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般若波羅蜜多心經贊

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Text ID
KR6c0138
Date
660–696
Dynasty
唐

Bōrě bōluómìduō xīn jīng zàn 般若波羅蜜多心經贊

Eulogy on the Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom Sūtra by 圓測 (撰, Korean Wǒnch’ǔk)

About the work

A one-fascicle Yogācāra-school commentary on the Heart Sūtra (Xuánzàng’s short-recension version, T251 = KR6c0128), composed by Wǒnch’ǔk 圓測 (613–696), the senior of Xuánzàng’s two principal Chinese disciples and founder of the Xīmíng 西明 sub-lineage of Tang Yogācāra. The Taishō head-note 「[cf. No. 251]」 explicitly cross-references the parent sūtra. Signature: 「沙門　測撰」 — “composed by the śramaṇa Cè (= Wǒnch’ǔk)“.

The commentary takes the form of a four-gate exegesis (四門分別) standard in Sui-Tang scholastic Buddhism: (1) jiào qǐ yīnyuán 教起因緣 — the causes and conditions of the teaching’s arising; (2) biàn jīng zōngtǐ 辨經宗體 — the zōng (essential thesis) and tǐ (verbal substance) of the sūtra; (3) xùn shì tímù 訓釋題目 — the gloss of the title; (4) pàn wén jiěshì 判文解釋 — the section-by-section explication of the text. The fourth section in turn divides the Heart Sūtra into three parts: the manifestation of the contemplative wisdom (能觀智), the field of contemplation (所觀境, beginning at “舍利子”), and the resultant fruit (所得果, beginning at “以無所得故”). Wǒnch’ǔk explicitly notes the absence of preface and concluding circulation sections, characteristic of the Heart Sūtra as an “essence-extracting” condensed Prajñāpāramitā text (於諸般若簡集綱要，故唯正宗無序流通).

Prefaces

The work has no separate authorial preface; the four-gate analytic frame opens the text directly. Wǒnch’ǔk’s first gate (“教起”) presents an elegant version of the Three Turnings of the Dharma Wheel doctrine drawn from the Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra: (i) the first turning at the Deer Park near Vārāṇasī, which “opens the Four Noble Truths and removes the self-grasping” — the Hīnayāna phase; (ii) the second turning, the “non-characteristics” (無相) wheel taught at Gṛdhrakūṭa over sixteen assemblies, comprising the Prajñāpāramitā corpus, which “gradually removes the grasping at the existence of dharma-natures but cannot yet eliminate the grasping at emptiness”; (iii) the third turning, the “definitive-meaning Mahāyāna” (了義大乘) of the Saṃdhinirmocana and related texts, taught in pure-and-impure lands such as the Lotus Treasury, which “fully manifests the principles of both emptiness and existence and doubly removes the two extreme graspings of being and non-being”. The Heart Sūtra is then placed in the second turning (“無相為宗”), with explicit recognition that this places it short of the definitive third-turning teaching — a position substantially sharper than Kuíjī’s parallel placement in the Yōuzàn.

Abstract

T1711 is the Wǒnch’ǔk parallel to Kuíjī’s T1710 (KR6c0137) — the second of the two foundational Tang Yogācāra commentaries on the Heart Sūtra. Where Kuíjī integrates the Hṛdaya into the Yogācāra synthesis with relatively little deference to its Prajñāpāramitā affiliation, Wǒnch’ǔk explicitly and respectfully classifies it as second-turning (無相) teaching, doctrinally subordinate to the Saṃdhinirmocana but faithfully transmitting the second-turning teaching’s removal of dharma-grasping. This positioning marks a real doctrinal divide between the two Tang Yogācāra sub-schools: Kuíjī’s Cí’ēn lineage tends to assimilate the Prajñāpāramitā into a unified Yogācāra hermeneutic, while Wǒnch’ǔk’s Xīmíng lineage preserves a sharper hierarchical distinction between turnings.

The four-gate exegetical framework, the explicit zōngtǐ analytic, and the use of zhī mí míng zhōng (約時辨宗) tripartite periodisation are characteristic of Wǒnch’ǔk’s mature Yogācāra method, and parallel his Saṃdhinirmocana commentary T1708. The yīwén pànjié 依文判解 division of the Heart Sūtra into the three parts of contemplative wisdom / field / fruit closely follows the Yogācāra triad of jñāna (智), jñeya (境), and phala (果).

Composition date: no internal dating. The work belongs to Wǒnch’ǔk’s mature Cháng’ān period at Xīmíng Monastery; notBefore 660 / notAfter 696 (his death) is the conservative bracket. Stylistic and citation evidence (use of T1708 parallel formulations) places it most likely in the 670s–680s, after his major Saṃdhinirmocana work was completed.

The text was transmitted to Korea (where it became a foundational document of the Korean Fǎxiàng tradition) and to Japan; it survives in the Chinese canon largely through East Asian print tradition. The Taishō witness uses the 大 base edition; no Dūnhuáng manuscript fragments of T1711 have been identified.

Translations and research

  • John P. Keenan, The Heart Sutra: A Yogācāra Commentary by Wŏnch’ŭk, BDK English Tripiṭaka series — full English translation alongside Keenan’s parallel Kuíjī volume.
  • Charles Muller (et al.), modern editions and studies of Wǒnch’ǔk’s works in the Korean Buddhism: Selected Writings and Collected Works of Korean Buddhism series.
  • Inaba Shōju 稲葉正就, En-jiki Gejinmikkyō-sho sansho 圓測解深密經疏散逸の研究 (Kyōto, 1972, with subsequent volumes) — fundamental study of Wǒnch’ǔk’s main work, also relevant as background for the Heart Sūtra commentary.
  • Yoshimura Makoto 吉村誠, Chūgoku Yuishiki shisō no kenkyū 中国唯識思想の研究 (Tōkyō: Daizō shuppan, 2012) — comprehensive study of Tang Chinese Yogācāra including Wǒnch’ǔk.
  • Sang-bun Choi 崔尚範 and other Korean-language scholarship on Wǒnch’ǔk’s place in Korean Buddhist intellectual history.
  • Cuong T. Nguyen, “Sthiramati’s Interpretation of Buddhology and Soteriology” (Yale dissertation), discusses Wǒnch’ǔk’s relation to the Indian Yogācāra tradition.

Other points of interest

The Wǒnch’ǔk vs Kuíjī divergence on Heart Sūtra interpretation is a small but instructive instance of the broader Tang Yogācāra schism. Both commentaries survive only because both lineages preserved them — Kuíjī’s via the Cí’ēn line that became dominant in metropolitan Cháng’ān, Wǒnch’ǔk’s via the Korean transmission and via the Tibetan-canon survival of his other major works. The pair of commentaries (T1710 and T1711) together constitute the canonical Yogācāra doctrinal frame within which East Asian readings of the Heart Sūtra were developed.

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