Fǎhuá jīng dàchéng kē 法華經大成科
Sectional Analysis of the Lotus Sūtra Great Consummation by 際慶 (Jìqìng, 排錄 — sequential arranger)
About the work
A single-juan sectional-analysis (kē 科) navigational apparatus to 大義 Dàyì’s Fǎhuá jīng dàchéng (KR6d0085, X32n0619, 10 juan), compiled by 際慶 Jìqìng of the Jìnníng Guǎngjìsì 晉寧廣濟寺 in modern Yúnnán. The preface by 惟鉉 Wéixuán dates the work to Kāngxī 丙戌 (= 1706 CE).
Prefaces
The text in the X32n0618 recension carries Wéixuán’s preface dated Kāngxī 1706 (the bǐngxū year). The work consists exclusively of hierarchical structural diagrams showing the kēpàn sectional division of the Dàchéng.
Abstract
The Dàchéng kē is the structural-outline navigational apparatus to Dàyì’s Dàchéng (KR6d0085), produced concurrently with or shortly after the Dàchéng itself for use in monastic and lay study. Its compilation in 1706 establishes a terminus ante quem of 1706 for the completion of Dàyì’s Dàchéng — a useful constraint for dating Dàyì’s productive activity, which according to his own Biānjí shǐmò (compilation history) extended through 1736 for the final consolidation of the Dàchéng’s ten juan.
The pairing of KR6d0085 (the Dàchéng) with KR6d0084 (its kē) and KR6d0086 (its yīnyì, phonetic-and-meaning glossary) demonstrates the systematic late-Kāngxī editorial practice of providing complete navigational apparatus for major commentarial productions — a continuation of the Sòng tradition observed in KR6d0061 and elsewhere.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
Other points of interest
The Yúnnán institutional location of Jìqìng’s productive activity at the Guǎngjìsì in Jìnníng demonstrates the geographical breadth of the early-Qīng Tiāntái scholastic network, extending to the southwestern frontier provinces. The substantial editorial apparatus produced at this institutional location (the Dàchéng kē of 1706) attests to the institutional vitality of southwestern Chinese Buddhism in the high-Kāngxī period.