Wéimó jīng shū jì 維摩經疏記
Records on the Vimalakīrti Commentary by 湛然 Zhànrán (述)
About the work
The Wéimó jīng shū jì (X0340) is a three-fascicle sub-commentary by 湛然 Zhànrán (711–782 CE) on the Wéimó jīng wén shū by 智顗 Zhīyǐ (KR6i0099 = X0338). It is the Tiantai jì 記 (record) genre — extended notes that gloss the master’s shū commentary point by point. Like its parent text, the Shū jì was lost in China and preserved in Japan, returning to the Chinese canon via the Xuzangjing.
Prefaces
The text opens with a Kè Jìngmíng shū jì xù 刻淨名疏記序 (“Preface to the Carving of the Pure-Name Commentary Records”), an Edo-period editorial preface explaining: “Zhīyǐ’s Vimalakīrti commentary is comparable in scale to the Three [Major] Commentaries (Sānbù 三部 = the Făhuá xuányì, Făhuá wén jù, and Móhē zhǐguān). For each of those Zhànrán composed a jì, just as for the Five Classics there are Zhèngyì 正義. But the jì on the three are extensive while the jì on the Vimalakīrti is more abridged…”
Abstract
This is the standard Tiantai sub-commentary on Zhīyǐ’s long-form Wéimó jīng wén shū, by Zhànrán the sixth Tiantai patriarch and the chief restorer of the Tiantai tradition. Its function in the Tiantai exegetical apparatus parallels Zhànrán’s Făhuá wén jù jì (T1719) and Făhuá xuányì shìqiān (T1717) — each is a jì (record-style sub-commentary) on a Zhīyǐ master-text. The Vimalakīrti jì is shorter than the others because (the Edo preface explains) Zhīyǐ’s Wén shū was already a finished work intended for direct private reading by Prince Yáng Guǎng, whereas the other three were lecture-records requiring more interpretive expansion.
The text was lost in China after the Sòng and recovered from Japanese transmission. Zhànrán’s working dates are 711–782 CE; this Jì was composed in the latter half of his career, ca. 760–782 CE, after his completion of the major Făhuá jì-works.
Translations and research
- Penkower, Linda. “T’ien-t’ai during the T’ang Dynasty: Chan-jan and the Sinification of Buddhism.” PhD dissertation, Columbia University, 1993.
- Hurvitz, Leon. Chih-i. Bruxelles, 1962.