Xiánjū biān 閑居編
The Leisure-Residence Compilation by 智圓 (Zhìyuán / Gūshān Zhìyuán / Wúwài, 著)
About the work
A massive fifty-one-juan Northern-Sòng literary-doctrinal compilation by Gūshān Zhìyuán 孤山智圓 (976–1022) — one of the principal shānwài spokespersons. The work is one of the most extensive Sòng-period Buddhist literary collections by a single author, comparable in scale to Sòng-period Confucian biéjí 別集 (literary collected works).
Abstract
The Xiánjū biān contains Zhìyuán’s collected literary writings — essays, poems, correspondence, doctrinal-discussion materials, and commemorative texts — and is one of the principal documentary sources for the modern reconstruction of his life, intellectual development, and the broader shānwài tradition. The 51-juan extent makes it the longest single work in the Manji-zoku canon attributed to a Sòng Tiāntái master.
The composition is bracketed within Zhìyuán’s productive period c. 996–1022.
Translations and research
- Andō Toshio 安藤俊雄. Tendaigaku — kompon shisō to sono tenkai. Kyoto: Heirakuji Shoten, 1968.
- Hirai Shun’ei 平井俊榮. Hokke monku no seiritsu ni kansuru kenkyū. Tokyo: Shunjūsha, 1985.
Other points of interest
The substantial scale of the Xiánjū biān — fifty-one juan — makes it one of the most ambitious single Sòng Buddhist literary productions and is one of the few Sòng monastic productions comparable in literary ambition to the contemporary Confucian biéjí tradition (the works of 蘇軾 Sū Shì, 王安石 Wáng Ānshí, etc.).