Shí dì lùn yì shū juàn dì yī . dì sān 十地論義疏卷第一．第三
Commentary on the Meaning of the Daśabhūmika-vyākhyāna, Fascicles One and Three by 法上 (Fǎshàng, 撰)
About the work
The Shí dì lùn yì shū of 法上 Fǎshàng is a Northern-Qí-period commentary on the [[KR6e0060|Shí dì jīng lùn 十地經論]] (T1522, Vasubandhu’s Daśabhūmika-vyākhyāna in Bodhiruci’s translation). What survives is in fragmentary form: only fascicles 1 and 3 are preserved, recovered from the Mogao caves at Dūnhuáng 敦煌. The original may have extended to many more fascicles. Preserved in Taishō volume 85.
The opening of the surviving fragment is heavily damaged. Doctrinal substance treats the six characteristics (六相) — the Dìlùn-school’s signature doctrinal apparatus — drawing on Vasubandhu’s parent commentary and developing it in directions that anticipate the mature Tang Huáyán-school doctrine.
Prefaces
No tiyao or preface in source.
Abstract
法上 Fǎshàng (495–580), the principal Northern-Qí Dìlùn master and Sēngtǒng 僧統 (Buddhist Director) of the Northern Qí state for 40 years, was the second-generation transmitter of 慧光 Huìguāng’s Dìlùn-school southern lineage. The composition is undated; conventional scholarship places it in the period 552 – 577 CE, the bracket of Fǎshàng’s mature scholarly activity at the Northern Qí court (552 founding to 577 collapse). The bracket adopted here reflects this window.
The work is one of only a handful of Northern-Qí Dìlùn-school commentaries preserved in Chinese manuscript tradition; its fragmentary survival in Dūnhuáng provides a key piece of evidence for the transitional doctrinal landscape between Huìguāng’s foundational Dìlùn synthesis and the Suí-period crystallisation of doctrinal positions in 淨影慧遠 Jìngyǐng Huìyuǎn’s hands. The liù xiàng 六相 doctrine of the present work is the immediate predecessor to its mature articulation in 智儼 Zhìyǎn’s [[KR6e0003|Sōuxuán jì]] and 法藏 Fǎzàng’s [[KR6e0004|Tànxuán jì]].
The Taishō text (T2799) is established on the Dūnhuáng manuscript.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language translation located.
- Aoki Takashi 青木隆. Articles on Northern-Dynasties Dìlùn studies in Komazawa Daigaku Bukkyō Gakubu Kenkyū Kiyō.
- Hamar, Imre, ed. Reflecting Mirrors (2007).
- Funayama Tōru 船山徹. Articles on the early Northern-Dynasties Buddhist scholarship.
Other points of interest
- The fragment’s identification as Fǎshàng’s work — based on internal stylistic and doctrinal analysis (Aoki 2007) — is one of the more important achievements of modern Dūnhuáng Dìlùn-school scholarship; it provides direct textual evidence for the school’s early-stage doctrinal articulation that was previously known only from later citations.