Píng fù gǔ jì 評復古記
Critical Discussion of the “Restoring the Ancient” Notes (alternative title: 扶焚薪 Fú fén xīn, “In Defence Against the Fén xīn”) by 希迪 (Xīdí, 錄)
About the work
This one-fascicle text is 希迪 Xīdí’s polemical response to 師會 Shīhuì’s [[KR6e0078|Fù gǔ jì 復古記]] (X998) and, by extension, to Shīhuì’s earlier [[KR6e0076|Fén xīn 焚薪]] (X996). The alternative title Fú fén xīn 扶焚薪 (“In Defence Against the Fén xīn”) makes explicit the polemical positioning: where Shīhuì had “burnt the firewood” of 道亭 Dàotíng’s earlier readings, Xīdí here “supports / defends” against Shīhuì’s own polemic.
Prefaces
The work opens directly with the title-line “評復古記(一名扶焚薪) / 希迪 謹錄” — “Critical Discussion of the Fù gǔ jì 復古記 (alternatively Fú fén xīn 扶焚薪). Respectfully recorded by Xīdí 希迪.”
Abstract
The work is conventionally datable to the period after Xīdí’s [[KR6e0079|Jí chéng jì 集成記]] of 1218 — i.e. to roughly the period 1218 – 1230 CE — when Xīdí, having established his synthetic reading of the Wǔ jiào zhāng 五教章 in the Jí chéng jì, turned to engage the rival Shīhuì commentary tradition critically. The bracket adopted here reflects this window. The work completes the cycle of Sòng Wǔ jiào zhāng commentary literature: Dàotíng → Shīhuì (Fén xīn and Fù gǔ jì) → Xīdí (Jí chéng jì and Píng fù gǔ jì) — five major commentaries in 130 years on a single 4-fascicle treatise, the most intensively studied work in Sòng Huáyán-school scholarship.
The work is preserved in the Manji Xù zàng jīng 續藏經 (X1000) collection.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language translation located.
- Yoshizu Yoshihide 吉津宜英. Kegon zen no shisōshi-teki kenkyū (1985) — substantial treatment of the entire Wǔ jiào zhāng commentary tradition.
Other points of interest
- The five-stage Sòng commentary tradition on the Wǔ jiào zhāng (Dàotíng → Shīhuì → 善熹 Shànxī → Xīdí, with Xīdí writing in two distinct registers) is one of the most thoroughly documented internal scholastic controversies in Chinese Buddhist intellectual history, and provides exceptional material for studying the dynamics of Sòng monastic-doctrinal debate.