Jīn shī zǐ zhāng yún jiān lèi jiě 金師子章雲間類解
Categorical Explication of the Treatise on the Golden Lion, with Cloud-Inserted Comments by 法藏 (Fǎzàng, 撰) and 淨源 (Jìngyuán, 述)
About the work
The Jīn shī zǐ zhāng 金師子章 — the Treatise on the Golden Lion — is the famous short text by 法藏 Fǎzàng that uses the imagery of the imperial Jīn shī zǐ (Golden Lion) to illustrate the doctrines of xìngqǐ 性起 (nature-arising), yī duō xiāngróng 一多相容 (mutual containment of one and many), and the Six Characteristics. Tradition holds that Fǎzàng presented the lecture at the imperial court of Empress 武則天 Wǔ Zétiān, using the gilded lion-statue at the palace gate as his illustrative material — making the work one of the most theatrically presented and best-remembered of all Tang Huáyán-school doctrinal expositions.
This particular text (T1880) is the Sòng-period Yún jiān lèi jiě 雲間類解 — the “categorical explication” with “cloud-inserted comments” by 淨源 Jìngyuán (1011–1088). In 1 fascicle, it provides Jìngyuán’s systematic Sòng-period commentary on Fǎzàng’s brief but doctrinally dense original text.
Prefaces
No formal preface in this version.
Abstract
The original Jīn shī zǐ zhāng by Fǎzàng dates to the period 690 – 712 — most plausibly to the period c. 700 when Fǎzàng’s lectures at Wǔ Zétiān’s court were at their height. The Sòng commentary by Jìngyuán is conventionally datable to 1067 – 1088, the period of Jìngyuán’s mature editorial activity at the Huìyīnsì 慧因寺 in Hángzhōu 杭州. The bracket adopted here (1067 – 1088) reflects the dating of the Sòng commentarial layer.
The Jīn shī zǐ zhāng itself is the most accessible of all Fǎzàng’s writings — a brief illustrative-philosophical exposition that uses concrete imagery to elucidate the abstract doctrines of mature Huáyán metaphysics. It became a standard introductory text in the East Asian Buddhist curriculum from the Tang onwards, and is the most widely translated single work of the Tang Huáyán school in modern scholarship.
The Taishō text (T1880) is established on the standard apparatus.
Translations and research
- Cook, Francis H. Hua-yen Buddhism: The Jewel Net of Indra. Pennsylvania State University Press, 1977 — includes English translation of the Jīn shī zǐ zhāng.
- Chan, Wing-tsit. A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy. Princeton University Press, 1963 — includes a partial translation.
- de Bary, Wm. Theodore et al. Sources of Chinese Tradition, vol. 1, 2nd ed. Columbia University Press, 1999 — includes a translation.
- Williams, Paul. Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations. Routledge, 1989 — substantial discussion.
- Hamar, Imre, ed. Reflecting Mirrors (2007).
Other points of interest
- The Jīn shī zǐ zhāng — as Fǎzàng’s most famous work and the most accessible introduction to mature Huáyán metaphysics — has been the principal vehicle through which the Huáyán doctrine has entered modern Western Mahāyāna studies; the Cook translation (1977) is the standard English-language version.
- The hagiographic image of Fǎzàng pointing to the imperial gilded lion to illustrate his doctrine is one of the most enduring images of Tang Buddhism in the East Asian cultural memory.