Huáyán jīng hé lùn 華嚴經合論
Combined Edition of the Huáyán Scripture and the Treatise [of Lǐ Tōngxuán] by 李通玄 (Lǐ Tōngxuán, 造論) and 志寧 (Zhìníng, 經合論 / editorial combination)
About the work
The Huáyán jīng hé lùn in 120 fascicles is the Northern Sòng huì běn (“combined edition”) of the [[KR6e0010|80-fascicle Huáyán jīng]] (T0279) and 李通玄 Lǐ Tōngxuán’s 40-fascicle [[KR6e0022|Xīn huáyán jīng lùn 新華嚴經論]] (T1739), with the sūtra and the Lùn arranged for line-by-line interlinear study, edited and combined by 志寧 Zhìníng. The 120-fascicle total reflects the combined extent of the parent sūtra (80 fasc.) plus Lǐzhǎngzhě’s commentary (40 fasc.).
Prefaces
The work is preceded by 武則天 Empress Wǔ Zétiān’s preface to the new (80-fascicle) translation — i.e. the same imperial preface that opens T0279, reproduced here as the appropriate opening for the huì běn. (Note: the source above shows partial transcription of this preface, with variant 天𠕋 for 天冊.)
Abstract
The Hé lùn is one of the principal Northern Sòng Buddhist huì běn compilations, paralleling 淨源 Jìngyuán’s contemporaneous projects on Chéngguān’s Shū-Chāo. Whereas Jìngyuán’s huì běn tradition consolidated the Tang Huáyán-school orthodoxy of 澄觀 Chéngguān, Zhìníng’s Hé lùn preserved the alternative Tang Huáyán reading of the lay-philosopher 李通玄 Lǐ Tōngxuán — the contemplative, Yìjīng-influenced reading that had circulated outside the institutional Huáyán school in the Tang and was rediscovered in the Sòng by Chán-sympathetic Buddhist intellectuals.
The bracket adopted here (1100 – 1127) reflects the period of the late Northern Sòng Buddhist huì běn projects. The work is preserved in the Manji Xù zàng jīng (X223) collection. From the Sòng onwards it became one of the standard formats in which Lǐzhǎngzhě’s Lùn was studied, and was widely used in the Sòng-Yuán Chán schools that found in Lǐ Tōngxuán’s contemplative reading of the Avataṃsaka a congenial alternative to Chéngguān’s scholastic apparatus.
Translations and research
- No complete Western-language translation located. For Lǐ Tōngxuán generally see Gimello 1983 and Cleary 1983.
- Gimello, Robert M. “Li T’ung-hsüan and the Practical Dimensions of Hua-yen,” in Studies in Ch’an and Hua-yen (1983).
- Cleary, Thomas, tr. Entry into the Inconceivable: An Introduction to Hua-yen Buddhism. Honolulu: UHP, 1983.
- Hamar, Imre, ed. Reflecting Mirrors (2007).
Other points of interest
- The Hé lùn’s reception of Lǐ Tōngxuán by the Sòng Chán schools — particularly the Linji and the Caodong lineages — is one of the most important channels through which Tang lay-Buddhist intellectual culture entered the institutional Sòng Buddhist mainstream.
- The 120-fascicle scope of the work makes it the largest single Buddhist commentary-edition in the East Asian tradition outside of [[KR6e0021|the Qiánlóng Shū-Chāo huì běn]]; the two together represent the apex of huì běn-format Buddhist publishing.