Móhē zhǐguān yìlì zuǎnyào 摩訶止觀義例纂要
Compiled Essentials of the Examples-and-Cases of Mahā-Cessation-and-Contemplation by 從義 (Cóngyì / Shénzhì, 撰)
About the work
A six-juan Northern-Sòng compiled-essentials commentary on 湛然 Zhànrán’s Zhǐguān yìlì (KR6d0132, T1913) by 從義 Cóngyì (1042–1091), the Northern-Sòng shānjiā 山家 Tiāntái master from Píngyáng 平陽. The work belongs together with Cóngyì’s Sāndàbù bǔzhù (KR6d0063) as part of his comprehensive Northern-Sòng Tiāntái scholastic apparatus.
Prefaces
The text opens with a Móhē zhǐguān yìlì zuǎnyào xù by Cóngyì himself: “The Móhē zhǐguān is the Lotus’s wonderful practice. The Zhǐguān yìlì is the wheel-axle of the wonderful practice. To transmit the Way of cessation-and-contemplation but not clarify the yìlì — then the wonderful practice is overturned. Formerly the Tiāntái Zhìzhě received it from Spirit Mountain, awakened to it at the dàochǎng, expounded it at Yùquán, transmitted it to Zhāngān [Guàndǐng]. From Zhāngān to Jīngxī [Zhànrán], master-and-disciple Way-contracted, virtue-voice not-contradicted. Later, due to the Qīngliáng [Huāyán master Chéngguān 澄觀]‘s perverse seeing, contrary-road arguments arose; turning the back on our Tiāntái, allying with the other [Huāyán] Xiánshǒu [Fǎzàng], suppressing the foundational pure-marvel as the gradual-perfect, raising the branch-and-tip’s mixed-coarse, naming it the sudden-and-sudden — confusing-and-defiling the transformation-source, particularly misleading the studying multitudes. Therefore the Lotus’s wonderful practice was nearly hidden. Alas, the Way’s not-yet-extinguished depends on the wise master. Thus Jīngxī Zūnzhě sighed at this deceitful confusion and composed the Auxiliary-Practice Transmission-and-Propagation Decisions [the Zhǐguān fǔxíng]…”
Abstract
Cóngyì’s Yìlì zuǎnyào is the principal Northern-Sòng shānjiā commentary on Zhànrán’s Zhǐguān yìlì, articulating the shānjiā polemical defense of the Tiāntái doctrinal-meditative tradition against Huāyán-school positions (particularly those of 澄觀 Chéngguān, 738–839). The work documents the Northern-Sòng Tiāntái-Huāyán doctrinal dispute and the shānjiā tradition’s institutional consolidation against the Huāyán-school challenge.
The composition is dated to Cóngyì’s mature productive period c. 1062–1091.
Translations and research
- Getz, Daniel A. “T’ien-t’ai Pure Land Societies and the Creation of the Pure Land Patriarchate.” In Buddhism in the Sung, eds. Peter N. Gregory and Daniel A. Getz, 477–523. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1999.
- Brose, Benjamin. Patrons and Patriarchs: Regional Rulers and Chan Monks during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2015.