Fǎhuá jīng shū 法華經疏 (Dunhuang fragment, T2749)
Subcommentary on the Lotus Sūtra Anonymous Dunhuang manuscript fragment.
About the work
A single-juan anonymous fragmentary subcommentary on the Lotus Sūtra, preserved in the Taishō at T85n2749 from the Dunhuang manuscript collection. One of three Dunhuang fragments bearing the same title Fǎhuá jīng shū preserved as T2749, T2750 (KR6d0102), and T2751 (KR6d0103) — distinct works by distinct (anonymous) authors, all incorporated into the Taishō yíshū section (T85) as Dunhuang Lotus exegetical fragments.
Prefaces
The text in the T85n2749 recension carries no separate translator’s preface and opens in medias res with mid-passage commentary: “Encountering — that is, marking the difficult-to-encounter. Why? The various thin-virtue persons — having passed innumerable kalpas — sometimes see [the Buddha] sometimes do not — explains the difficult-to-encounter. By this matter, [I] said: ‘The Tathāgata is hard to obtain seeing of’ — concluding the difficult-to-encounter.”
Abstract
This Dunhuang fragment belongs to the broader pre-Tang Sinitic Lotus exegetical tradition that circulated at the Western Region Buddhist establishment. The textual character — line-by-line classical-register commentary on Kumārajīva’s translation — is consistent with the broader Northern-and-Southern Dynasties through Tang exegetical tradition. No internal dating or attribution evidence is preserved.
The corpus of three Dunhuang Fǎhuá jīng shū fragments (T2749–T2751) suggests that multiple distinct anonymous Lotus subcommentaries circulated at Dunhuang during the pre-Sòng period, each representing a distinct exegetical voice within the broader tradition. Their fragmentary survival prevents systematic comparison with the major surviving Lotus commentaries (Fǎyún’s Yìjì, Zhìyǐ’s Wénjù, Jízàng’s Yìshū), but the textual evidence indicates substantial pre-Tang Lotus exegetical activity at Dunhuang.
Translations and research
See KR6d0100 for the bibliography on the Dunhuang Lotus exegetical fragments.