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大般若波羅蜜多經般若理趣分述讚

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Text ID
KR6c0126
Date
660–682
Dynasty
唐

Dà bānruò bōluómìduō jīng bānruò lǐqù fēn shùzàn 大般若波羅蜜多經般若理趣分述讚

Discourse-and-Praise on the Prajñā-Method-Tendency Section of the Great Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra by 窺基 (撰)

About the work

A three-juan early-Táng Yogācāra commentary by Kuījī 窺基 (632–682) on the 10th assembly of the Mahāprajñāpāramitā-sūtra — i.e., the Adhyardhaśatikā Prajñāpāramitā / Naya-pāramitā in its locus within the 600-juan Mahāprajñā corpus (T220 fascicle 10, the bānruò lǐqù fēn 般若理趣分). The cross-reference field cites No. 220(10). The catalog credit-line zhuàn 撰 (“composed”) and the title shùzàn 述讚 (“discourse-and-praise”) together identify the genre. notBefore = 660 (Kuījī’s mature commentary period after his ordination); notAfter = 682 (death). Preserved as T33 no. 1695. Catalog dynasty 唐.

Abstract

The work is Kuījī’s exposition of the Adhyardhaśatikā through the developed Yogācāra apparatus he had inherited from his master Xuánzàng. Distinct from his other major Vajracchedikā commentary KR6c0102 Jīngāng bānruò lùn huìshì — which treated the Vasubandhu vyākhyā — the present shùzàn takes the Xuánzàng-translated bānruò lǐqù fēn (within T220) as its base text and provides systematic doctrinal exposition. Together the two Kuījī commentaries (KR6c0102 + KR6c0126) constitute the foundational Chinese Fǎxiàng reading of the broader Prajñā corpus. Kuījī is in possession of the bānruò lǐqù fēn through Xuánzàng’s translation — predating the later Tantric-register Chinese versions of the same Sanskrit material (Bodhiruci KR6c0117, Vajrabodhi KR6c0118, Amoghavajra KR6c0120, etc.) — and reads it as a non-Tantric Mahāyāna prajñāpāramitā within the Yogācāra hermeneutic frame.

Translations and research

  • See KR6c0102 entry for principal modern studies of Kuījī.
  • For the Adhyardhaśatikā family see KR6c0117 entry.

Other points of interest

The pre-Tantric Yogācāra reading of the Adhyardhaśatikā in Kuījī’s commentary represents a road-not-taken in Chinese Buddhist hermeneutics: the same text was simultaneously available through Xuánzàng’s strict philosophical-translation tradition (which Kuījī commented upon here) and would later become the doctrinal foundation of an entirely different Tantric tradition through Vajrabodhi and Amoghavajra. Kuījī’s commentary is thus a unique pre-Tantric Yogācāra witness to the same Sanskrit text-base that subsequently grounded East-Asian Tantric Buddhism.

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