Léngqié jīng xuányì 楞伽經玄義
Profound Meaning of the Sūtra of Laṅkā composed by 智旭 (Zhìxù / Ǒuyì, 撰述)
About the work
X328 in one fascicle is 智旭 (Ǒuyì Zhìxù, 1599–1655)‘s xuányì on [[KR6i0327|Léngqiéābáduōluó bǎo jīng 楞伽阿跋多羅寶經]] (T670). The work is paired with X329 (the yìshū) — together constituting 智旭’s mature Laṅkāvatāra commentary in the Tiāntái commentarial pair-genre of xuányì + wénjù / yìshū.
Abstract
The Taishō / Xuzangjing witness preserves the head-line: 支那藕益沙門 釋智旭 撰述 (“composed by the Chinese Ǒu-yì bhikṣu Shì Zhìxù”). Date bracket follows 智旭’s late productive period at Língfēngsì 靈峯寺 (1635–1655). The opening of the work captures the doctrinal programme tightly: “the sage’s Self-Awakening Wisdom (自覺聖智), the Mind of First-Truth (第一義心), is not communicated by names and forms; how could it be entered through speculation? Depending on defilement-and-purity, [the sūtra] divides the five dharmas; dharma by dharma is fundamentally true. By delusion-and-awakening, [it] discriminates the three natures; nature by nature is essentially without nature. From the differentiation of substance-and-function in delusion, the eight kinds of consciousness are established — but consciousness is like a sky-flower. Where understanding manifests partial-and-perfect principle, the twofold no-self is named — but [no-]self is like the rabbit’s horn. Therefore: all Buddha-speech transmits only this Mind; all Buddha-Mind seals only this speech.”
This is a classic statement of 智旭’s integrative doctrinal position: Yogācāra (the eight-consciousness scheme), Madhyamaka (the analogies of sky-flower and rabbit’s horn for the unreality of conventional designations), Tathāgatagarbha (the zìjué shèngzhì / Self-Awakening Wisdom), and Chán-school (mind-seal) all read together through the sūtra’s own structure. As a programmatic xuányì it shapes the reading of the parent sūtra in X329 and beyond.
Related canonical texts: parent sūtra KR6i0327 (楞伽阿跋多羅寶經 / T670); paired commentary KR6i0346 (楞伽經義疏 / X329).
Translations and research
- Shèngyán 聖嚴. Mìngmò zhōngguó fójiào zhī yánjiū 明末中國佛教之研究. Taipei: Dōngchū chūbǎnshè, 1988. The standard study of 智旭 and the late-Míng synthesis.
- Tokiwa Gishin 常盤義伸. Ryōgakyō no kenkyū. Tokyo: Daitō, 1976.
No book-length English translation located.