Jìngmíng xuán lùn 淨名玄論
Treatise on the Profound Meaning of [the Sūtra of] Pure Name [Vimalakīrti] by 吉藏 Jízàng (造)
About the work
The Jìngmíng xuán lùn (T1780) is an eight-fascicle treatise on the Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa-sūtra (KR6i0076 = T475) by the Sānlùn 三論 (Three-Treatise / Madhyamaka) master 吉藏 Jízàng (549–623 CE). It functions as a prolegomenon to the verse-by-verse commentary KR6i0084 Wéimó jīng yìshū (T1781). Jìngmíng 淨名 (“Pure Name”) is a Chinese semantic translation of Vimalakīrti (parallel to Xuánzàng’s later Wúgòuchēng 無垢稱). The Taishō header cross-references Nos. 475 and 1781.
Prefaces
The text opens directly with the doxographical exposition. No separate authorial preface survives in the Taishō witnesses.
Abstract
Jízàng was the systematizer and final great representative of the Sānlùn school, the Chinese Madhyamaka tradition descended from 鳩摩羅什 Kumārajīva via 僧肇 Sēngzhào and 法朗 Fǎlǎng. The Jìngmíng xuán lùn is one of three major Vimalakīrti texts by Jízàng (the others being KR6i0084 Wéimó jīng yìshū and the lost Wéimó luè shū). Together they constitute the most extensive Sānlùn-school engagement with the Vimalakīrti.
The Xuán lùn (a xuán-genre treatise rather than a verse-by-verse shū) addresses the Vimalakīrti’s philosophical core: the doctrine of non-duality (bùèr 不二), the bodhisattva upāya (skillful means), the relation of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa, and the bodhisattva’s stance toward bodhi. Jízàng deploys his characteristic liángbiǎn 兩遣 (refutation of both extremes) hermeneutic to argue that the Vimalakīrti’s teaching is the perfect Madhyamaka realization of prajñā.
Jízàng spent his late career at Yángzhōu (605–615 CE) under the Sui Jiāngdū 江都 establishment, before relocating to Cháng’ān at the start of the Tang. The Xuán lùn and Yìshū belong to this productive Yángzhōu period.
Translations and research
- Liu Ming-Wood. Madhyamaka Thought in China. Brill, 1994 — extensive treatment of Jízàng.
- Robinson, Richard H. Early Mādhyamika in India and China. Wisconsin, 1967.
- Chang, Yong (Sungtaek). The Doctrinal History of Three Treatise School.
- Chen, Hsun-Mei. “Jizang’s Profound Meaning of the Vimalakīrti Sutra.” PhD dissertation.