Huáyán jīng nèi zhāng mén děng zá kǒngmù zhāng 華嚴經內章門等雜孔目章
Miscellaneous “Eye-of-Sieve” Treatise on the Inner Chapter-Gates etc. of the Huáyán Scripture by 智儼 (Zhìyǎn, 集 / compiled)
About the work
The Záyǔ kǒngmù zhāng (often abbreviated Kǒngmù zhāng 孔目章) in 4 fascicles is one of 智儼 Zhìyǎn’s three substantial extant works, alongside the [[KR6e0003|Sōuxuán jì]] and the [[KR6e0083|Wǔshí yào wèn dá]]. The unusual title — kǒngmù literally “sieve-eye/sieve-mesh” — refers to the work’s structural format: a collection of doctrinally important zhāng / “topic-treatments” (i.e. discrete short essays on specific doctrinal points) that, taken together, form a sieve through which the full doctrinal substance of the Avataṃsaka may be filtered. The 4-fascicle format thus accommodates a substantial corpus of independent doctrinal essays by Zhìyǎn on a wide range of Avataṃsaka-related topics.
Prefaces
The work has no separate preface; opens directly with title-line and the first topic-treatment.
Abstract
The work belongs to Zhìyǎn’s mature period, c. 627 – 668 CE; the bracket adopted here reflects this window. The doctrinal substance covers the full range of mature Huáyán-school topics: the Five Teachings (in their proto-form, before Fǎzàng’s mature articulation), the Six Characteristics, the cosmology of the seven places and eight assemblies, the Daśabhūmika, the doctrine of xìng qǐ, the question of the One Vehicle versus the Three Vehicles, the relation of the Avataṃsaka to the Lotus, the Mahāparinirvāṇa, and the tathāgatagarbha sūtras. Together, the Sōuxuán jì, the Wèn dá, and the Kǒngmù zhāng constitute the foundational doctrinal corpus of pre-Fǎzàng Huáyán scholarship.
The Taishō text (T1870) is established on a particularly rich apparatus including the Korean Tripiṭaka Koreana, the yuán 原 (original-block), jiǎ 甲, and an unidentified third Japanese witness (“unknown”).
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, 1976 — substantial treatment of the Kǒngmù zhāng.
- Hamar, Imre, ed. Reflecting Mirrors (2007).
- Kobayashi Jitsugen 小林實玄. Kegon-kyō kenkyū (1965).
Other points of interest
- The kǒngmù metaphor — “sieve-eye” — is itself a Chinese Buddhist literary innovation, used here for the first time as a structural-genre name for a collection of doctrinal zhāng. The metaphor became standard for similar collections in the Sòng-Yuán Buddhist commentary tradition.