Yúlánpén jīng xīnshū 盂蘭盆經新疏
New Commentary on the Yúlánpén Sūtra commentary by 智旭 (Zhìxù, 疏)
About the work
X377 in one fascicle is the late-Míng “new commentary” on [[KR6i0364|the Yúlánpén jīng 盂蘭盆經]] (T685) by Ǒuyì Zhìxù 蕅益智旭 (1599–1655), one of the Four Great Masters of late-Míng Buddhism (with Hānshān Déqīng, Zǐbǎi Zhēnkě, and Yúnqī Zhūhóng). The witness is signed “菩薩沙彌古吳智旭新疏” (“a new commentary by the bodhisattva-novice Zhìxù of Old Wú”) with proofreader (cāndìng 叅訂) 道昉 of Wēnlíng 溫陵.
Abstract
智旭’s prefatory five-fold xuányì 玄義 (“five mystical-meaning categories”) opens: “此經以法供為名，自性三寶為體，孝慈為宗，拔苦與樂為用，大乘為教相” — “this sūtra takes Dharma-offering as its name, the three-treasures-of-self-nature as its substance, filial-compassion as its tenet, the relief-of-suffering-and-conferral-of-joy as its function, and the great vehicle as its teaching-mode.” This Tiāntái 天台-style five-fold analysis — adapted from Zhìyǐ’s standard jīngtí wǔzhòng 經題五重 framework — distinguishes 智旭’s Xīnshū sharply from [[KR6i0365|宗密’s Shū]] (which had used a HuáyánChán framework) and from the Sòng jì sub-commentary tradition. The “new” of “Xīnshū” is therefore programmatic: the work intends to correct and supersede 宗密’s frame in favour of a Tiāntái doctrinal reading.
The exegesis is dense, philologically rigorous, and consistently soteriologically oriented around the “self-nature three jewels” (zìxìng sānbǎo) — a standard late-Míng synthesis of Tiāntái doctrine with Pure Land and Chán practice. 智旭 also corrects what he sees as 宗密’s textual missteps in the parent sūtra. Composition window: 智旭’s middle to late commentarial period at Línglóngzōngsì 靈龍宗寺 and Wēnlíng, c. 1631–1655.
Parent sūtra: KR6i0364 (T685). Other commentaries: KR6i0365 (Zōngmì T1792), Sòng cluster KR6i0367–KR6i0371, Qīng KR6i0373–KR6i0374.
Translations and research
- Shengyan 聖嚴. Mìngmò Zhōngguó fójiào zhī yánjiū 明末中國佛教之研究. Tokyo: Sankibō Busshorin, 1975. The standard monograph on late-Míng Buddhism, with a chapter on 智旭’s commentarial output.
- Eichman, Jennifer. A Late Sixteenth-Century Chinese Buddhist Fellowship. Brill, 2016.
- Wu Jiang. Enlightenment in Dispute: The Reinvention of Chan Buddhism in Seventeenth-Century China. Oxford, 2008.
- Teiser, Stephen F. The Ghost Festival in Medieval China. Princeton, 1988.
No standalone English translation of the Xīnshū located.