Huáyán jīng hǎi yìn dào chǎng chàn yí 華嚴經海印道場懺儀
Repentance Ritual of the Ocean-Seal Bodhi-Maṇḍa of the Huáyán Scripture by 一行慧覺 (Yīxíng Huìjué, 依經錄), 普瑞 (Pǔruì, 補註), 讀徹 (Dúchè, 參閱), 木增 (Mùzēng, 訂正), 正止 (Zhèngzhǐ, 治定)
About the work
The Huáyán jīng hǎi yìn dào chǎng chàn yí in 42 fascicles is one of the most extensively transmitted Buddhist liturgical works in the Chinese tradition — a Buddhist chàn yí 懺儀 (“repentance ritual”) manual structured around the hǎi yìn dào chǎng (“ocean-seal bodhi-maṇḍa”) setting of the [[KR6e0010|Avataṃsaka]]. The work has a complex composite authorship spanning seven centuries: originally compiled in the Tang by 一行慧覺 Yīxíng Huìjué (依經錄 / “compiled following the sūtra”), supplemented by 普瑞 Pǔruì in the Sòng (補註 / “supplementary annotation”), and given its definitive late-Míng recension through three further editorial layers (讀徹 Dúchè’s cān yuè / collation; 木增 Mùzēng’s dìng zhèng / corrections; 正止 Zhèngzhǐ’s zhì dìng / final establishment).
Prefaces
No formal preface; the title-line preserves the multi-layer attribution.
Abstract
The bracket adopted here (700 – 1644) reflects the maximum window from the original Tang compilation to the late-Míng final recension. The work is one of the most extensively used liturgical manuals in late-imperial Chinese Buddhist monastic practice, performing the huá yán chàn (“Huáyán repentance”) ritual — a multi-day monastic devotional service organised around the cosmology of the seven-place / nine-assembly Avataṃsaka preaching. The 42-fascicle scope reflects the elaborate liturgical-cosmological architecture of the ritual.
The work is preserved in the Manji Xù zàng jīng (X1470) collection. The Naxi chieftain Mùzēng’s role in the late-Míng editorial work is one of the principal documentary records of non-Han Chinese Buddhist patronage in the Yúnnán region.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language translation located.
- Stevenson, Daniel B. “The T’ien-t’ai Four Forms of Samadhi and Late North-South Dynasties, Sui, and Early T’ang Buddhist Devotionalism,” PhD dissertation, Columbia University, 1987 — for context on Buddhist chàn yí tradition.
- Yifa, ven. The Origins of Buddhist Monastic Codes in China. Honolulu: UHP, 2002.
Other points of interest
- The composite authorship across seven centuries makes the Hǎi yìn dào chǎng chàn yí one of the most extensively transmitted Buddhist works, with each editorial layer leaving its mark on the received text.
- 木增 Mùzēng’s role as a Naxi (non-Han Chinese) Buddhist patron is one of the few attestations in the Buddhist canon of non-Han Buddhist editorial activity in late-imperial China.