Huáyán wǔ jiào zhǐ guān 華嚴五教止觀
Cessation-and-Insight of the Five Teachings of the Huáyán [Sūtra] by 杜順 (Dùshùn, 說 / spoken)
About the work
The Huáyán wǔ jiào zhǐ guān is the founding doctrinal text traditionally attributed to 杜順 Dùshùn (557–640), the first patriarch of the Chinese Huáyán school. In 1 fascicle, it presents the doctrine of zhǐguān (止觀, śamatha-vipaśyanā / cessation-and-insight) as it is configured for each of the Five Teachings (五教) — the doxographical hierarchy that 法藏 Fǎzàng would later canonise in his [[KR6e0074|Wǔ jiào zhāng 五教章]]. The work thus stands as the early outline of Huáyán doxographical structure that Fǎzàng would systematise some decades later.
Prefaces
The work has no separate preface; the title-line attributes it to “杜順說” — “spoken by Dùshùn.”
Abstract
The bracket adopted here (580 – 640) reflects 杜順 Dùshùn’s mature life. The traditional ascription to Dùshùn is sometimes questioned by modern scholarship (Gimello 1976; Hamar 2007), which has noted that the doctrinal apparatus — particularly the Five Teachings schema — appears more Táng-period than late-Suí. The Five-Teachings doxography in its mature form is canonically associated with Fǎzàng (cf. T1866), and the present work’s relation to Fǎzàng’s later, more systematic articulation is debated. One plausible reading is that the present text preserves Dùshùn’s embryonic sketch of a doxographical schema that his disciples (智儼 Zhìyǎn, then Fǎzàng) would later develop and canonise. The traditional attribution — accepted by 宗密 Zōngmì and the later Huáyán-school tradition — remains the working assumption in most secondary scholarship.
The work is preserved in the Taishō (T1867) on the Korean Tripiṭaka Koreana and yuán 原 (original-block) witnesses.
Translations and research
- No complete Western-language translation located.
- Gimello, Robert M. Chih-yen (602–668) and the Foundations of Hua-yen Buddhism. Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1976. — Discusses the attribution and doctrinal placement.
- Hamar, Imre, ed. Reflecting Mirrors (2007).
- Cook, Francis H. Hua-yen Buddhism: The Jewel Net of Indra. Pennsylvania State University Press, 1977.
- Sakamoto Yukio 坂本幸男. Kegon kyōgaku no kenkyū (1956).
- Kobayashi Jitsugen 小林實玄. Kegon-kyō kenkyū (1965).
Other points of interest
- The traditional attribution of this work and of the Fǎjiè guānmén 法界觀門 (preserved in 宗密 Zōngmì’s commentary T1884) to 杜順 Dùshùn established him as the literary founder of the Huáyán school in the eyes of the later tradition; modern scholarship is more cautious about the specifically authorial claims but accepts Dùshùn’s place as the spiritual founder of the school.