Fǎhuá lüèmìshì 法華略祕釋
Brief Esoteric Exegesis of the Lotus (J. Hokke ryaku-hishaku) by 空海 (Kōnghǎi / Kūkai, 撰)
About the work
A short single-juan Esoteric exegesis (mìshì 祕釋 / hishaku) of selected passages of Kumārajīva’s Miàofǎ liánhuá jīng 妙法蓮華經 (KR6d0001, T262) under the name of 空海 Kūkai (774–835). The work is one of the seven short Kūkai-attributed Lotus pieces in the T2190 group (see KR6d0036); the lüè 略 (“brief”) in its title distinguishes it from a longer projected Hokke hishaku that is not preserved.
Prefaces
The Taishō recension carries no separate preface. The text opens directly with the doctrinal exegesis.
Abstract
The Hokke ryaku-hishaku presents itself as a brief Esoteric exegesis focused on the doctrinal-cosmological core of the Lotus rather than on the title (as in the kaidai), the pantheon (as in the mitsugō), or the chapters in sequence (as in the shaku). The principal subject is the Lotus’s two great revelations: the one-vehicle (ekayāna / yīshèng 一乘) of chapter 2 and the long-life of the eternal-Buddha (chapter 16), both of which Kūkai re-reads in Shingon-Esoteric terms.
The work’s distinctive contribution is its development of the doctrine that the Lotus’s one-vehicle is identical to the Vajradhātu’s 金剛界 vajra-yāna 金剛乘 — that is, that the Lotus’s claim of a single ultimate vehicle uniting the śrāvaka, pratyekabuddha, and bodhisattva paths is, when correctly understood, a statement of the Shingon-Esoteric position that all exoteric paths converge in the esoteric. The long-life doctrine of chapter 16, similarly, is read as a statement of the eternal cosmic body of Mahāvairocana — the Lotus’s “long-life” Buddha is, on Kūkai’s reading, identical to the Esoteric Dharma-body Buddha of Vairocana.
These doctrinal moves are continuous with Kūkai’s positions in his major treatises (the Sokushin jōbutsu gi, the Ben kenmitsu nikyō ron) and the Hokke ryaku-hishaku is generally treated as authentic Kūkai work. The brevity of the piece (lüè) suggests it was composed as a doctrinal summary or instructional outline rather than as a comprehensive exegesis.
Translations and research
- Kōbō Daishi zenshū 弘法大師全集.
- Abé, Ryūichi. The Weaving of Mantra: Kūkai and the Construction of Esoteric Buddhist Discourse. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.
- Hakeda, Yoshito S. Kūkai: Major Works. New York: Columbia University Press, 1972.
- Watanabe Shōkō 渡邊照宏. “Kōbō Daishi to Hokekyō” 弘法大師と法華經. Mikkyō bunka 密教文化 75 (1965).
Links
- CBETA online: https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/T2190f
- Kanseki DB