Huáyán jīng xíng yuàn pǐn shū 華嚴經行願品疏
Commentary on the Practice-Vow Chapter of the Huáyán Scripture by 澄觀 (Chéngguān, 述)
About the work
The Xíng yuàn pǐn shū in 10 fascicles is 澄觀 Chéngguān’s commentary on the Pǔxián xíngyuàn pǐn 普賢行願品 of 般若 Prajñā’s [[KR6e0041|40-fascicle Avataṃsaka]] (T0293, fascicle 40) — the chapter containing the famous Pǔxián shí dà yuàn 普賢十大願 (“Ten Great Vows of Samantabhadra”) that became the canonical East Asian devotional liturgy. Chéngguān, who had served as polishing-prose master on Prajñā’s translation team, was the natural commentator for the work; his commentary became the standard Tang reading.
Prefaces
The work opens with the title-line “貞元新譯華嚴經疏卷第一(并序) / 敕太原府大崇福寺沙門澄觀述” — “Newly-translated Zhēnyuán-era Huáyán jīng commentary, fascicle one (with preface). By imperial command, composed by the śramaṇa Chéngguān of the Dà Chóngfúsì 大崇福寺 of Tàiyuán 太原 prefecture.” The opening preface — one of Chéngguān’s mature parallel-prose pieces — celebrates the Avataṃsaka’s cosmological-soteriological vision: “Greatly! the True Realm: the foundation of all dharmas. It encompasses being and non-being and yet abolishes their characteristics; entering language and image, yet without trace. Wonderful being attains it and is not [merely] being; true emptiness attains it and is not [merely] empty. Arising and ceasing attain it and become true permanence; conditioned-arising attains it and they are mutually-shining.”
Abstract
The work is conventionally datable to the period 798 – 838 CE, the bracket from the completion of 般若 Prajñā’s translation of T0293 (in which Chéngguān participated) to Chéngguān’s death. The bracket adopted here reflects this window. The doctrinal substance — the Pǔxián xíngyuàn pǐn’s “Ten Great Vows” and the cosmological framework that supports them — is the foundational text of East Asian Pure Land and Huáyán devotional practice; Chéngguān’s commentary is the authoritative Tang reading and was the basis for all subsequent East Asian commentary on the Ten Vows.
The work is preserved in the Manji Xù zàng jīng (X227) collection.
Translations and research
- No complete Western-language translation located.
- Hamar, Imre. A Religious Leader in the Tang: Chengguan’s Biography. Tokyo: IIBS, 2002.
- Hamar, Imre, ed. Reflecting Mirrors (2007).
Other points of interest
- Chéngguān’s commentary on the Pǔxián xíngyuàn pǐn — together with the parallel commentary by his disciple 宗密 Zōngmì in X228 and the joint commentary X229 — established the Pǔxián xíngyuàn pǐn as one of the most-commented-on chapters of the Avataṃsaka corpus, reflecting the chapter’s central liturgical role.