Fǎhuá jīng shū 法華經疏 (Dunhuang fragment, T2751)
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 T85n2751 from the Dunhuang manuscript collection. The third of three distinct Dunhuang Fǎhuá jīng shū fragments (T2749 = KR6d0101, T2750 = KR6d0102, T2751 = KR6d0103).
Prefaces
The text in the T85n2751 recension carries no separate translator’s preface and opens in medias res: “Final teaching also fully prepares the principle, and discussing it does not exceed the body as true-and-response, the teaching as provisional-and-real. This sūtra prepares this clarification. Therefore [we] know the principle is deep, the speech inexhaustible. This long-one [section] in clarifies the sūtra’s merit, expounding-and-showing in completion. The lower verse-section announces the liútōng (transmission) person’s merit inexhaustible-fancifully matters discussed.”
Abstract
This Dunhuang fragment shows substantial doctrinal engagement with the Tiāntái-style apparatus of zhēnyìng 真應 (true-and-response bodies) and quánshí 權實 (provisional-and-real teaching) — categories that become standard in the post-Tiāntái Lotus exegetical tradition. The presence of these categories in a Dunhuang fragment suggests either (1) early circulation of Tiāntái-style apparatus at Dunhuang in the post-Zhìyǐ period, or (2) parallel development of similar categories in the broader Sinitic Lotus tradition independent of the Tiāntáishān productive context.
Translations and research
Reminder: AI generated list - beware of hallucinations. Corrections and additions welcome
See KR6d0100 for the bibliography on the Dunhuang Lotus exegetical fragments.