Huáyán jīng xíng yuàn pǐn shū kē 華嚴經行願品疏科
Sectional Outline of the Commentary on the Practice-Vow Chapter of the Huáyán Scripture by 宗密 (Zōngmì, 撰集)
About the work
This one-fascicle text is the structural-outline (kē 科) by 宗密 Guīfēng Zōngmì 圭峰宗密 (780–841, the fifth Huáyán patriarch) of his master 澄觀 Chéngguān’s [[KR6e0069|Xíng yuàn pǐn shū]] (X227). The kē genre — the hierarchical heading-table that served as the navigational map for a major Buddhist commentary — was a standard component of Tang-Sòng Buddhist scholastic apparatus.
Prefaces
The work opens with the title-line “大方廣佛華嚴經普賢行願品疏科文 / 圭峯草堂寺沙門宗密撰集” — “Sectional outline of the Commentary on the Pǔxián xíngyuàn pǐn of the Dà fāngguǎng fó huáyán jīng. Compiled by the śramaṇa Zōngmì of the Cǎotángsì 草堂寺 on Mt. Guīfēng 圭峰山.”
Abstract
The work is conventionally datable to the period 820 – 841 CE, the bracket of 宗密 Zōngmì’s mature scholarly activity at the Cǎotángsì 草堂寺 on Mt. Guīfēng 圭峰山 (Huáyánsì 華嚴寺). The bracket adopted here reflects this window. The work belongs to a small but doctrinally significant corpus of Zōngmì’s editorial-commentarial extensions of his master Chéngguān’s Avataṃsaka-related writings; through such editorial activity Zōngmì consolidated the Chéngguān corpus and ensured its continuing study in the late-Tang period.
The work is preserved in the Manji Xù zàng jīng (X228) collection.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language translation located.
- Gregory, Peter N. Tsung-mi and the Sinification of Buddhism. Princeton University Press, 1991. — The standard Western-language study of Zōngmì.
- Gregory, Peter N. Inquiry into the Origin of Humanity: An Annotated Translation of Tsung-mi’s Yüan jen lun. Honolulu: UHP, 1995.
Other points of interest
- The Cǎotángsì on Mt. Guīfēng was Zōngmì’s principal residence and the doctrinal centre of late-Tang Huáyán-Chán synthesis; the survival of his kē outlines at this monastery (later transmitted to Korea and Japan) is one of the principal channels through which Zōngmì’s editorial work entered the broader East Asian Buddhist tradition.