Huáyán jīng guān mài yì jì 華嚴經關脈義記
Notes on the Meaning of the Critical Articulations of the Huáyán Scripture by 法藏 (Fǎzàng, 撰)
About the work
The Guānmài yì jì 關脈義記 in 1 fascicle is 法藏 Fǎzàng’s treatise on the guānmài 關脈 — the “critical articulations” or “key joints” — of the [[KR6e0001|Avataṃsaka jīng]]‘s doctrinal structure. The metaphor — guān 關 “passes/critical points” + mài 脈 “veins/arteries” — figures the sūtra’s doctrinal structure as an organic system in which certain key articulations connect and circulate the doctrinal lifeblood of the whole. The work treats those key points: the structural junctures between chapters, the doctrinal pivots, and the metaphysical thresholds of the sūtra.
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. Together with the closely-related anonymous [[KR6e0096|Huáyán guānmài yì jì]] (T1879b — paired in the Taishō with T1879a as 1879b), the work constitutes a genre of Tang Huáyán guānmài literature: brief structural-doctrinal handbooks for working through the Avataṃsaka’s organisation.
The Taishō text (T1879a) is established on the standard apparatus.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language translation located.
- Hamar, Imre, ed. Reflecting Mirrors (2007).
Other points of interest
- The guānmài metaphor — the sūtra as an organic living body with critical articulations — is one of the most distinctive Tang Buddhist literary metaphors for the Avataṃsaka’s textual organisation, and reflects the school’s organic-cosmological vision of the dharma-realm.