Dà fāngguǎng fó huáyán jīng shū chāo huì běn 大方廣佛華嚴經疏鈔會本
The Combined Edition of the Sūtra, Commentary, and Sub-commentary on the Great, Vast Buddha-Flower-Garland Scripture by 實叉難陀 Śikṣānanda (譯, sūtra) and 澄觀 Chéngguān (撰述, commentary and sub-commentary)
About the work
The Dà fāngguǎng fó huáyán jīng shū chāo huì běn in 80 fascicles is the definitive Sòng-Yuán-Míng-Qīng huì běn 會本 (“combined edition”) of the [[KR6e0010|Huáyán jīng (80-fasc.)]] / T0279 with 澄觀 Chéngguān’s [[KR6e0011|Shū]] (T1735, 60 fasc.) and his [[KR6e0012|Yǎn yì chāo]] (T1736, 90 fasc.). The format places the parent sūtra at the head of each section, followed by Chéngguān’s Shū set in distinguishing graphic form, followed in turn by Chéngguān’s Chāo — a three-tier interlinear-annotation arrangement that allows the reader to follow the entire scholastic apparatus on the Avataṃsaka in a single integrated reading.
This particular version is the Qiánlóng-canon edition (Q1557, vol. 130) of the eighteenth century, which represents the culmination of a long-standing Sòng-onwards editorial tradition begun by 淨源 Jìngyuán in the eleventh century and continued through successive Yuán, Míng, and Qīng canonical printings. The Qiánlóng version was prepared at the Yōnghégōng 雍和宮 in Beijing under imperial supervision in 1735–1738, alongside the comprehensive re-edition of the Chinese Buddhist canon known as the Lóng zàng 龍藏 (“Dragon Canon”).
Prefaces
The work opens with the standard title-line “大方廣佛華嚴經疏鈔會本第一之一 困一 / 唐于闐國三藏沙門實义難陀 譯 / 唐清涼山大華嚴寺沙門澄觀撰述” — note the typographical slip 實义難陀 for 實叉難陀 in this transcription, a common Qing-period scribal slip preserved in the source. The body opens with the Shìzhǔ miào yán pǐn 世主妙嚴品 (chapter 1 of the Avataṃsaka) interleaved with the corresponding sections of Chéngguān’s Shū and Chāo, set off by graphic markers (here shown by the bracket conventions of the Mandoku transcription, with curly braces 「」 marking the sūtra and square brackets 【】 marking the commentary).
Abstract
The bracket adopted here (1067 – 1738) reflects the long literary genealogy of the huì běn tradition: from 淨源 Jìngyuán’s eleventh-century pioneering reissues at the Huìyīnsì 慧因寺 in Hángzhōu (see X234), through the Yuán and Míng canonical editions, to the Qing imperial Lóng zàng edition of 1735–1738 in which the present version was definitively established. The Qiánlóng version was the basis for most modern East Asian Huáyán study before the Taishō canon (1924–1934) established its own standard texts; the Qiánlóng version is preferred for many contextual purposes because it preserves the full huì běn arrangement in a way the Taishō (which prints sūtra, Shū, and Chāo as three separate works in different volumes) does not.
The huì běn format is the most distinctive Chinese contribution to East Asian Buddhist scholastic publishing: it represents a deliberate decision to treat sūtra, commentary, and sub-commentary as a single integrated corpus, rather than as discrete works to be consulted independently. For the Avataṃsaka this format was particularly important because of the immense volume of Chéngguān’s commentary apparatus (60 + 90 = 150 fascicles for Shū-Chāo) relative to the sūtra (80 fascicles), making integrated study otherwise extremely cumbersome.
Translations and research
- No complete Western-language translation located.
- Cleary, Thomas, tr. The Flower Ornament Scripture. Boulder: Shambhala, 1984–1987 — Cleary’s translation of the sūtra was made with reference to the huì běn arrangement.
- 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.
- Hamar, Imre, ed. Reflecting Mirrors: Perspectives on Huayan Buddhism. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2007.
Other points of interest
- The Qiánlóng Lóng zàng edition (1735–1738) was the last comprehensive imperial recension of the Chinese Buddhist canon prior to the modern period; its conservatism in textual matters (printing the huì běn in its received SòngYuánMíng form) means that the present huì běn preserves a substantial portion of the medieval Chinese commentary-tradition’s editorial arrangement.