Fǎhuá jīng dàyì 法華經大意
The Great Purport of the Lotus Sūtra by 湛然 (Zhànrán / Jīngxī Zhànrán, 述)
About the work
A single-juan synoptic exposition of the Lotus Sūtra by 湛然 Zhànrán (711–782), the ninth Tiāntái patriarch and architect of the mid-Táng Tiāntái revival. The work is the most accessible of Zhànrán’s surviving Lotus Sūtra writings — markedly briefer than his Fǎhuá xuányì shìqiān (KR6d0007, T1717, 20 fascicles) and Fǎhuá wénjù jì (KR6d0015, T1719, 30 fascicles) — and provides a unified Tiāntái doctrinal framing of the Lotus suitable for use as an introductory text or as a study aid for students preparing to engage with the larger commentarial apparatus. Body attribution: Pílíng shāmén Zhànrán shù 毗陵沙門湛然 述 (“composed by the śramaṇa Zhànrán of Pílíng [Yíxīng / Wújiāng]”).
The text begins with a remarkable bibliographic note: 當卷八千八百八十八言 此品四千一百七十二言 (“the present juan has 8,888 characters; this [first] chapter has 4,172 characters”) — a precise word-count attestation that demonstrates the high level of Tiāntái scholastic textual self-awareness in the mid-Táng productive period.
Prefaces
The text opens with Zhànrán’s own framing: “Now, about to explain this entire wonderful canonical text, twenty-eight chapters: there are many [other] schools’ [interpretations]; for the moment, let us provisionally return [the analysis] to the Tiāntái lineage. For each chapter I will use three gates of explanation: first, relate the great purport of each chapter; second, explain the name of each chapter; third, explain the inner text of each chapter, in brief sectional analysis.”
Abstract
Zhànrán’s Dàyì applies a tripartite framework to each of the twenty-eight chapters of the Lotus Sūtra: (1) the dàyì 大意 (great purport, summarising the chapter’s overall doctrinal commitment in the Tiāntái system); (2) the shìmíng 釋名 (explanation of the chapter title); and (3) the shìnèiwén 釋內文 (explanation of the inner text, with brief sectional analysis). The tripartite framework is parallel to but more compact than the wǔzhòng xuányì of 智顗 Zhìyǐ’s Xuányì and serves as Zhànrán’s most accessible Tiāntái treatment of the Lotus.
The work is consequently of substantial pedagogical value as a Tiāntái student’s introduction to the Lotus Sūtra and the commentarial tradition. It bridges the gap between Zhìyǐ’s foundational treatises (the Xuányì and the Wénjù) and Zhànrán’s own detailed subcommentaries (the Shìqiān and the Wénjù jì), providing the synoptic doctrinal framework needed to navigate the larger works productively.
The opening cosmological-doctrinal exposition demonstrates Zhànrán’s literary ambition: “Originally, vast vast — the nature-ocean conjoins motion and stillness yet congeals as the real. Distant distant — the awakening-mountain embraces principle and matter yet propagates the teaching. The teaching-ocean is inexhaustible; therefore [it] strikes against the myriad potentials in order [to manifest].” This baroque parallel-prose register is characteristic of Zhànrán’s mature literary style.
The composition is dated to Zhànrán’s mature productive period c. 750–782; no precise date is recoverable. The work was incorporated into the Tiāntái scholastic curriculum as the standard introductory text and remained widely used through the medieval and early-modern periods.
Translations and research
- Penkower, Linda L. “T’ien-t’ai during the T’ang Dynasty: Chan-jan and the Sinification of Buddhism.” PhD diss., Columbia University, 1993.
- 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.
- Hibi Senshō 日比宣正. Tōdai Tendaigaku kenkyū 唐代天台学研究. Tokyo: Sankibō, 1975.
Other points of interest
The precise character-count attestation in the opening of the Dàyì — 8,888 characters for the entire juan, 4,172 for the first chapter — is one of the more notable instances of mid-Táng Buddhist scholastic textual self-awareness, paralleling the contemporary Confucian jīngxué 經學 tradition’s careful word-counting of canonical works. The figure suggests a high degree of editorial control over the text’s transmission, with Zhànrán himself or his disciples maintaining systematic textual measurements as part of the work’s authorised production.