Wéimó jīng wén shū 維摩經文疏
Textual Commentary on the Vimalakīrti Sūtra by 智顗 Zhīyǐ (撰)
About the work
The Wéimó jīng wén shū (X0338) is the original 28-fascicle long-form commentary on Kumārajīva’s Vimalakīrti (KR6i0076 = T475) by 智顗 Zhīyǐ (538–597 CE). It is the source of which 湛然 Zhànrán’s Wéimó jīng lüè shū (KR6i0081 = T1778) is the abridgment. Lost in China for centuries (extant only in Korean and Japanese transmissions), it was recovered and printed in Japan in the early Edo period and entered the Xuzangjing in the modern era.
Prefaces
The text opens with a Guǎngběn Jìngmíng jīng shū xù 廣本淨名經疏序 (“Preface to the Expanded Vimalakīrti Commentary”) — an Edo-period editorial preface narrating the recovery of the lost text. The preface notes that “the Wéimó jīng wén shū in 28 fascicles was originally written by Zhīyǐ for Prince Yáng Guǎng of the Sui (the future Sui Yángdì) and is the most authoritative work on the four-doctrine framework. After the Sòng, the text was lost in China; only fragments survived in Korea (海東 Hǎidōng) and Japan.” The preface continues that the Línglìng-school monk 智旭 Zhìxù (Ǒuyì Zhìxù 蕅益智旭, 1599–1655) and his student 中柱 Zhōngzhù saw the lost text in Japan and lamented its non-availability in China; the present (Edo) printing was accomplished by the Hieizan 比叡 monks 惠順 Huìshùn and others.
Abstract
The Wéimó jīng wén shū is one of Zhīyǐ’s three major Vimalakīrti works (with KR6i0080 Wéimó jīng xuán shū and the lost lüè shū). Composed around 593–595 CE for Prince Yáng Guǎng (later Sui Yángdì), it is a 28-fascicle line-by-line commentary far longer and more detailed than Zhànrán’s later abridged version (KR6i0081 = T1778). It is the source of Zhànrán’s abridgment.
The text was lost in China by the Sòng dynasty but transmitted to Korea and Japan, where it survived in monastic libraries. Recovered and printed at Mount Hiei in the early Edo period (probably late 17th to early 18th century), it eventually re-entered the Chinese canon via the Xuzangjing. This text and its recovery history are extremely important for the study of Tiantai exegesis: it preserves Zhīyǐ’s actual lecture-record before Zhànrán’s selective editing.
The catalog meta gives the dynasty as 隋, which is correct (Zhīyǐ died in 597); composition is firmly dated 593–597 by the Sōng Gāosēng zhuàn and Tiantai school records.
Translations and research
- Hurvitz, Leon. Chih-i: An Introduction to the Life and Ideas of a Chinese Buddhist Monk. Bruxelles, 1962.
- Donner, Neal, and Daniel B. Stevenson. The Great Calming and Contemplation. Honolulu, 1993.
- Penkower, Linda. “T’ien-t’ai during the T’ang Dynasty.” PhD dissertation.
Other points of interest
The recovery history of this text — lost in China, preserved in Korea and Japan, recovered through the early-modern global Sino-Japanese book trade — is itself one of the most striking episodes in East Asian textual history.