Huáyán jīng lùn (juàn shí) 華嚴經論〔卷十〕
Treatise on the Huáyán Scripture, [Surviving] Fascicle Ten by 靈辨 (Língbiàn, 造)
About the work
This single fascicle of 靈辨 Língbiàn’s Huáyán jīng lùn 華嚴經論 is all that remains of what was originally the longest pre-Tang Chinese commentary on the [[KR6e0001|Huáyán jīng]] — per the Xù gāosēng zhuàn 續高僧傳, the original work ran to 100 fascicles. The surviving fascicle 10 covers the Rúlái guāngmíng jué pǐn 如來光明覺品 (“Chapter on the Tathāgata’s Awakening through Light”) — the same chapter treated by 慧光 Huìguāng’s [[KR6e0008|Yì jì]]. The two commentaries together provide the only direct textual evidence for early-Northern-Wèi Avataṃsaka commentary, and document the doctrinal landscape from which the Tang Huáyán school would emerge.
The opening reads: “Guāngmíng kāi jué 光明開覺 (‘Light opens awakening’): in the upper [section] the bodhi-maṇḍa assembly of the ārya Samantabhadra by the function of the Buddha’s wisdom-light shows the dharma-kāya realised by the Tathāgata-Tree-King [Buddha]. The dependent-fruit is pure and complete, free in its self-mastery, without obstruction; it is the foundation of [the Buddha’s] response-transformation [bodies], like the great ocean producing the streams of a hundred rivers…”
Prefaces
No tiyao or preface in source. The work opens directly with the title-line “華嚴經論(卷第十) / 後魏釋靈辨造” — “Huáyán jīng lùn, fascicle ten. Composed by the śramaṇa Língbiàn of the Later Wèi.”
Abstract
The original 100-fascicle work is conventionally datable to Língbiàn’s mature period, c. 500 – 522 CE; the bracket adopted here reflects this window. The surviving fascicle 10 is among the earliest substantial Chinese Avataṃsaka commentaries — slightly later than 慧光 Huìguāng’s [[KR6e0008|Yì jì]] but, given the much greater scope of Língbiàn’s original work, intellectually independent of Huìguāng’s. Both commentaries treat the same chapter (the Rúlái guāngmíng jué pǐn) and together provide the principal textual evidence for early-Northern-Wèi Avataṃsaka exegesis.
The doctrinal substance of the surviving fascicle is recognisably proto-Huáyán: the doctrine of the dharma-kāya of the Vairocana / Lúshènà 盧舍那 Buddha; the four upāya (expedient means) by which the Buddha responds to the various capacities of beings; the systematic correlation of the bodhisattvas’ names with the doctrinal-cosmological themes they embody. Mature Tang Huáyán doctrine is foreshadowed throughout. For modern Buddhist historiography, Língbiàn’s surviving fascicle is one of the key documents in establishing the long pre-Tang doctrinal genealogy of the school.
The work is preserved in the Manji Xù zàng jīng 卍續藏 collection rather than the Taishō.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language translation located.
- Hamar, Imre, ed. Reflecting Mirrors (2007).
- Aoki Takashi 青木隆. “Northern Dynasties Huáyán Studies and the Dilun School,” in Imre Hamar (ed.), Reflecting Mirrors (2007).
- Itō Zuiei 伊藤瑞叡. Kegon kyōgaku no kenkyū: kyōgakushiron-teki shoron 華厳教学の研究: 教学史的諸論. Daitō shuppansha, 1988 — substantial treatment of Língbiàn.
Other points of interest
- The almost complete loss of Língbiàn’s 100-fascicle commentary is one of the most consequential lacunae in pre-Tang Chinese Buddhist literature; if the work had survived in full it would now be one of the principal sources for the doctrinal history of early-Chinese Avataṃsaka exegesis. Modern Buddhist historiography accordingly attaches great importance to the surviving fascicle 10.