Fǎhuá jīng wénjù jì jiānnán 法華經文句記箋難
Annotated Difficulties in the Notes on the Lotus Sūtra Phrase-by-Phrase Commentary by 有嚴 (Yǒuyán / Zhāān Yǒuyán, 箋)
About the work
A four-juan third-order subcommentary on the Tiāntái Lotus Sūtra commentarial chain — Zhìyǐ’s Wénjù (KR6d0014, T1718) → Zhànrán’s Wénjù jì (KR6d0015, T1719) → Yǒuyán’s Jiānnán — by the Northern-Sòng Tiāntái master Yǒuyán 有嚴 (1021–1101) of Tāizhōu, the same scholar whose Bèijiǎn (KR6d0009, X28n0588) provided the parallel third-order subcommentary on the Xuányì / Shìqiān commentarial chain.
Prefaces
The text in the X29n0597 recension carries no separate translator’s preface. The work opens with the Fǎhuá jīng wénjù jì jiānnán mùcì 法華經文句記箋難目次 (the table of contents arranged by chapter of the Lotus Sūtra). Yǒuyán’s editorial method and motivations parallel his Bèijiǎn on the Shìqiān (see KR6d0009 for the methodological discussion).
Abstract
The Jiānnán — its title literally “annotated difficulties” — is a glossarial subcommentary that focuses specifically on the textually obscure or doctrinally contentious passages of Zhànrán’s Wénjù jì, leaving aside passages whose meaning was clear and unproblematic. The work consequently reads less as a continuous commentary than as a series of cĭ-mù 詞目 (lemma-headed) discussions, each addressing a specific nán 難 (difficulty) in Zhànrán’s text.
The work is structured chapter-by-chapter following the twenty-eight-chapter division of the Lotus, with Yǒuyán’s notes grouped under each Lotus chapter according to their location in Zhànrán’s Wénjù jì. The four-juan extent (against Zhànrán’s ten and Dàoxiān’s ten) reflects the work’s selective rather than comprehensive editorial method.
Together with Yǒuyán’s Bèijiǎn on the Shìqiān (KR6d0009) and his Zhǐguān zhùlǎn 止觀助覽 on the Móhē zhǐguān, the Jiānnán completes Yǒuyán’s three-part Northern-Sòng glossarial apparatus on the Tiāntái triple-treatise commentarial chain. The composition is generally placed in the late Yuánfēng 元豐 era through the Yuányòu 元祐 era (1078–1093), parallel to the Bèijiǎn’s 1086 redaction date.
The work belongs to the Sòng Tiāntái revival under the shānjiā 山家 (orthodox-house) tradition of Sìmíng Zhīlǐ 四明知禮 (960–1028), through whom Yǒuyán’s lineage descended via Shénzhào Běnrú 神照本如. Yǒuyán’s work consequently represents the shānjiā exegetical tradition’s reception and consolidation of the Táng Tiāntái commentarial corpus.
Translations and research
- Getz, Daniel A. “T’ien-t’ai Pure Land Societies and the Creation of the Pure Land Patriarchate.” In Buddhism in the Sung, eds. Peter N. Gregory and Daniel A. Getz, 477–523. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1999.
- Penkower, Linda L. “Making and Remaking Tradition: Chan-jan’s Strategies toward a T’ang T’ien-t’ai Agenda.” In Tendai Daishi kenkyū 天台大師研究, ed. Tendai Daishi Kenkyū Henshū Iinkai, 1338–1289. Tokyo: Tendai gakkai, 1997.
- Shi Hengqing 釋恆清. Fóxìng sīxiǎng 佛性思想. Taipei: Dōngdà túshū, 1997.
- Andō Toshio 安藤俊雄. Tendaigaku — kompon shisō to sono tenkai 天台学：根本思想とその展開. Kyoto: Heirakuji Shoten, 1968.
Other points of interest
The selective focus of the Jiānnán on textual difficulties (nán 難) — rather than on the systematic glossing of every passage — reflects the maturity of the Northern-Sòng Tiāntái scholastic tradition: by the late eleventh century, Tiāntái students were assumed to have direct familiarity with the standard Táng commentaries (Zhànrán’s Wénjù jì, Dàoxiān’s Fǔzhèng jì) and required only assistance with the comparatively narrow set of textually or doctrinally problematic passages. The work consequently presupposes rather than recapitulates the prior commentarial tradition.