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: Běi-Tiānmù 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
Reminder: AI generated list - beware of hallucinations. Corrections and additions welcome
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.