Fǎhuá jīng dàchéng 法華經大成
The Great Consummation of the Lotus Sūtra by 大義 (Dàyì, 集 — compiler)
About the work
A nine-juan (catalog meta) / ten-juan (DILA) compiled commentary on the Lotus Sūtra by 大義 Dàyì of the mid-Qīng Yānjīng (Beijing) Buddhist establishment, hailed in his lifetime as “the great consummation of the Lotus” (fǎhuá zhī dàchéng 法華之大成). The work is the principal mid-Qīng synthetic Lotus Sūtra commentary, drawing together the Tiāntái, Cí’ēn, and late-Míng critical-evaluative traditions into a unified expository treatment.
Prefaces
The text in the X32n0619 recension carries Dàyì’s own Biānjí shǐmò 編輯始末 (compilation history), one of the most detailed Qīng-period self-narratives of a major scholastic productive enterprise. Dàyì narrates his career and the compilation history of the work: ordination at Jīnlíng in Kāngxī jiǎwǔ 康熙甲午 (1714); travels through the Wú-Yuè Chán establishment; entry into the chamber of his teacher (referred to only as xiānzǐ 先子, “the deceased master”) in Yōngzhèng bǐngwǔ 雍正丙午 (1726) at Cíbēishān 慈悲山 in Liángzhōu (Northern Qīngliáng); systematic study of the Tiāntái commentarial tradition (Wénjù yàojiě, Zhīyīn huìyì, Zhèngliàng lùn) and the late-Míng Lotus apparatus (Dàkuǎn yàozhǐ); and the successive compilation of the Dàchéng over the years 1728–1735.
The compilation history records: “Wùshēn year [1728] I compiled 2 juan. In jǐyǒu [1729] winter, accompanying my teacher [I went] to Chángchūn [-sì for] lecturing; in the intervals of my service as head-of-the-assembly’s consultations, I compiled another juan. Gēngxū [1730] traveling to Pánshān, [I] compiled 1 juan. Reaching yǐmǎo [1735], staying at the Yánshòusì in Zhuōlù, the latter 3 juan were finally completed and the draft was finished. Bǐngchén of Qiánlóng [1736] [I] traveled again to Jiāng-Zhè, consulted senior virtuous masters and old scholars; they unanimously said: ‘This compilation is the great consummation of the Lotus.‘”
Abstract
Dàyì’s Dàchéng is the most ambitious mid-Qīng synthetic Lotus Sūtra commentary and the principal Qīng-period continuation of the late-Míng Tiāntái-Pure Land synthetic project of Hānshān 德清 Déqīng and Ǒuyì 智旭 Zhìxù. The work draws on (1) the foundational Tiāntái commentarial corpus (智顗 Zhìyǐ’s Xuányì (KR6d0006) and Wénjù (KR6d0014), 湛然 Zhànrán’s three subcommentaries); (2) the Sòng shānjiā tradition through Sìmíng 知禮 Zhīlǐ; (3) the Sòng Yàojiě tradition of 戒環 Jièhuán; (4) the Yuán-Míng kēzhù tradition; (5) the late-Míng critical-evaluative apparatus of Hānshān Déqīng, 通潤 Tōngrùn, and Ǒuyì Zhìxù; and (6) Dàyì’s own Pure Land and Avataṃsaka-derived doctrinal commitments.
The compilation history’s specific dating allows the work to be securely placed in the productive period 1728–1736. The work was carried in the Manji-zoku canonical apparatus alongside its associated navigational and glossarial apparatus (KR6d0084 and KR6d0086), demonstrating its institutional standing in the mid-Qīng Beijing Buddhist establishment.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
Other points of interest
Dàyì’s productive period spans the high-Kāngxī through high-Qiánlóng eras (c. 1714–1736), placing him in the institutional generation between the late-Kāngxī Beijing Buddhist establishment and the high-Qiánlóng imperial Buddhist publishing project (the Lóngzàng 龍藏 of 1738). The Dàchéng is one of the principal mid-Qīng Buddhist commentarial productions outside the imperial canon project itself, and its institutional support — through the Sēnglùsī (Buddhist Affairs Office) and the imperial-court Buddhist establishment — demonstrates the continuing institutional vitality of Chinese Buddhist scholasticism in the high-Qīng.