Fǎhuá yìjì juàn dìsān 法華義記卷第三
Notes on the Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra: Juan Three Anonymous Dunhuang manuscript fragment.
About the work
A single-juan fragmentary anonymous commentary on the Lotus Sūtra, preserved in the Taishō at T85n2748 from the Dunhuang manuscript collection. The work survives only as the third juan of an originally longer commentary; the first and second juan are lost. Source files in the Kanripo archive correspondingly preserve only the third-juan fragment as KR6d0100_003.txt.
Prefaces
The text in the T85n2748 recension carries no separate translator’s preface and opens in medias res with the third-juan content: continuing the Lotus Sūtra commentary at chapter 5 (the Yàocǎo yù pǐn 藥草喻品 / Auṣadhi-parable chapter), with discussion of the seven-and-half-verse cloud-parable verses, the Lí sāntú kǔ 離三塗苦 (separating-from-the-three-evil-paths suffering) discussion, and other doctrinal points characteristic of the chapter’s exposition.
Abstract
The Yìjì juàn dìsān belongs to the substantial Dunhuang Lotus Sūtra commentarial corpus — anonymous fragmentary commentaries preserved in the Dunhuang cave-temple manuscript caches and incorporated into the Taishō canon’s yíshū 疑書 (“doubtful texts”) section (T85). The corpus documents the Northern-and-Southern Dynasties through Táng-period circulation of Lotus Sūtra exegesis at the Western Region (Dunhuang) Buddhist establishment, providing evidence for the geographical and institutional breadth of the early Sinitic Lotus commentarial tradition outside the major metropolitan centres.
The dating is uncertain. The textual character — phrase-by-phrase glossarial commentary in classical Sinitic register — is consistent with productive activity anywhere in the Northern-and-Southern Dynasties through Táng period (roughly 500–800 CE). No internal dating evidence is preserved.
Translations and research
- Pelliot, Paul. Carnets de route 1906–1908. Paris: Indes savantes, 2008. (For the Dunhuang manuscript context.)
- Stein, Aurel. Serindia: Detailed Report of Explorations in Central Asia and Westernmost China. 5 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1921.
- Magnin, Paul. La vie et l’œuvre de Huisi (515–577). Paris: École française d’Extrême-Orient, 1979. (For the early Sinitic Lotus tradition; subject is 慧思 Huìsī.)
- Karashima Seishi 辛嶋静志. The Textual Study of the Chinese Versions of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra. Tokyo: Reiyukai, 1992.
Other points of interest
The Dunhuang Lotus Sūtra commentarial fragments collected at T85n2748–T85n2752 (KR6d0100–KR6d0104) constitute the principal evidence for the Western Region (Hexi corridor) circulation of Lotus Sūtra exegesis in the Northern-and-Southern through Táng period. Their preservation depends entirely on the chance survival of the Dunhuang cave-temple manuscript cache, sealed in the early eleventh century and rediscovered by 王圓籙 Wáng Yuánlù in 1900. The materials are consequently of substantial historiographical importance for the geographical and institutional reconstruction of pre-Sòng Chinese Buddhism beyond the major metropolitan centres.