Miàofǎ liánhuá jīng yàojiě (xuǎnlù “yàojiě” běnwén) 妙法蓮華經要解（選錄「要解」本文）
Wonderful-Dharma Lotus Sūtra Essential Interpretation (Northern Yongle canon recension; with selected extracts from the Yàojiě base text) by 戒環 Jièhuán (Wēnlíng dàshī, 解), with annotations by 祥邁 Xiángmài (of Dàozhěshān)
About the work
A nineteen-juan expanded recension of Jièhuán’s Fǎhuá jīng yàojiě (KR6d0067, X30n0602), preserved in the Northern Yongle Edition of the Canon (永樂北藏 Yǒnglè běizàng) as L184n1617. Where the Xùzàngjīng recension at KR6d0067 preserves Jièhuán’s Yàojiě in its original seven-juan form, the present recension expands the work to nineteen juan by interweaving Jièhuán’s text with substantial additional annotations and commentary by 祥邁 Xiángmài of Dàozhěshān Rúyìyělǎo 道者山如意野老, identified in the body as the zhùzhě 注者 (“annotator”).
Prefaces
The text in the L184n1617 recension preserves the structural division of the Yàojiě with the addition of Xiángmài’s interpolated annotations. The opening section preserves 道宣 Dàoxuān’s Hóngchuán xù 弘傳序 (the standard preface to the Lotus Sūtra), with Xiángmài’s annotations marked by 【】 brackets: “Wonderful-Dharma. Note: Saddharma in Sanskrit means miàofǎ (wonderful-dharma) or zhèngfǎ (true-dharma); the sat character contains both meanings, hence the Qín version’s miàofǎ and the Jìn version’s zhèngfǎ are both without error. Possessing the ten miào (wonderful) meanings, [it] alone surpasses the other sūtras, hence is called miào (wonderful). Of the One-Vehicle’s true-purport zhōngdào (middle-way) ultimate-meaning, hence called zhèng (true). Resident in upholding the true principle as a manifested rule [for] beings, hence called fǎ (dharma). The Tiāntái Xuányì and the Cí’ēn Xuánzàn (KR6d0026) broadly arrange the meaning-gates; here [I] do not provide the complete record.”
Abstract
The L184n1617 recension is a Yongle canonical edition of Jièhuán’s Yàojiě with substantial Xiángmài annotation, expanded from the original seven juan to nineteen. The expansion reflects the editorial integration of two distinct strata: (1) Jièhuán’s original Northern-Sòng Yàojiě (1119–1126); and (2) Xiángmài’s late-Sòng or Yuán annotation apparatus, providing supplementary canonical citations, doctrinal harmonisations with the Cí’ēn Xuánzàn (KR6d0026) and the Tiāntái Xuányì (KR6d0006), and the kēpàn sectional analysis.
The work is consequently of substantial textual-critical interest as a witness to (1) the late-Sòng or Yuán reception of Jièhuán’s Yàojiě in the broader Lotus Sūtra commentarial tradition; (2) the editorial method by which Sòng commentaries were expanded and re-edited in subsequent productive periods; and (3) the textual history of the Yongle canon’s inclusion of major Lotus Sūtra commentaries in expanded recensions.
The dating must postdate Jièhuán’s original composition (1119–1126) but is not securely fixed. The preservation in the Northern Yongle canon (compiled 1410–1440) provides a terminus ante quem of c. 1410. A defensible bracket of 1119–1410 covers the entire productive period of the work’s textual development.
Translations and research
See KR6d0067 for the bibliography on Jièhuán’s Yàojiě.
- Wú Liàngpéng 吳量鵬. Jièhuán Fǎhuá jīng yàojiě yánjiū 戒環《法華經要解》研究. Master’s thesis, Foguang University, 2008.
Other points of interest
The Northern Yongle canon (永樂北藏) — compiled under imperial sponsorship at Beijing during the Yongle through Zhèngtǒng eras (1410–1440) — incorporated several Sòng commentaries in expanded annotated recensions. Its preservation of the Jièhuán-Xiángmài combined edition demonstrates the late-Yuán and early-Míng tendency to canonise major Sòng commentarial productions in their expanded annotated forms rather than in their original Sòng configurations.