning of the Diamond Prajñā [anonymous]

About the work

An anonymous one-juan Vajracchedikā commentary recovered from the Dūnhuáng cache and preserved as T85 no. 2740. The catalog title-character yìjì 義記 (“record of meaning”) signals the commentarial sub-genre — distinct from the shū 疏 (proper commentary) and zàn 贊 (praise / encomium) genres. Authorship not preserved. notBefore / notAfter set very broadly (600–900) consistent with the broader Sui-Táng Dūnhuáng-corpus dating range. Catalog dynasty 唐.

Abstract

The opening sentence is among the more elegant of the Dūnhuáng Vajracchedikā commentary fragments: rán zhēnzōng xūjì, miào jué yánxiàng; yánxiàng jì jué, qǐ róng míngshù yú qí jiānzhě? 然真宗虛寂，妙絕言像；言像既絕，豈容名數於其間者 (“yet true tradition is empty and quiescent, subtly transcending language and image; language and image being already transcended, how could names and numbers be admitted in between?”). The dialectic-paradox of xūjì (empty-quiescent) versus the necessity of yīnxiàng zhī jì, shēngyán zhī jiào 影像之迹，聲言之教 (“traces of shadow-image, teachings of vocal-language”) to lead beings — the standard Mahāyāna upāya problem — is then deployed as the working frame. The work belongs to the broader Dūnhuáng anonymous-commentary cluster (KR6c0109–KR6c0114) and contributes to the modern reconstruction of late-Táng / Five Dynasties Vajracchedikā commentary culture.

Translations and research

  • See KR6c0107 for general references on Dūnhuáng Vajracchedikā commentary scholarship.

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