Shí dì yì jì juàn dì yī 十地義記卷第一
Notes on the Meaning of the Ten Stages, Fascicle One (anonymous Dūnhuáng fragment)
About the work
This is an anonymous, single-fascicle Dūnhuáng 敦煌 manuscript fragment of a commentary on the [[KR6e0060|Shí dì jīng lùn 十地經論]] (T1522, the Vasubandhu / Bodhiruci Daśabhūmika-vyākhyāna). The text is heavily damaged with extensive lacunae (marked in the modern editions by 「□」). Preserved in Taishō volume 85 — the Dūnhuáng yíshū 敦煌遺書 series — it is one of several fragments of Dìlùn 地論-school commentary recovered from the Mogao caves.
The opening reads (with extensive lacunae): “[because of the] adornment, [the bodhisattva] takes recourse to the heavenly abode in order to obstruct [the obstacles? lacuna]; … the coming-and-going leads conditions to enter the real, therefore [staying in] the place [lacuna] with no defiled object. The remaining true-nature true-sign chapter [in this place lacuna] correspondingly should clarify the enjoyment-body (sambhogakāya). Because the Dharma is its substance, [we] obtain knowledge…”
Prefaces
No tiyao or preface in source: damaged Dūnhuáng manuscript fragment without front-matter.
Abstract
The text is anonymous, undated, and known only from the Mogao recovery. The doctrinal vocabulary places the work within the Dìlùn 地論 school’s commentary tradition on Vasubandhu’s Daśabhūmika-vyākhyāna — the technical apparatus of the three bodies of the Buddha (Trikāya), the real-nature true-sign (實性實相), the doctrine of guǒ 果 / liù xiàng 六相 — which would place its composition in the period 500 – 700 CE, the floruit of the Dìlùn and proto-Huáyán 華嚴 schools. The bracket adopted here reflects this maximum window.
The text is one of several anonymous Tang-period and pre-Tang Dìlùn-school fragments preserved at Dūnhuáng (alongside T2756, T2799, etc.) that collectively document the breadth of the early-Chinese Daśabhūmika-tradition exegetical literature beyond the few extant works of the school’s named figures.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language translation located.
- Tanaka Ryōshō 田中良昭. Tonkō Bukkyō no kenkyū 敦煌仏教の研究 — methodology for Dūnhuáng materials.
- Aoki Takashi 青木隆. Articles on Northern-Dynasties Dìlùn studies.
- Hamar, Imre, ed. Reflecting Mirrors (2007).
Other points of interest
- The fragment’s preservation — even in heavily damaged form — is significant for reconstructing the breadth of Dìlùn-school commentary in the Northern Dynasties and early Tang. Modern Buddhist historiography uses such fragments to reconstruct the doctrinal landscape of the period before the rise of the Tang Huáyán synthesis.