Bōrě xīnjīng lüèshū xiǎnzhèng jì 般若心經略疏顯正記
“Manifesting-the-Correct” Sub-Commentary on the Brief Subcommentary on the Heart Sūtra sūtra and shū by 法藏 (疏); sub-commentary by 仲希 (說)
About the work
A three-fascicle Northern Sòng (1044) Huáyán-school sub-commentary on Fǎzàng’s Bōrě bōluómìduō xīn jīng lüèshū 般若波羅蜜多心經略疏 (T1712 = KR6c0139), composed by Zhònghī 仲希 (the Jìnyún master, floruit mid-eleventh century), disciple of the leading Northern Sòng Huáyán figure Chángshuǐ Zǐxuán 長水子璿. Preserved in the Wàn xùzàng / Manji zoku-zō as X531, here in three fascicles.
The signature reads 「縉雲沙門釋 仲希 述」. The work integrates three textual layers: (i) the running text of Xuánzàng’s Heart Sūtra; (ii) Fǎzàng’s Lüèshū embedded as interlinear comment beneath the sūtra text; (iii) Zhònghī’s own Xiǎnzhèngjì 顯正記 (“Manifesting-the-Correct Record”) expounding both. A separately appended kēwén 科文 organises the structural divisions.
Prefaces
The brief opening preface (「予甞輙以贒首大師般若心經疏注於經文之下…」) explains the editorial method: Zhònghī has set Fǎzàng’s Lüèshū directly under the sūtra text, supplemented this with a structural outline (kēwén), and added the present Xiǎnzhèngjì sub-commentary — together intended to remove the danger that beginning students might forget or misread the Lüèshū’s teaching. The work’s name is glossed: xiǎnzhèng 顯正 = “manifesting the correct” (against possible mistakings); wénhuā wú qǔ 文華無取 (“no claim to literary brilliance”) is the standard authorial modesty topos.
The preface is dated 「皇宋慶曆四年歲次甲申季冬月朔日序」 — “Dynastic Sòng, Qìnglì 4 (1044, jiǎshēn sexagenary year), the first day of the last winter month” (= late lunar twelfth month, early-to-mid January 1045 by Western reckoning).
The body of the work then proceeds through Fǎzàng’s Lüèshū line by line, glossing each phrase with Tang and Sòng Huáyán-school references, and noting the biographical-bibliographical context that Fǎzàng’s compact text omits. The opening sequence on the title and signature is a model of the genre: each component of the title is unpacked («Lüè = brief; shū = thin/comb-out, decisive [glossing principle]; the title is in yīzhǔ 依主 [endocentric] grammatical form»), and Fǎzàng’s signature 「翻經沙門法藏述」 is glossed with full biographical detail — Fǎzàng’s Sogdian (康國) origin, the Kāng family surname, his residency at Tàiyuán Monastery 西太原寺, his standing as the third Huáyán patriarch, his establishment of the wǔjiào 五教 (five teachings) doctrinal classification, and the imperial title Xiánshǒu Dàshī 賢首大師.
Abstract
X531 is the principal Northern Sòng Huáyán sub-commentary on the Heart Sūtra, complementing Fǎzàng’s earlier T1712 (KR6c0139) and Shīhuì’s later T1713 (KR6c0140 = 1165) in the chain of Huáyán-school readings of the Hṛdaya. Doctrinally Zhònghī follows Fǎzàng’s zhēnkōng miàoyǒu 真空妙有 reading and the wǔjiào doctrinal classification, while incorporating Tiāntái-school technical apparatus (the four wén 教 xiǎn 顯 bù 不 liǎoyì 了義 distinctions, the yuánróng sāndì synthesis) — a characteristically Northern Sòng cross-school exegetical style.
The work’s biographical-bibliographical glosses on Fǎzàng’s signature are independently valuable: they preserve a mid-eleventh-century understanding of Fǎzàng’s life and Huáyán-school institutional history, paralleling what we find in Zànníng’s 贊寧 Sòng gāosēng zhuàn (T2061, j. 5) and in Cuī Zhìyuǎn’s 崔致遠 Tángdà jiànfúsì gùsì zhǔ fānjīng dàdé Fǎzàng héshàng zhuàn 唐大薦福寺故寺主翻經大德法藏和尚傳 (T2054).
The pairing of Lüèshū (Tang scholastic compact text) with Xiǎnzhèngjì (Sòng elaborated sub-commentary) is the standard Sòng scholastic apparatus on Tang sources — paralleling Shǒuqiān’s pairing on Kuíjī (KR6c0144 + KR6c0145) and Shīhuì’s later Liánzhū jì on Fǎzàng (KR6c0140).
Composition date: 1044 (Qìnglì 4), per Zhònghī’s own dated self-preface.
The work was unknown to the Sòng-Yuán printed canons proper and survives only through the Japanese Wàn xùzàng tradition, which preserved it via Kegon-school transmission to Japan.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language translation located.
- See the references for KR6c0139 (Fǎzàng’s Lüèshū).
- Imre Hamar, ed., Reflecting Mirrors: Perspectives on Huayan Buddhism (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2007) — for the broader Huáyán-school doctrinal history including the Northern Sòng revival.
- Wèi Dàoyǒng 魏道儒, 《宋代華嚴宗》 — fundamental Chinese-language study of Sòng Huáyán scholarship.
- Yoshizu Yoshihide 吉津宜英, Kegon zen no shisō-shi-teki kenkyū (Tōkyō, 1985) — for the Sòng Kegon / Huáyán doctrinal context.
Other points of interest
The Northern Sòng witness to Fǎzàng’s biography preserved in Zhònghī’s gloss is one of the earliest detailed accounts and is the basis for much subsequent biographical writing on Fǎzàng. The reference to Fǎzàng’s residency at Xī Tàiyuán Monastery 西太原寺 (rather than the more commonly cited Cí’ēnsì or Dàjiànfúsì) is geographically precise and in line with the early-Tang topography of Cháng’ān’s western precinct.
Links
- DILA Buddhist Studies Person Authority A000313 (仲希)
- CBETA online
- 法藏 DILA
- Kanseki DB