Fǎhuá jīng xuányì jílüè 法華經玄義輯略
Compiled Outline of the Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra by 傳燈 (Chuándēng / Yōuxī Chuándēng, 錄)
About the work
A single-juan abridgement and outline of Zhìyǐ’s Miàofǎ liánhuá jīng xuányì (KR6d0006, T1716), recorded by the late-Ming Tiāntái master Yōu-xī Chuándēng 幽溪傳燈 (1554–1628), the principal architect of the late-Ming Tiāntái revival on Tiāntáishān. The text is recorded in the front matter as composed at the Yōu-xī sēng 幽溪 retreat (“the śramaṇa of Yōu-xī of Tiāntáishān, Chuándēng, recorded”: 天台山幽溪沙門 傳燈 錄).
Prefaces
The text has no separate preface; it opens directly with Chuándēng’s editorial framing: “The Tiāntái Zhìzhě Dàshī used the five-fold profound-meaning to explain the title of the sūtra; the doctrinal purport beneath the title was thereby exhausted with no remainder. The five chapters are: (1) explaining the name; (2) elucidating the essence; (3) clarifying the purport; (4) discussing the function; (5) judging the doctrinal classification. In explaining these five there are ‘common’ and ‘particular’ aspects: the common is the seven-aspect joint explanation; the particular is the five chapters each separately set forth — analogous to the broad and concise modes for sharp and dull faculties.” The text proceeds to extract and order the central definitions of each of the five chapters into a compact handbook.
Abstract
Chuándēng’s Jílüè belongs together with Zhìxù’s Jiéyào (KR6d0010) as the two principal late-Ming abridgements of Zhìyǐ’s Xuányì, but Chuándēng’s work differs significantly in editorial method: rather than excerpting Zhìyǐ’s text verbatim, Chuándēng paraphrases and synthesises, producing what is in effect a self-standing summary in his own voice rather than a condensed copy of the original. The text is consequently more accessible as an introduction but less useful as a study aid alongside the full Xuányì.
Yōuxī Chuándēng was the central figure in the late-Ming revival of Tiāntái doctrinal study at Tiāntáishān itself. Born to a Yè 葉 family in Pínghǎi 平海 in modern Zhèjiāng, he took monastic vows at the Yīnjīngsì 蔭靜寺; received the dharma from 百際草大師 Bǎijì Cǎo Tàishī of Tiāntái; restored the Yōuxī Gāomíngsì 幽溪高明寺 (whence his sobriquet Yōuxī) on Tiāntáishān; and produced a substantial corpus of Tiāntái commentaries — the Wéimó wúwǒ shū 維摩無我疏 (16 juan), the Lèngyán xuányì 楞嚴玄義 (4 juan), the Xìngshànè lùn 性善惡論 (6 juan), the Tiāntái sìjiào yí jízhù 天台四教儀集註 (10 juan), the Jìngtǔ shēngwúshēng lùn 淨土生無生論 (1 juan), and the present Xuányì jílüè. He was the principal Tiāntái dialogue-partner with the late-Ming Pure Land master Yúnqī Zhūhóng 雲棲祩宏 (1535–1615) and the chief late-Ming defender of the xìngjùè 性具惡 (“buddha-nature inherently includes evil”) doctrine of Sòng Tiāntái scholasticism.
The dating of the Jílüè is uncertain — no internal date is given — but it most likely belongs to Chuándēng’s mature productive period at Yōuxī Gāomíngsì in the early seventeenth century, alongside his other major Tiāntái compendia.
Translations and research
- Shengyen 聖嚴. Mínmò Zhōngguó Fójiào zhī yánjiū 明末中國佛教之研究. Taipei: Dōngchū chūbǎnshè, 1987.
- Shi Hengqing 釋恆清. Fóxìng sīxiǎng 佛性思想. Taipei: Dōngdà túshū, 1997. (For Chuándēng’s defense of xìng-jù-è doctrine.)
- Eichman, Jennifer. A Late Sixteenth-Century Chinese Buddhist Fellowship: Spiritual Ambitions, Intellectual Debates, and Epistolary Connections. Leiden: Brill, 2016. (Treats the late-Ming Tiāntái-Pure Land dialogue.)
- Wú Yǒngmèng 吳永猛 and Lǐ Zǐjiàn 李子建, eds. Mínmò Yōu-xī Chuándēng jí qí Tiāntái jiàoxué zhī yánjiū 明末幽溪傳燈及其天台教學之研究. Taipei: Fǎgǔ wénhuà, 2003.
- Yang Xianyi 楊獻儀. Yōu-xī Chuándēng yánjiū 幽溪傳燈研究. Master’s thesis, Foguang University, 2010.
Other points of interest
Yōuxī Chuándēng’s xìngjùè polemic against Yúnqī Zhūhóng — preserved most fully in his Xìngshànè lùn 性善惡論 — was the most substantial late-Ming Tiāntái-Pure Land doctrinal exchange, and the Jílüè’s emphasis on the structural soundness of Zhìyǐ’s Xuányì should be read in the context of Chuándēng’s defense of Sòng Tiāntái positions against late-Ming Pure Land syncretism.