Huáyán jīng yì hǎi bǎi mén 華嚴經義海百門
The Hundred Gates of the Ocean of Meaning of the Huáyán Scripture by 法藏 (Fǎzàng, 述)
About the work
The Yì hǎi bǎi mén “Hundred Gates of the Ocean of Meaning” of 法藏 Fǎzàng is a 1-fascicle synthetic study of the doctrinal content of the [[KR6e0001|Huáyán jīng]] organised around 100 doctrinal gates (門) — i.e. doctrinal entry-points or topics. The “ocean of meaning” (yì hǎi 義海) metaphor signals the work’s claim to comprehensive coverage of the Avataṃsaka’s doctrinal substance.
Prefaces
No formal preface.
Abstract
The work is conventionally datable to 法藏 Fǎzàng’s mature period, c. 670 – 712 CE. The bracket adopted here reflects this window. The 100-gate format — like the 50-question format of [[KR6e0083|Zhìyǎn’s Wǔshí yào wèn dá]] — is a numerologically-organised pedagogical structure: the 100 gates correspond conceptually to the doubled-fifty bhūmi-stage progression of the bodhisattva path or to other 100-fold numerological structures in the Avataṃsaka’s cosmology.
The work was well-known in subsequent East Asian Buddhist scholasticism and was the basis of 宗密 Zōngmì’s later commentarial expansion (referenced in [[KR6e0090|Wàng jìn huán yuán guān 妄盡還源觀]] and other works).
The Taishō text (T1875) is established on the standard apparatus.
Translations and research
- No complete Western-language translation located.
- Cook, Francis H. Hua-yen Buddhism: The Jewel Net of Indra. Pennsylvania State University Press, 1977.
- Hamar, Imre, ed. Reflecting Mirrors (2007).
- Sakamoto Yukio 坂本幸男. Kegon kyōgaku no kenkyū (1956).
Other points of interest
- The 100-gate format makes the Yì hǎi bǎi mén — like its master Zhìyǎn’s [[KR6e0083|50-question Wèn dá]] — a numerologically-structured pedagogical companion to Fǎzàng’s larger commentaries.