Jìngmíng jīng jíjiě Guānzhōng shū 淨名經集解關中疏
Guānzhōng Collected-Explanations Commentary on the Vimalakīrti Sūtra by 道液 Dàoyè (撰)
About the work
The Jìngmíng jīng jíjiě Guānzhōng shū (T2777) is a two-fascicle commentary on Kumārajīva’s Vimalakīrti (KR6i0076 = T475) by the Tang Cháng’ān monk 道液 Dàoyè (also written 道掖). The title’s Guānzhōng 關中 (“within the passes” — i.e., Cháng’ān region) signals the regional commentarial tradition; jíjiě 集解 (“collected explanations”) indicates that the work is a digest gathering interpretations from earlier commentators (僧肇, 淨影慧遠, 吉藏, 窺基, etc.).
Prefaces
The text opens directly with the commentary’s analytical framework. Dàoyè’s preface — referenced in KR6i0094 (T2775, Wéimó shū shìqián xiǎo xù chāo) — set out the work’s purpose as a unified Cháng’ān-tradition reading.
Abstract
Dàoyè (also written 道掖 in some witnesses) was a monk of mid-Tang Cháng’ān whose commentarial work survives only at Dunhuang. The Jíjiě Guānzhōng shū is a representative of the Guānzhōng commentarial style — synthetic, drawing on multiple earlier traditions, organized for monastic teaching. The work was authoritative enough to generate the sub-commentaries KR6i0094 (T2775) and KR6i0097 (T2778, the Jìngmíng jīng Guānzhōng shìchāo).
The Tang dating (ca. 700–750 CE) is established on the work’s reception by the slightly later sub-commentaries and on paleographic grounds. Dàoyè’s place in the broader Tang Vimalakīrti exegetical tradition is significant for showing how a regional Cháng’ān synthesis emerged alongside the major sectarian commentaries of Tiantai (智顗) and Cí’ēn (窺基).
Translations and research
- Pelliot, Paul. Inventaire sommaire des manuscrits chinois. Paris, 1908.
- Sun Xiushen 孫修身. Dunhuang Foxue lunji 敦煌佛學論集. Lanzhou: Gansu renmin chubanshe, 1990 — Dunhuang Vimalakīrti commentaries.