Yúlánpén jīng shū xīnjì 盂蘭盆經疏新記
New Sub-Commentary on the Commentary on the Yúlánpén Sūtra sub-commentary by 元照 (Yuánzhào, 記) on the 宗密 (Zōngmì, 疏) commentary
About the work
X372 in two fascicles is the Xīnjì 新記 (“New Sub-commentary”) on [[KR6i0365|宗密’s Yúlánpén jīng shū]] (T1792) by the Northern-Sòng Lǜzōng 律宗 (Vinaya school) revivalist 元照 (Yuánzhào, 1048–1116) of Língzhīsì 靈芝寺 in Hángzhōu — the same monk whose commentaries on Pure-Land scripture are catalogued elsewhere in the Kanripo corpus (e.g. KR6f0077 on the Visualization-of-Amitāyus Sūtra). The witness is signed “錢唐沙門元照述” (“composed by the monk Yuánzhào of Qiántáng”). 元照’s preface frames the work as a polemical correction of the earlier Sòng Yúlánpén commentaries by Bìbǎo Zhīhán 碧寶尊者 (Stone-wall School) and Gūshān Zhìyuán 孤山智圓 (964–1027) — explicitly setting itself in dialogue with their earlier jì 記.
Abstract
元照’s preface frames the structural relationship of the texts — “行者所以趣道，經者所以詮行，疏者所以通經，記者所以解疏” (“Practice is what one walks toward the Way with, scripture is what articulates practice, commentary is what penetrates scripture, and sub-commentary is what explicates commentary”): a self-conscious meta-commentarial chain in which the Xīnjì explicates 宗密’s 疏 which in turn penetrates the Yúlánpén jīng. The polemical edge of the work — “叔世浮侈，正教支離” (“In this latter age, things grow inflated and falsifying, and the true teaching is splintered”) — turns particularly against what 元照 sees as the philological laxity of 孤山智圓’s Xīnchāo 新鈔 (which had eclipsed the earlier Yányìnjì 嚴隱記 of Bìbǎo Zhīhán). The Xīnjì aims at strict philological accuracy, full citation of canonical and lexicographic sources, and a Vinaya-school-aligned reading that emphasizes the precision of the seventh-month pravāraṇā (僧自恣) ritual context. Composition window: 元照’s mature Língzhīsì period, post-1080 to his death in 1116.
Parent texts (in chain): KR6i0364 (T685, the Yúlánpén jīng itself) → KR6i0365 (T1792, Zōngmì’s Shū) → this Xīnjì. Companion / rival Sòng sub-commentaries: KR6i0368 (普觀 Huìgǔ tōngjīn jì), KR6i0369 (遇榮 Kē), KR6i0370 (遇榮 Xiàohéng chāo), KR6i0371 (日新 Yúyì).
Translations and research
- Teiser, Stephen F. The Ghost Festival in Medieval China. Princeton, 1988.
- Welter, Albert. Monks, Rulers, and Literati: The Political Ascendancy of Chan Buddhism. Oxford, 2006 (background on the Sòng commentarial environment).
- Getz, Daniel. “T’ien-t’ai Pure Land Societies and the Creation of the Pure Land Patriarchate”. Buddhism in the Sung (Honolulu, 1999), 477–523. (Treats Yuánzhào’s broader commentarial enterprise.)
No standalone Western-language translation located.