Fǎhuá jīng shū 法華經疏 (Dunhuang fragment, T2750)
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 T85n2750 from the Dunhuang manuscript collection. Distinct from but parallel to the other two Dunhuang Fǎhuá jīng shū fragments at T2749 (KR6d0101) and T2751 (KR6d0103).
Prefaces
The text in the T85n2750 recension carries no separate translator’s preface and opens in medias res with discussion of huābào 華報 (“flower-recompense”) and a lengthy exposition of the Suíxǐ gōngdé pǐn 隨喜功德品 (“Merits of Joyful Acceptance” chapter, ch. 18) of the Lotus: “Flower-recompense. If furthermore there are persons who at the dharma-lecture place sit, [reaching] to where the cakravartin king sits. The third subdivision of seated persons, also is the flower-recompense. Ājita, if furthermore there are persons who say to other persons, [reaching] to faithfully receive the teaching’s instruction. The fourth: encouraging persons to listen to the sūtra. When this person is mutually encouraging, with harmonious face and pleased expression…”
Abstract
This Dunhuang fragment focuses substantially on the Lotus’s Suíxǐ gōngdé pǐn (chapter 18), one of the chapters that articulates the Lotus’s distinctive doctrine of meritorious acceptance and propagation of the sūtra-text itself. The textual focus is consistent with the broader pre-Tang Sinitic exegetical interest in the Lotus’s distinctive fútián 福田 (merit-field) doctrine and its implications for the institutional structure of Mahāyāna devotional practice.
Translations and research
See KR6d0100 for the bibliography on the Dunhuang Lotus exegetical fragments.