Huáyán jīng shū kē 華嚴經疏科
Sectional Outline of the Commentary on the Huáyán Scripture by 澄觀 Chéngguān (述) and 淨源 Jìngyuán (重刊)
About the work
The Huáyán jīng shū kē is a structural outline (kē 科 — the “section table” or “structural diagram” that was a standard component of medieval Chinese Buddhist scholasticism) of 澄觀 Chéngguān’s [[KR6e0011|Huáyán jīng shū]] (T1735, 60 fasc.). Each major and sub-section of the Shū is represented by a hierarchically-indented heading, providing the reader with a navigable map through the commentary’s vast doctrinal apparatus. The work was originally produced by Chéngguān himself as part of the ShūChāo corpus and was later edited and reissued (chóng kān 重刊) by the Northern Sòng Huáyán master 淨源 Jìngyuán (1011–1088, the “Jìnshuǐ master” of the Huìyīnsì 慧因寺 in Hángzhōu) as part of his programmatic reconstruction of the East Asian Huáyán curriculum at the Hángzhōu Huáyán-school revival. The version in the Southern Hóngwǔ canon (Vol. 222, No. 1418) preserves Jìngyuán’s reissue.
Prefaces
The first juàn opens directly with the title-line “華嚴經疏科卷第一清涼山沙門澄觀述晉水沙門淨源重刊石一” (“Huáyán jīng shū kē, fascicle one. By the śramaṇa of Mt. Qīngliáng [Chéngguān]; reissued by the śramaṇa of Jìnshuǐ [Jìngyuán]; shí yī 石一 [block 1]”). The body of the work begins with the structural outline of the [[KR6e0010|Huáyán jīng (80 fasc.)]] in 39 chapters across three main “great divisions” (大文分), and proceeds with hierarchical headings explicating Chéngguān’s Shū: the title; the master’s honorific names; the Shū surveying the sūtra in four parts; and so forth. The text is purely outline, without prose exposition.
Abstract
The work has a complex composite history: Chéngguān’s original kē outline (which he prepared as the structural skeleton of his great commentary in the late 780s, contemporaneous with the Shū itself) was, in subsequent transmission, increasingly liable to dislocation and corruption, since the bare outline-format made it especially vulnerable to scribal disordering. Jìngyuán’s chóng kān (reissue) was the consequence of his Northern Sòng project to recover, edit, and republish the entire Tang Huáyán corpus at the Huìyīnsì in Hángzhōu — a project carried out under imperial patronage and with substantial donations from Korean Goryeo Buddhists, most famously the consort and the abbot of the Mun Yǒp Hwaeom 文業華嚴 community at Songgwangsa. Jìngyuán’s edition is dated to the period of his abbacy at the Huìyīnsì (c. 1067–1088 CE), and the present version is one of the most consequential literary outputs of his Hángzhōu Huáyán revival. The bracket adopted here (787 – 1088) reflects the period from the original composition of the kē by Chéngguān to its definitive reissue by Jìngyuán.
The work is essential reference apparatus for anyone working through Chéngguān’s Shū: it provides at one glance the full hierarchical structure of the commentary, naming each subsection with the heading-numbers that key it to the corresponding passage in the Shū. In medieval and early-modern East Asian Buddhist study practice it was used as a permanent companion to the ShūChāo during all stages of study.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language translation located.
- Hamar, Imre. A Religious Leader in the Tang: Chengguan’s Biography. Tokyo: IIBS, 2002.
- Yoshizu Yoshihide 吉津宜英. Kegon zen no shisōshi-teki kenkyū 華厳禅の思想史的研究. Daitō shuppansha, 1985 — chapters on Jìngyuán and the Sòng Huáyán revival.
- Mori Tomomasa 森博達. “Sōdai Kegon-shū no fukkō” 宋代華厳宗の復興 (papers and book on Jìngyuán’s Hángzhōu project).
Other points of interest
- The kē genre is one of the most distinctive forms of Chinese Buddhist scholasticism, comparable in function to the modern academic table of contents but operating as an active study-aid in which each heading carries its own numerical key for cross-reference with the underlying commentary.
- Jìngyuán’s role in this and several related editorial projects — including the recension of [[KR6e0020|Huáyán jīng shū zhù]] (X234) — was the literary backbone of the Sòng Huáyán revival and ensured that the Tang Huáyán corpus would survive into the modern period.