Jiàoguān gāngzōng 教觀綱宗
The Outline-Guideline of Doctrine and Contemplation by 智旭 (Zhìxù / Ǒuyì Zhìxù, 述)
About the work
A single-juan late-Míng synthetic introduction to the Tiāntái doctrinal-and-meditative system by Ǒuyì Zhìxù 蕅益智旭 (1599–1655), originally titled Yīdài shíjiào quánshí gāngyào tú 一代時教權實綱要圖 (“Outline-Diagram of the Provisional-and-Real of the Whole-Era Time-Teaching”). The Taishō editorial note explains the title change: Chángfú nánkàn jīn tiān sìjiào gè shíchéng guān gǎizuò shūcè tímíng 長幅難看。今添四教各十乘觀。改作書冊題名 (“The original long-scroll [diagram] format was difficult to read; now [I have] added the four-doctrines’ respective ten-vehicle contemplations and changed [it] to book-format with [a new] title”). Body attribution: BěiTiānmù Ǒuyì shāmén Zhìxù chóngshù 北天目蕅益沙門智旭重述.
Prefaces
The text in the Taishō recension carries Zhìxù’s own framing: “The Buddha-patriarchs’ essentials [are] doctrine-and-contemplation only. Contemplation without doctrine is not correct; doctrine without contemplation is not transmitted. With doctrine without contemplation [is] desolate; with contemplation without doctrine [is] dangerous. Yet generally discussing the time-teaching, the great outline has eight; relying on the doctrine [to] establish contemplation, the number is also briefly [the] same. The eight doctrines are: 1, sudden; 2, gradual; 3, secret; 4, indeterminate — named the four-doctrines of teaching-modes…”
Abstract
The Jiàoguān gāngzōng is one of the most ambitious late-Míng pedagogical productions on the Tiāntái doctrinal-meditative tradition: it provides systematic compact synthesis of the entire Tiāntái system suitable for late-Míng monastic and lay pedagogical use. The work draws on the standard Tiāntái scholastic apparatus (Dìguān’s Sìjiào yí, Zhìyǐ’s Móhē zhǐguān) and integrates these into Zhìxù’s distinctive late-Míng Tiāntái-Pure Land synthesis.
The composition is bracketed within Zhìxù’s mature productive period c. 1641–1655.
Translations and research
See KR6d0010 for the bibliography on Zhìxù.
Other points of interest
The Jiàoguān gāngzōng became one of the most widely studied late-Míng / Qīng / Republican-period Tiāntái pedagogical texts and is one of the principal vehicles by which Zhìxù’s late-Míng synthetic apparatus was transmitted to subsequent generations of Chinese Buddhist students.