Wéimó jīng xuán shū 維摩經玄疏
Profound Commentary on the Vimalakīrti Sūtra by 智顗 Zhīyǐ (撰)
About the work
The Wéimó jīng xuán shū (T1777) is a six-fascicle “profound commentary” (xuán shū 玄疏) by the Tiantai 天台 patriarch 智顗 Zhīyǐ (538–597 CE) on Kumārajīva’s translation of the Vimalakīrti (KR6i0076 = T475). It is structured around Tiantai’s signature wǔchóng xuányì 五重玄義 (five-layered profound meaning) hermeneutic — explaining the title, the doctrinal essence (體), the doctrinal zōng (school), the yòng (function), and the doctrinal classification (教相). The Taishō header cross-references Nos. 475 (the sūtra), 1778 (the lüèshū), and 1779 (Zhìyuán’s commentary).
Prefaces
The text opens directly with the xuán shū analytical framework. The colophon attributes the work to Zhīyǐ.
Abstract
This commentary belongs to Zhīyǐ’s late period — composed around 595–597 CE, in his last two years, after he had completed the Móhē zhǐguān 摩訶止觀 (594 CE). It is one of his major scholastic works and the foundational Tiantai commentary on the Vimalakīrti. The xuán shū genre — devoted to the “profound meaning” preceding the verse-by-verse exegesis — is a Tiantai signature that Zhīyǐ established for the Lotus, Vimalakīrti, Sukhāvatīvyūha, and Suvarṇaprabhāsa sūtras.
The accompanying detailed verse-by-verse commentary, the Wéimó jīng lüèshū 維摩經略疏 (KR6i0081 = T1778) in ten fascicles, was completed by Zhīyǐ’s student 湛然 Zhànrán on the basis of Zhīyǐ’s lectures. The two works (T1777 + T1778) form a complementary pair — the xuán shū providing the doctrinal architecture, the lüèshū providing the line-by-line exegesis. Together they represent the canonical Tiantai Vimalakīrti commentary.
The Xuán shū applies the Tiantai yīniàn sānqiān 一念三千 (three-thousand worlds in one thought) and sāndì yuánróng 三諦圓融 (perfect interfusion of the three truths) doctrines to the Vimalakīrti’s discourse on non-duality, producing a systematic Mahāyāna hermeneutic. The catalog meta dates Zhīyǐ to the Sui — he died 597 CE; the Xuán shū is firmly dated to 595–597 by the Sōng Gāosēng zhuàn 宋高僧傳 and the Tiāntái shānzhì 天台山志.
Translations and research
- Hurvitz, Leon. Chih-i: An Introduction to the Life and Ideas of a Chinese Buddhist Monk. Bruxelles, 1962 — magisterial biography of Zhīyǐ; sets context for T1777.
- Donner, Neal, and Daniel B. Stevenson. The Great Calming and Contemplation: A Study and Annotated Translation of the First Chapter of Chih-i’s Mo-ho chih-kuan. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 1993.
- Swanson, Paul L. Foundations of T’ien-T’ai Philosophy. Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press, 1989.
- Pi Chu-Lan. Chih-i’s Treatise on the Subtle Meaning of the Vimalakīrti Sūtra. PhD dissertation.