Huáyán yī chéng fǎ jiè tú 華嚴一乘法界圖
Diagram of the One-Vehicle Dharma-Realm of the Huáyán [Sūtra] by 義湘 (Ŭisang, 撰)
About the work
The Fǎ jiè tú — universally known in the Korean Hwaeom tradition as the Hwaeom Beopgyedo 華嚴法界圖 — is the masterwork of 義湘 Ŭisang (625–702), the founder of the Korean Hwaeom school. In 1 fascicle, the Fǎ jiè tú is structurally extraordinary: a 210-character verse on the doctrine of the one-vehicle dharma-realm of the Avataṃsaka, arranged in the form of a seal-diagram (yìn tú 印圖) — a square 30×7 grid in which each character can be read continuously around the diagram from beginning to end, the whole tracing a complex labyrinthine path that begins and ends at the centre with the character fǎ 法 (“Dharma”). The diagram is therefore both a poem and a contemplative maṇḍala, embodying in its formal structure the doctrine of the non-dual perfection of the dharma-realm that the verse expounds.
Prefaces
No formal preface.
Abstract
The work is conventionally datable to the period 668 – 670 CE — i.e. shortly after 智儼 Zhìyǎn’s death (668) and before Ŭisang’s return to Silla (670/671). Tradition holds that Ŭisang composed the Fǎ jiè tú at Zhìxiāngsì 至相寺 in the immediate wake of his master’s death, as a culminating tribute to the Huáyán doctrine he had received. The bracket adopted here reflects this dating.
The doctrinal substance of the verse — the doctrine of mutual interpenetration, the Six Characteristics, the bodhisattva path-stages, and the cosmology of the Avataṃsaka — is fully articulated in the 210 characters, making the work one of the most concentrated expressions of mature Tang Huáyán doctrine in any East Asian language. The geometric form of the diagram became the foundational image of the Korean Hwaeom school and was reproduced in countless devotional artifacts, calligraphic works, and monastic-instructional materials throughout the Goryeo and Joseon periods.
The work has been the subject of a particularly substantial commentarial tradition: subsequent commentaries — including [[KR6e0110|the Korean Fǎ jiè tú jì 法界圖記]] (T1887B) and a long lineage of Hwaeom commentaries by 均如 Kyunyŏ and others — collectively constitute one of the most distinctive bodies of East Asian Buddhist literature.
The Taishō text (T1887A) is established on the standard apparatus.
Translations and research
- Lee, Sang-Hyun. Imje Manhae and Eight Eminent Korean Zen Masters. Seoul: Bulkwang Publishing, 2008 — for the Korean Buddhist context.
- Park, Sung Bae. “The Hwaeom Worldview of Ŭisang.” Hwaeom Studies (Korean Hwaeom Studies Association journal).
- Lee, Peter H., ed. Sourcebook of Korean Civilization, vol. 1. Columbia University Press, 1993 — includes the Fǎ jiè tú.
- Hamar, Imre, ed. Reflecting Mirrors (2007) — chapters on Korean Hwaeom.
- Buswell, Robert E., Jr. The Korean Approach to Zen. Honolulu: UHP, 1983 — context for Korean Hwaeom-Sŏn synthesis.
- Odin, Steve. Process Metaphysics and Hua-Yen Buddhism. SUNY Press, 1982 — process-philosophical reading; touches on Ŭisang.
Other points of interest
- The Fǎ jiè tú is one of the most distinctive single works of the entire East Asian Buddhist tradition: a 210-character verse arranged in maṇḍala-form, simultaneously poem, philosophical treatise, and contemplative diagram. Modern Korean Buddhist art continues to reproduce the Beopgyedo in calligraphic form as a foundational image of Korean Hwaeom.
- The “seal-diagram” 印圖 form was Ŭisang’s distinctive contribution to Buddhist literary form; it has no precise precedent in Tang Chinese Buddhist literature and remained essentially a Korean Hwaeom innovation.