Bā dàrén jué jīng lüèjiě 八大人覺經略解
A Concise Explanation of the Sūtra of the Eight Great-Person Awakenings by 智旭 (Zhìxù = Ǒuyì Dàshī, 解)
About the work
A brief one-fascicle commentary on the Bā dàrén jué jīng 八大人覺經 (KR6i0476, T779) by the Míng dynasty Tiāntái-Pure Land master 智旭 (Zhìxù = Ǒuyì Dàshī, 1599–1655), one of the four great Buddhist masters of the late Míng. The work is preserved in the Manji Zoku-zōkyō (CBETA X37 No. 672).
Abstract
The Lüèjiě (“concise explanation”) is one of Zhìxù’s many shorter exegetical works — characteristic of his commentarial method, which combined doctrinal clarity with practical applicability. He expounds each of the eight awakenings of the Bā dàrén jué jīng in turn, drawing on his characteristic synthesis of Tiāntái doctrinal categories, Pure Land practical orientation, and Chán meditation-orientation. The work is brief — designed for the daily-recitation practitioner rather than the scholar — and forms one of the standard commentaries to the sūtra in the late-Míng and Qīng monastic curriculum.
Zhìxù’s interpretation foregrounds the Mahāyāna register of the sūtra (especially items 5–8, on the bodhisattva’s vow and upāya) and reads the work as a digest of the bodhisattva path suitable for the lay practitioner as well as the monk. He pairs the Bā dàrén jué jīng with Sìshí’èrzhāng jīng 四十二章經 (KR6i0483) and Yíjiào jīng 遺教經 (KR6i0571) in the canonical “Three Sūtras of the Buddha-Patriarchs” (佛祖三經) grouping that became standard for monastic basic instruction in late-imperial China. He also produced a parallel commentary on the Sìshí’èrzhāng jīng (KR6i0486).
Translations and research
No standalone Western translation located. For Zhìxù’s life and works see:
- Shih, Heng-ching. The Syncretism of Ch’an and Pure Land Buddhism. New York: Peter Lang, 1992. (On Zhìxù’s late-Míng synthesis.)
- Beverley Foulks McGuire. Living Karma: The Religious Practices of Ouyi Zhixu. New York: Columbia University Press, 2014.