Wéimó shū shìqián xiǎo xù chāo 維摩疏釋前小序抄
Excerpts Explaining the Small Preface to the Vimalakīrti Commentary (anonymous Dunhuang manuscript)
About the work
The Wéimó shū shìqián xiǎo xù chāo (T2775) is a one-fascicle anonymous Dunhuang manuscript that excerpts and explicates a “small preface” (小序) to a Vimalakīrti commentary. The Taishō header cross-references No. 2777 — the Jìngmíng jīng jíjiě Guānzhōng shū by 道液 Dàoyè (KR6i0096). This suggests T2775 is a sub-commentary or excerpt-collection on Dàoyè’s preface.
Prefaces
The text begins as an excerpt-format gloss on the preface text it explicates.
Abstract
The text is part of the Dunhuang Vimalakīrti commentary cluster and specifically belongs to the Guānzhōng 關中 commentarial tradition associated with 道液 Dàoyè (KR6i0096–KR6i0097). The Guānzhōng (Wèi River valley around Cháng’ān) was the heartland of the early Tang Buddhist scholarly establishment, and several texts in this cluster derive from that region’s commentarial culture. The “small preface” being explicated is Dàoyè’s preface to his Jìngmíng jīng jíjiě — itself a digest commentary that brought together (集解 jíjiě) the major exegetical readings of the Vimalakīrti.
Translations and research
- Pelliot, Paul. Inventaire sommaire des manuscrits chinois. Paris, 1908.