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妙法蓮華經玄義釋籤

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Text ID
KR6d0008
Date
750–782
Dynasty
唐

Miàofǎ liánhuá jīng xuányì shìqiān 妙法蓮華經玄義釋籤

Annotations on the Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra (Qianlong canon recension of T1717) by 湛然 (Zhànrán / Jīngxī Zhànrán, 釋)

About the work

The Qianlong Tripiṭaka 乾隆大藏經 recension of Zhànrán’s 湛然 Miàofǎ liánhuá jīng xuányì shìqiān — substantially the same work as KR6d0007 (the Taishō recension at T1717), but here transmitted in the Qiánlóngzàng 乾隆藏 (also known as the Lóngzàng 龍藏, the official imperially-sponsored Qing canon completed in Qiánlóng 3, 1738), where the text is catalogued as L115n1490 / L116n1490 and divided into forty fascicles rather than the twenty of the Taishō. The opening of juan 2 attests the standard Tiāntái triple-attribution: “Spoken by Zhìzhě Dàshī of Tiāntái of the Suí; recorded by his disciple Guàndǐng; explained by the śramaṇa Zhànrán of Tiāntái of the Táng” (隋天台智者大師說 / 門人灌頂記 / 唐天台沙門湛然釋).

Prefaces

The text opens with the same Preface to the Origin of the Annotations (《釋籤緣起序》) by Pǔménzǐ 普門子 (Júnshān Chújǐnnán Pǔménzǐ 君山除饉男普門子) that opens the Taishō recension; see the discussion at KR6d0007 for translation and analysis. The Qianlong recension preserves the preface in essentially the same form as the Taishō, with only minor orthographic variants (e.g. 博 / 愽).

Abstract

This entry is the Qianlong canon witness to Zhànrán’s Shìqiān, the standard Tiāntái subcommentary on Zhìyǐ’s Xuányì (KR6d0006, T1716). The substantive content is identical to that of KR6d0007 (T1717); the differences are exclusively text-critical: (1) the Qianlong recension divides the work into 40 fascicles (using the qiānzìwén 千字文 juan-numeration: 祿一, 祿二, …) rather than the 20 fascicles of the Taishō; (2) it preserves a slightly different orthographic tradition for several technical terms; (3) it follows the textual transmission of the Yongle northern canon (永樂北藏) rather than the Korean canon (高麗藏) tradition that underlies the Taishō text. Comparison of the two recensions has been undertaken in modern Tiāntái scholarship for the establishment of a critical text of the Shìqiān.

Catalog correction: the data/catalogs/meta/KR6d.yaml entry gives extent: 4卷 and source: 卍 Xuzangjing Vol. 28, No. 588; both are erroneous. The actual text in /home/Shared/krp/KR6d/[[KR6d0008]]/ consists of 40 fascicles drawn from the Qianlong canon (L115n1490 / L116n1490), and X28n588 is in fact the source for KR6d0009 (Yǒuyán’s Fǎhuá xuánqiān bèijiǎn 法華玄籤備撿). The catalog also omits the author 湛然, who is securely attested in the body of every fascicle.

For the full discussion of the Shìqiān’s authorship, doctrinal content, and historical context, see KR6d0007.

Translations and research

See KR6d0007 for the full bibliography on Zhànrán’s Shìqiān.

  • Penkower, Linda L. “T’ien-t’ai during the T’ang Dynasty: Chan-jan and the Sinification of Buddhism.” PhD diss., Columbia University, 1993.

Other points of interest

The Qianlong canon (Lóngzàng 龍藏) was compiled under imperial sponsorship between Yōngzhèng 雍正 11 (1733) and Qiánlóng 3 (1738) at the Xiānlèsì 賢良寺 in Beijing, and represents the last major imperially-sponsored woodblock canon in Chinese Buddhist history. Its inclusion of Zhànrán’s Shìqiān attests to the continued canonical standing of the Tiāntái commentarial corpus in mid-Qing imperial Buddhism.

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