Jīnguāngmíng jīng zhàojiě 金光明經照解
Illuminating Explanation of the Sūtra of Golden Light composed by 宗曉 (Zōngxiǎo, 述)
About the work
X361 is 宗曉’s two-fascicle Southern-Sòng zhàojiě 照解 (“illuminating explanation”) of the Suvarṇaprabhāsa, divided into ten sections of which the ninth contains the celebrated cycle of thirty-six question-and-answer (三十六問答) — a catechetical schema designed for liturgical-pedagogical use rather than for technical doctrinal exposition.
Prefaces
The Taishō preserves a Genroku 元祿 8 (1695) Japanese editorial preface by Rúhǎi 如海, abbot of the Fǎlúnjiǎngsì 法輪講寺 on Mt Miàoyún 玅雲山 in Iihaka 飯高 of Shimōsa Province (總之下州), explaining how he came to add Japanese reading-marks (倭訓) to a fresh printing: a bookseller had brought him the kōngmíngshū (i.e. T663 commentary) of “Shízhī Xiǎogōng” (= 宗曉) — divided into ten sections explicating the sūtra in full, with the ninth section’s thirty-six questions and answers, “though they only explicate the guāngmíng doctrine, in fact reach to all the sūtras.” Rūhǎi notes that earlier works of 宗曉 (“Sìmíng Jiàoxíng lù”, “Lèbāng wénlèi”, “Shīshí tōnglǎn”, etc.) had already been printed in Japan; the present block-printing was meant to ensure that 宗曉’s intent “should not perish”.
Abstract
The work is one of three major contributions 宗曉 made to the late-Sòng Tiāntái scholastic establishment, alongside the [[KR6d0186|Sìmíng zūnzhě jiàoxíng lù 四明尊者教行錄]] (T1937) and the Lèbāng wénlèi 樂邦文類 (T1969A). X361 is more catechetical than the conventional Tiāntái commentaries of T1784 / T1786 and was apparently aimed at a less specialist audience; the thirty-six question-and-answer format suggests use in lecture or oral examination. Date bracket follows 宗曉’s mature productive period at Sìmíng (1180–1214). The transmission to Japan and the 1695 reprint are testimony to the influence the work continued to exercise on Tendai scholasticism into the Edo period.
Related canonical texts: parent sūtra KR6i0301 (金光明經 / T663).
Translations and research
No book-length English translation located.