Dàshèng mìyán jīng shū 大乘密嚴經疏
Commentary on the Mahāyāna Sūtra of the Densely-Adorned [Buddhaland] commentary by 法藏 (Fǎzàng, 撰)
About the work
X368 in three fascicles is the principal Tang Chinese commentary on the Ghanavyūha-sūtra, attributed in the Xuzangjing witness to the great Huáyán (華嚴) systematizer 法藏 / Fǎzàng (643–712). The commentary follows the chapter structure of [[KR6i0359|地婆訶羅’s Dàshèng mìyán jīng 大乘密嚴經]] (T681) — the earlier of the two Chinese versions — and treats the Yogācāra-Tathāgatagarbha doctrinal core (ālayavijñāna, three self-natures, amalavijñāna, womb-of-the-tathāgata) of the parent sūtra as a seamless extension of Huáyán-school philosophical reading. The witness opens with a kēwén 科文 outline and the parenthetical note “卷第一(但逸此卷)” — “fascicle 1 (only this fascicle is missing)” — indicating the first fascicle is lost; what survives is fascicles 2 and 3 plus the original outline.
Abstract
The attribution to 法藏 is internally consistent with the commentary’s hexadic Huáyán-style doctrinal classifications and its philological precision in citing both Sanskrit-derived terms and the Yogācāra commentarial corpus. 法藏 would have written the commentary on the Divākara version (T681, completed 676–688) — composed sometime after 680 (allowing a few years’ circulation of the parent sūtra) and before 法藏’s death in 712. The work matters because it provides the only sustained Tang Chinese-language commentary on the Ghanavyūhasūtra, a key bridge text between Yogācāra and Tathāgatagarbha doctrine. The commentary reads the Ghanavyūha buddhaland not in tantric / esoteric register (as one might in the Amoghavajra version T682) but in the classical Mahāyāna yīshèng 一乘 / one-vehicle frame typical of 法藏’s Huáyán synthesis.
The first-fascicle loss removes the commentary on chapter 1 (Mìyánhuì pǐn 密嚴會品 — the assembly chapter and nidāna-frame); what survives covers the doctrinal interior of the sūtra, including the eight consciousnesses, the amalavijñāna doctrine, and the buddhaland descriptions. The commentary is also a key witness for 法藏’s engagement with Yogācāra terminology beyond his better-known Huáyán-internal works (his Wǔjiào zhāng 五教章 / KR6e0035 etc.). Composition window: 680–712.
Parent sūtra: KR6i0359 (T681). Alternate version of parent: KR6i0360 (T682).
Translations and research
- Cook, Francis H. Hua-yen Buddhism: The Jewel Net of Indra. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1977 (foundational on 法藏’s system).
- Liu Ming-Wood. Madhyamaka Thought in China. Leiden: Brill, 1994 (background on 法藏’s use of Yogācāra-Madhyamaka).
- Hamar, Imre (ed.). Reflecting Mirrors: Perspectives on Huayan Buddhism. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2007.
No standalone Western-language study of this commentary located.