Yàoshī jīng zhíjiě 藥師經直解
Direct Explanation of the Medicine Master Sūtra by 靈耀 Língyào (撰)
About the work
The Yàoshī jīng zhíjiě is a one-fascicle commentary on Xuánzàng’s translation of the Yakuṣī sūtra (KR6i0048 = T450) by the late-Ming / early-Qīng Tiantai monk Língyào 靈耀 (靈耀) of the Gǔ Qīngliáng monastery 古清涼寺 in Zhèjiāng. It is a “direct” (zhíjiě 直解) reading of the sūtra that combines textual exegesis with Tiantai zhǐguān 止觀 contemplative analysis. The text was published in 1686 (Zhēnxiǎng 貞享 3, Bǐngyín 丙寅 — using the Japanese era name because the surviving xylograph was carved in Japan) with a foreword by the Japanese Vinaya master 慧堅戒山 Huìjiān Jièshān of the Húdōng Ānyǎng-lǜsì 湖東安養律寺.
Prefaces
The text opens with a Japanese carving-preface (Kè Yàoshī jīng zhíjiě xù 刻藥師經直解敘) signed by the Japanese Vinaya master 慧堅戒山 Huìjiān Jièshān and dated to Zhēnxiǎng 貞享 3 (= 1686 CE). Jièshān frames the Yakuṣī sūtra by quoting Vimalakīrti (“以一切眾生病是故我病” — “because all beings are sick, therefore I am sick”), positioning the Medicine Master scripture as the bodhisattva-medicine-scripture par excellence, then narrates Língyào’s life: a Zhèjiāng monk of Gǔ Qīngliáng 古清涼 (Wǔtáishān) lineage who applied Tiantai zhǐguān method to the sūtra (“消息乎止觀之場”). Jièshān adds his own marginal punctuation (tiāodiǎn qí páng 挑點其傍) and arranged the printing.
The second preface (No. 381-B) is by Língyào himself, who frames the commentary as a zhíjiě (direct, unmediated) reading rather than a fully scholastic gloss.
Abstract
Língyào 靈耀 (fl. mid- to late-17th century) is best known for this Tiantai-flavored Yakuṣī commentary. His zhíjiě method abandons heavy scholastic apparatus in favor of a clear, accessible exposition that integrates zhǐguān contemplation. The work belongs to the late-Ming / early-Qīng revival of Tiantai exegesis associated with figures like Yúqí Zhuānghóng 蕅益智旭 (1599–1655) and Cíyún Zūnshì 慈雲尊式. The commentary is significant for: (i) its synthesis of the Yakuṣī cult with Tiantai meditation, particularly the Móhē zhǐguān fourfold sìzhòng sānmèi 四種三昧; (ii) its accessible style, which made it widely circulated; (iii) its Japanese transmission and Edo printing, which testifies to seventeenth-century Sino-Japanese Buddhist scholarly exchange.
The Japanese preface dating (1686) places the printed edition; the original composition is somewhat earlier, in Língyào’s lifetime in mid-seventeenth-century Zhèjiāng. The author’s monastery, Gǔ Qīngliáng sì 古清涼寺, is located near Hángzhōu (not the famous Wǔtáishān Qīngliáng) and was a Tiantai center.
Translations and research
- Yoritomi Motohiro 頼富本宏. Yakushi shinkō 薬師信仰. Tokyo: Yūzankaku, 1986.
- Birnbaum, Raoul. The Healing Buddha. Shambhala, 1979.
Other points of interest
The Japanese reprinting of this commentary in 1686 is part of a broader movement in seventeenth-century Edo Buddhism to import contemporary Ming-Qīng Chinese commentarial works. The Vinaya-school Japanese editor 慧堅戒山 saw value in the Yakuṣī cycle for the Vinaya ordination context (the Bhaiṣajyaguru’s twelve vows of healing aligning with monastic ethical framing).