Rénwáng jīng kēshū kēwén 仁王經科疏科文
“Outline-Text” Structural-Outline of the Rénwáng-jīng Subcommentary by 真貴 Zhēnguì (述, sobriquet Yúān 愚菴)
About the work
A one-fascicle late-Wànlì-era structural-outline (kēwén 科文) of 真貴 Zhēnguì’s own Rénwáng jīng kēshū 仁王經科疏 (X517 = KR6c0213). Preserved in the Wàn xùzàng / Manji zoku-zō as X515. Companion piece to Zhēnguì’s xuántán introduction (X516 = KR6c0212) and the main kēshū commentary (X517 = KR6c0213). One fascicle.
The kēwén genre — tabular hierarchical structural outlines of doctrinal commentaries — is one of the standard late-imperial Buddhist scholastic apparatus formats; cf. similar kēwén in the Heart Sūtra commentary cluster (Shǒuqiān’s X524 on Kuíjī’s Yōuzàn, KR6c0144).
Abstract
X515 is part of the late-Wànlì Cíhuìsì doctrinal lecturer Zhēnguì’s three-part Rénwáng-jīng commentary apparatus: outline (X515) + introduction (X516) + main subcommentary (X517). Together this trio constitutes the most systematic late-Wànlì pedagogical Rénwáng-jīng apparatus and was used in the Cíhuìsì lecture-hall for student instruction.
The kēwén presents the doctrinal architecture of the Rénwáng-jīng through a hierarchical bullet-tree, with each section anchored to opening characters of the underlying sūtra text. The format is the same as Sòng kēwén outlines (cf. Shǒuqiān X524) and reflects the continuity of the kēwén scholarly genre across Sòng-Yuán-Míng.
For the wider history, X515 is a primary witness to late-Wànlì Beijing-area Buddhist scholastic pedagogy and to the continued production of Rénwáng-jīng commentary materials in the late-Míng period.
Composition date: no internal dating. Zhēnguì’s mature commentarial career spans c. 1590 (after his Cíhuìsì appointment in 1589) through c. 1620. The bracket reflects this conservative window.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language translation located.
- For Zhēnguì and the Cíhuìsì doctrinal-lecturer tradition, see 德清 Hānshān Déqīng’s Hānshān lǎorén mèngyóu jí 憨山老人夢遊集 j. 29 (the Wúxiá Míngyù stūpa-tablet that names Zhēnguì); various studies on late-Wànlì Beijing Buddhism.
- For the Rénwáng-jīng tradition, Charles D. Orzech (1998).
Other points of interest
The persistence of the kēwén genre into the late-Wànlì period (X515) — which directly parallels Sòng kēwén practices visible in the Heart Sūtra commentary cluster (Shǒuqiān X524 on Kuíjī’s Yōuzàn) — testifies to the long continuity of late-imperial Chinese Buddhist scholastic pedagogy. The kēwén outlines provide the structural skeleton against which the xuántán introductions and the main shū commentaries operate.