Shí bùèr mén wénxīn jiě 十不二門文心解
Text-and-Heart Interpretation of the Ten Non-Dual Gates by 仁岳 (Rényuè / Jìngjué Rényuè, 述)
About the work
A single-juan Northern-Sòng shānwài 山外 commentary by Rényuè 仁岳 (b. 992) — one of the principal shānwài tradition spokespersons in the shānjiā / shānwài polemic — on Zhànrán’s Shí bùèr mén (KR6d0157). The work is the principal shānwài counter-commentary to Zhīlǐ’s shānjiā foundational Zhǐyào chāo (KR6d0158).
Abstract
Rényuè’s Wénxīn jiě articulates the shānwài alternative interpretation of the Shí bùèr mén doctrines — particularly the xìngjùè doctrine and the relation between meditative practice and doctrinal classification. Rényuè argues for a more spiritualised reading that aligns with the Huāyán-school yīzhēn fǎjiè framework and rejects Zhīlǐ’s strict identifications.
The work is consequently of substantial historiographical importance both as the principal surviving shānwài polemical instrument and as evidence for the dual shānjiā / shānwài lineages within the post-Zhànrán Sòng Tiāntái tradition. The composition is bracketed within Rényuè’s productive period c. 1010–1060.
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.
- Ziporyn, Brook. Evil and/or/as the Good. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2000.