Dà fāngguǎng fó huáyán jīng pǔxián xíng yuàn pǐn bié xíng shū chāo (selection) 大方廣佛華嚴經普賢行願品別行疏鈔（選錄「華嚴宗七祖行蹟」及「附錄」）
Selections from the Biéxíng Shū-Chāo on the Pǔxián Practice-Vow Chapter — namely the “Records of the Seven Patriarchs of the Huáyán School” and Appendix by 澄觀 (Chéngguān, 別行疏) and 宗密 (Zōngmì, 隨疏鈔)
About the work
This 1-fascicle text is a Yuán/Míng-period editorial selection from the much larger [[KR6e0071|Bié xíng Shū Chāo 別行疏鈔]] (X229) of 澄觀 Chéngguān and 宗密 Zōngmì, extracting in particular the Huáyánzōng qī zǔ xíng jì 華嚴宗七祖行蹟 — biographical sketches of the Seven Patriarchs of the Huáyán School — together with appendices. Preserved in the Jiāxīng 嘉興 canon (J / Jiāxīng zàng 嘉興藏, vol. 15, B005), this is a Míng-period reissue with selected materials.
The opening reads: “Huáyánzōng qī zǔ 華嚴宗七祖 (出歷代通載)” — “Seven Patriarchs of the Huáyán School (excerpted from the Lìdài tōngzǎi 歷代通載)” — followed by: “The First Patriarch, the Reverend Aśvaghoṣa (馬鳴尊者): the great being 馬鳴 Aśvaghoṣa was the twelfth patriarch of [Indian Buddhism, i.e. the lineage from Mahākāśyapa]; he was a person of Bōluónài 波羅奈 (Vāraṇasī / Banaras). [He] composed the Awakening of Faith Treatise (Qǐxìn lùn 起信論); also called Gōngshèng 功勝. Because both ‘with-action’ and ‘without-action’ merits-virtues — both of which are most distinguished…”
Prefaces
The work is a selection from the larger Chéngguān–Zōngmì work; no separate preface of its own.
Abstract
The bracket adopted here (1300 – 1620) reflects the Yuán-Míng period of the Jiāxīng canon’s compilation. The principal interest of the text is its preservation of the standard Huáyán-school list of seven patriarchs — 馬鳴 Aśvaghoṣa 馬鳴, 龍樹 Nāgārjuna 龍樹, 杜順 Dùshùn 杜順, 智儼 Zhìyǎn, 法藏 Fǎzàng, 澄觀 Chéngguān, 宗密 Zōngmì — though variations of the patriarch-list exist (the canonical five-patriarch list of Dùshùn through Zōngmì is much more common; the present seven-patriarch version adds the Indian patriarchs Aśvaghoṣa and Nāgārjuna at the head). The list is one of the principal documentary records of the Huáyán-school self-construction of its own intellectual genealogy in the late-imperial period.
The selection is preserved in the Jiāxīng canon (J / Jiāxīng zàng 嘉興藏, vol. 15, B005).
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language translation located.
- Gregory, Peter N. Tsung-mi and the Sinification of Buddhism. Princeton University Press, 1991 — for the seven-patriarch genealogy.
- Hamar, Imre, ed. Reflecting Mirrors (2007).
Other points of interest
- The seven-patriarch genealogy with Aśvaghoṣa and Nāgārjuna at the head reflects the Sòng-onwards Huáyán-school’s increasing tendency to integrate Indian Mahāyāna patriarchs into its lineage-claim, paralleling the analogous Chán-school twenty-eight Indian + six Chinese patriarch genealogy.