Huáyán jīng shū 華嚴經疏
Commentary on the Huáyán Scripture (anonymous Dūnhuáng fragment)
About the work
This is an anonymous, single-fascicle Dūnhuáng manuscript fragment of a Huáyán jīng commentary, preserved in Taishō volume 85 (the Dūnhuáng yíshū 敦煌遺書 series). The fragment is one of several incomplete Avataṃsaka commentaries from the Mogao caves; its surviving portion treats the doctrine of the kalpa (劫) and its relation to the Avataṃsaka’s cosmology, expounding the topic in 10 sub-headings.
The opening reads: “Buddha-fields can correspondingly be known. In the verse there are ten [points]. The first verse [treats] the differentiations of kalpas. The second [treats] the long and short of kalpas. The third [treats] the many and few of kalpas. The above [three] together verse the previously listed names. The fourth [treats] the impure and pure of kalpas. The fifth explains the cause of the kalpa’s purity. The sixth shows the names of the kalpas. The seventh [treats] the Buddha’s appearing in a kalpa. The eighth [treats] the mutual entering of one and many kalpas. The ninth [treats] the mutual entering of the adornments within a kalpa. The tenth concludes by returning to the heart-conception. Therefore [all are] obtained without obstruction, and can be known.” (剎准可知。頌中有十。初一頌劫差別。二劫長短。三劫多少。已上通頌前列名。四劫染淨。五釋劫淨因。六顯諸劫名。七劫中佛出。八一多劫相入。九劫內嚴具相入。十結歸心想。是故得無礙並可知。)
Prefaces
No tiyao or preface in source: the surviving fragment opens directly into mid-discussion.
Abstract
The fragment is undated, anonymous, and incomplete. The doctrinal vocabulary is recognisably Tang Huáyán-school — the apparatus of kalpa analysis, the doctrine of xiāng rù 相入 (mutual entering, a central Huáyán concept), the soteriological jié guī xīn xiǎng 結歸心想 (“concluded by returning to the heart-conception”) — but the fragment does not exactly correspond to any known passage in the major school commentaries (Fǎzàng’s [[KR6e0004|Tànxuán jì]], Chéngguān’s [[KR6e0011|Shū]] and [[KR6e0012|Chāo]]) and so probably represents an independent and now-lost commentarial work. The bracket adopted here (600 – 900) is the broad Tang-period window in which Huáyán doctrinal study flourished; no closer dating is possible.
The fragment is one of several anonymous Tang Huáyán shū materials recovered from Dūnhuáng (others include T2753, T2754, and T2756) which collectively attest to the breadth of Huáyán doctrinal study in the Tang period beyond the few extant works of the school’s named patriarchs. For modern Huáyán historiography these fragments are foundational documents for reconstructing the wider doctrinal landscape.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language translation located.
- Hamar, Imre, ed. Reflecting Mirrors: Perspectives on Huayan Buddhism. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2007.
- Tanaka Ryōshō 田中良昭. Tonkō Bukkyō no kenkyū 敦煌仏教の研究 — general methodology for Dūnhuáng Buddhist materials.
- Aoki Takashi 青木隆. Articles on Tang Huáyán Dūnhuáng materials in Komazawa Daigaku Bukkyō Gakubu Kenkyū Kiyō 駒沢大学仏教学部研究紀要.
Other points of interest
- The use of the doctrine of “mutual entering” (相入) in this fragment, taken in conjunction with the closing jié guī xīn xiǎng, suggests an integration of the Avataṃsaka’s metaphysics with mid-Tang Chán-style mind-doctrine — a synthesis paralleled in 澄觀 Chéngguān’s [[KR6e0011|Shū]] but attested here in a different (and probably independent) literary lineage.