Xù huáyán jīng lüè shū kān dìng jì 續華嚴經略疏刊定記
Continuation Notes Editorially Establishing the Concise Commentary on the Huáyán Scripture by 慧苑 (Huìyuàn, 述)
About the work
The Kān dìng jì in 13 fascicles is the work in which 慧苑 Huìyuàn 慧苑 (the principal disciple of 法藏 Fǎzàng) completed his master’s unfinished Lüè shū 略疏 (“Concise Commentary”) on the [[KR6e0010|Huáyán jīng (80-fasc.)]] and supplied editorial corrections (kān dìng 刊定) to it. Per Huìyuàn’s own opening: “[I] Huìyuàn, [my karmic] favour being slight, [my] master and venerable [Fǎzàng] suddenly removed [from this world] — having composed this Lüè shū of which scarcely a quarter [of the sūtra] [had been treated], beginning from the Miào yán pǐn and ending at the second Shíxíng pǐn — and the Néngzào shídìng commentary’s first nine dìng [had been written], but the suspended discussion and the middle and the post-shídìng commentary had not yet been fully edited. What had been composed had not been carved [for printing]. Now therefore [I] have gathered both broad and concise [versions] of the text, collected old and new [scholastic] discussions, again collated the Sanskrit original, and verified the variants…”
Prefaces
The work opens with Huìyuàn’s own preface as the first fascicle. The title-line attributes the work to “京兆靜法寺沙門慧苑述” — “composed by the śramaṇa Huìyuàn of the Jìngfǎsì 靜法寺 of Jīngzhào 京兆 (the Cháng’ān 長安 region).”
Abstract
慧苑 Huìyuàn (active early 8th c.; lifedates not securely preserved) was 法藏 Fǎzàng’s principal disciple and the editor of his master’s unfinished commentary on the [[KR6e0010|80-fascicle Huáyán]]. The bracket adopted here (712 – 740) reflects the period from Fǎzàng’s death (712) to the conventional end of Huìyuàn’s floruit. The work’s distinctiveness lies in Huìyuàn’s sometimes-disagreeing editorial judgments: where he found his master’s text incomplete or doctrinally unsatisfactory, he made independent emendations and additions, with the result that later Huáyán-school authorities (notably 澄觀 Chéngguān) sometimes criticised Huìyuàn for departing from Fǎzàng’s authoritative readings.
The work is one of the principal documents of the second-generation Huáyán school’s intellectual landscape: it shows the disciples of Fǎzàng working out which positions to fix as canonical and which to revise. For the historical reconstruction of mature Tang Huáyán doctrine, the Kān dìng jì is essential reading.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language translation located.
- Hamar, Imre, ed. Reflecting Mirrors (2007).
- 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 — important treatment of Huìyuàn.
- Sakamoto Yukio 坂本幸男. Kegon kyōgaku no kenkyū 華厳教学の研究. Heirakuji shoten, 1956.
Other points of interest
- Huìyuàn’s editorial criticisms of Fǎzàng’s positions were themselves later criticised by 澄觀 Chéngguān and others; the resulting controversy is one of the key data-points for understanding the doctrinal disagreements within the second-generation Tang Huáyán school.