Huáyán jīng tán xuán jué zé 華嚴經談玄抉擇
Selections of the Profound Discourses on the Huáyán Scripture by 鮮演 (Xiānyǎn, 述)
About the work
This 5-fascicle text by 鮮演 Xiānyǎn (1049–1118), the senior Liáo-dynasty Buddhist scholar, is a substantial study of the xuán tán 玄談 (“profound discourses” — i.e. the doctrinal-preliminary essays) sections of 澄觀 Chéngguān’s [[KR6e0011|Huáyán jīng shū]] (T1735). The work is one of the principal documents of Liáo-period (Khitan) Buddhist scholarship and one of the few extant Liáo Buddhist commentaries on a Tang Huáyán-school work.
Prefaces
No formal preface.
Abstract
The work is conventionally datable to 鮮演 Xiānyǎn’s mature period, c. 1080 – 1118 CE; the bracket adopted here reflects this window. The Liáo Buddhist establishment was strongly committed to the Tang Huáyán doctrinal heritage; Xiānyǎn’s work documents the school’s continuing northern-Chinese transmission under Khitan rule, in parallel with but separate from the Northern-Sòng Huìyīnsì Huáyán-revival project of 淨源 Jìngyuán.
The work is preserved in the Manji Xù zàng jīng (X235) collection.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language translation located.
- Hamar, Imre, ed. Reflecting Mirrors (2007).
- Yoshizu Yoshihide 吉津宜英. Kegon zen no shisōshi-teki kenkyū (1985).
Other points of interest
- Liáo Buddhist scholarship is much less well-preserved than that of the Northern Sòng or the Tang; the survival of Xiānyǎn’s substantial 5-fascicle work makes it one of the principal documents of the Liáo Huáyán tradition and an important counterpoint to the parallel Northern-Sòng tradition.