Sì niànchǔ 四念處
The Four Establishments of Mindfulness by 智顗 (Zhìyǐ / Tiāntái dàshī, 說); recorded by 灌頂 (Guàndǐng).
About the work
A four-juan Tiāntái treatise by 智顗 Zhìyǐ on the catvāri smṛty-upasthāna (四念處 — the “four establishments of mindfulness”: body, sensations, mind, dharmas), recorded by 灌頂 Guàndǐng. Body attribution: Suí Tiāntáishān Xiūchánsì Zhìzhě dàshī shuō / ménrén Zhāngān Guàndǐng jì 隋天台山修禪寺智者大師說 / 門人章安灌頂記.
Prefaces
The text in the Taishō recension carries no separate translator’s preface. The work opens with one of the most celebrated apophatic-doctrinal passages in the Zhìyǐ corpus: “All dharmas all are inconceivable. Cannot be thought-of, planned-and-measured. Cannot be discussed-and-debated in language. Why? Because the way of language is cut off — therefore [it] cannot be discussed. Because mind-action …“.
Abstract
The Sì niànchǔ applies Tiāntái doctrinal apparatus to the foundational early-Buddhist meditation framework of the catvāri smṛty-upasthāna. The work systematically expounds each of the four mindfulness-objects (body, sensations, mind, dharmas) through the Tiāntái sìjiào 四教 (four-doctrinal-classification) framework, providing the four-fold treatment characteristic of the mature Tiāntái scholastic apparatus.
The work belongs to Zhìyǐ’s mature productive period at Tiāntáishān (post-585), with the editorial framing identifying his location as the Xiūchánsì 修禪寺 (“Cultivation-of-Meditation Monastery”) on Tiāntáishān itself. The composition is consequently bracketed within Zhìyǐ’s late productive period c. 585–597.
Translations and research
- Hurvitz, Leon. Chih-i (538–597). Brussels, 1962.
- Donner, Neal, and Stevenson, Daniel B. The Great Calming and Contemplation. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1993.
- Andō Toshio 安藤俊雄. Tendaigaku — kompon shisō to sono tenkai. Kyoto: Heirakuji Shoten, 1968.
Links
- CBETA online text T1918
- Kanseki DB
- 智顗 DILA
- 灌頂 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (590): T CBETA Taishō — Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. Edited by Takakusu Junjirō 高楠順次郎 and Watanabe Kaigyoku 渡邊海旭. Tokyo: Taishō shinshū daizōkyō kankōkai/Daizō shuppan, 1924–1932.