Fǎhuá jīng jùjiě 法華經句解
Phrase-by-Phrase Interpretation of the Lotus Sūtra by 聞達 Wéndá (解)
About the work
An eight-juan Southern-Sòng phrase-by-phrase commentary on the Lotus Sūtra by Wéndá 聞達 of the Qiántáng Huòshān Guǎngzhàosì 錢塘霍山廣照寺 (modern Hángzhōu), with a preface dated Jǐngdìng 景定 2 (= 1261 CE). The genre — jùjiě 句解 (“phrase-explanation”) — is a popular Sòng pedagogical form providing accessible phrase-by-phrase reading of canonical scriptures, intermediate in technical scholastic depth between the yàojiě abridgements and the full shū (jì) subcommentary tradition. Preserved as X30n0604 in the Xùzàngjīng. Body attribution: Qiántáng Huòshān Guǎngzhào shāmén shì Wéndá 錢塘霍山廣照沙門 釋 聞達.
Prefaces
The text opens with Wéndá’s own preface (《妙法蓮華經句解》), framing the work as a Chán-influenced reading aid for the Lotus: “Now those who read the sūtra must well understand the Buddha’s intent. Having attained the Buddha’s intent, then they arouse practice, like a clear-eyed person well knowing the direction. Those who do not attain the intent labour in vain and finally cannot understand the Buddha’s realm. As the sūtra says: wisdom, upāya, parable, and condition — three-and-one perfectly fused — the various meanings and purposes; should know all are only mind-manifested. It is only because of confusion in the boundless [cycle] of birth-and-death that we are suddenly opened in awakening: karmic obstacles are originally empty. Required: to attain the no-matter, set down everything, sweep away both right-and-wrong, simultaneously forget pollution-and-cleanness, forget the mind also extinguished, true awakening perfect-and-bright. Just at such a time, even without acting upon intention, the long-distant base spontaneously appears. If one searches the old paper, what day shall one come out? Therefore the saying: ‘The real characteristics of all dharmas cannot be expressed in words; only the wise can know them.‘”
Abstract
Wéndá’s Jùjiě belongs to the Southern-Sòng productive tradition of accessible Lotus Sūtra commentaries that bypassed the dense Tiāntái scholastic apparatus to engage directly with the sūtra-text in clearer language for non-specialist readership. Where 戒環 Jièhuán’s Yàojiě (KR6d0067) addressed the entire Lotus in topic-organised exposition, Wéndá’s Jùjiě provides phrase-by-phrase running commentary, allowing the reader to follow the sūtra-text directly with brief parenthetical interpretive notes.
The work’s distinctive feature is its strong Chán inflection: Wéndá’s preface explicitly frames the Jùjiě as a Chán-experiential reading aid rather than as a doctrinal-scholastic commentary, presenting the Lotus’s central message as the realisation of “mind-only” (wéi xīn suǒ xiàn 唯心所現) and emphasising the Chán practice of “letting go of everything” (yīqiē fàngxià 一切放下) and “sweeping away right-and-wrong” (shìfēi jùqiǎn 是非俱遣). This Chán inflection is characteristic of the late-Sòng Chánjiào héyī synthesis, parallel to the contemporary productions of 慧洪 Huìhóng and 張商英 Zhāng Shāngyīng (KR6d0069).
The dating is securely fixed by the Jǐngdìng 2 preface (1261 CE). Wéndá’s institutional affiliation with the Qiántáng Huòshān Guǎngzhàosì in Hángzhōu places the work in the Southern-Sòng capital region during the late-period intellectual and devotional renaissance under 理宗 Lǐzōng and 度宗 Dùzōng.
Translations and research
- Mínguó Fójiào qíkān wénxiàn jíchéng 民國佛教期刊文獻集成. Vol. 48, p. 402. (1933 article: “Wéndá héshàng jiě ‘Fǎhuá jīng jùjiě’” 聞達和尚解《法華經句解》.)
- Brose, Benjamin. Patrons and Patriarchs: Regional Rulers and Chan Monks during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2015.
- Yang Cengwen 楊曾文. Sòng-Yuán Chánzōng shǐ 宋元禅宗史. Beijing: Zhōngguó shèhuì kēxué chūbǎnshè, 2006.
Other points of interest
The jùjiě genre’s combination of phrase-by-phrase commentary with strong Chán inflection became a standard productive form in late-imperial Chinese Buddhism, particularly in the late-Míng and Qing Chán-Pure-Land syncretic tradition. Wéndá’s Fǎhuá jīng jùjiě is one of the earliest substantially-surviving examples and provides the model that subsequent commentators in the genre followed.