Léngqié jīng xīnyìn 楞伽經心印
Mind-Seal of the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra commentary by 圅昰 (Hánshì, 疏)
About the work
X334 in eight fascicles is the principal Cáodòng-school 曹洞宗 Chán commentary on the four-fascicle Guṇabhadra 求那䟦陀羅 translation of the Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra ([[KR6i0327|Léngqiéābáduōluó bǎo jīng 楞伽阿跋多羅寶經]] / T670), composed by the late-Míng / early-Qīng Cáodòng master 圅昰 (Tiānrán Hánshì 天然圅昰, 1608–1685) of Léifēng 雷峯 in Pānyú 番禺. The title-line of fasc. 2 in the Xuzangjing witness reads “曹洞三十四世博山三世雷峯沙門釋圅昰疏” — “commentary by the Cáodòng-school monk Hánshì of Léifēng, thirty-fourth generation [in Cáodòng], third generation [in the Bóshān 博山 sub-lineage]”— and identifies the Dharma-heirs 今無 and 今覞 as proofreaders (較). The work pairs a hierarchical kēwén 科文 outline (preserved at the head of fasc. 1) with a dense paragraph-by-paragraph commentary in the high-Chán philosophical register.
Abstract
The Léngqié jīng xīnyìn belongs to the great wave of Chán Laṅkāvatāra exegesis that flourished in the late-Míng / early-Qīng period as Chán masters reasserted the Laṅkāvatāra as a foundational zōngjīng 宗經 of the Bodhidharma tradition (cf. the better-known [[KR6i0349|Guān Léngqié jīng jì 觀楞伽經記]] by 德清 / Hānshān Déqīng, 1546–1623, and [[KR6i0345|Léngqié bǔyí 楞伽補遺]] by 智旭 / Ǒuyì Zhìxù, 1599–1655). 圅昰 himself stood third in succession from the celebrated late-Míng Cáodòng restorationist 元來 / Wúyì Yuánlái 無異元來 (1575–1630) of Bóshān Mountain in Jiāngxī, hence the “third-generation Bóshān” identifier. The commentary structures the four-fascicle Laṅkāvatāra under a tripartite xùzhèngliútōng 序正流通 outline (with the parent omitting liútōng, hence only two main divisions) and works through the sūtra’s classic doctrines — the eight consciousnesses (八識), the five dharmas (五法 — name, mark, false-imagination, right-knowledge, suchness), the three self-natures (三自性 — parikalpita, paratantra, pariniṣpanna), the two non-selves (二無我), and the Tathāgatagarbha (如來藏) — under headings like “establishing the eight consciousnesses to display perfect-and-true buddha-mind” (顯八識因果邪正以顯聖智自覺) and “displaying the Tathāgatagarbha as transcending the foolish, the heretical, and the verbal-imaginal” (示如來藏超過愚外妄想言說). 圅昰’s most distinctive contribution is the alignment of the Laṅkāvatāra’s eight-consciousness teaching with the Cáodòng-school wǔwèi 五位 dialectic of the conventional and the absolute. The work was likely completed in the second half of 圅昰’s career at Léifēng (the 1660s–1680s); since no internal date is preserved, the bracket given here covers his post-tonsure productive years (1640–1685).
The textual base is the four-fascicle Guṇabhadra version (T670 = KR6i0327); the commentary does, however, frequently cite the seven-fascicle Bodhiruci Wèi 魏 translation 入楞伽經 (T671) and the ten-fascicle Śikṣānanda Táng 唐 translation 大乘入楞伽經 (T672) for clarification (“唐譯云” interlinear glosses).
Translations and research
- Eichman, Jennifer. A Late Sixteenth-Century Chinese Buddhist Fellowship: Spiritual Ambitions, Intellectual Debates, and Epistolary Connections. Leiden: Brill, 2016 (covers the literati-Chán background).
- Wu Jiang. Enlightenment in Dispute: The Reinvention of Chan Buddhism in Seventeenth-Century China. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. The central study of late-Míng / early-Qīng Chán, including the Bóshān–Léifēng Cáodòng lineage to which 圅昰 belonged.
- Tiānrán Hánshì chánshī yǔlù 天然函昰禪師語錄 (X1438) provides primary biographical and doctrinal context for the commentator.
No Western-language translation located.
Other points of interest
The proofreaders named in the title-line — 今無 (Jīnwú, 1633–1681) and 今覞 (Jīnyào, dates uncertain) — are themselves prominent Léifēng monks, the former eventually becoming abbot of Léifēng monastery and a poet of repute. Their named role here (較 jiào, “to collate / proofread”) locates the work within the close circle of Tiānrán Hánshì’s most senior dharma-heirs.