Dàfāngguǎng yuánjué xiūduōluó liǎoyì jīng lüèshū 大方廣圓覺修多羅了義經略疏
Abridged Commentary on the Sūtra of Perfect Enlightenment by 宗密 (Guīfēng Zōngmì, 述)
About the work
The Yuánjué jīng lüèshū 圓覺經略疏, in 4 (or 2 in the standard Taishō layout) fascicles plus prefaces, is the abbreviated, working-classroom version of 宗密 Guīfēng Zōngmì’s (780–841) much larger Yuánjué jīng dàshū 圓覺經大疏 (KR6i0555). It is the principal medieval commentary on the Yuánjué jīng (KR6i0551) and the form in which the sūtra has been read in the Sòng, Míng, and Qīng exegetical tradition. In place of the encyclopedic doxographical apparatus of the Dàshū, the Lüèshū gives a compressed, line-by-line gloss that retains the essential doctrinal architecture (the threefold guān 觀 of śamatha / samāpatti / chán; the threefold classification of the twelve dialogue-chapters into Buddha’s preaching of cause, practice, and result), the doctrinal cross-reference apparatus (with the Dàshèng qǐxìn lùn, Lèngyán jīng, Huáyán jīng, and Wéishí lùn), but strips away the discursive doxographical excurses and the long-quoted parallel passages.
Abstract
The Lüèshū is preserved in two distinct recensions in the canon: (a) the present text, T39 no. 1795, here given as a 4-fascicle abbreviated commentary; and (b) an annotated form Lüèshū zhù 略疏注 with its own attached prefaces, also in T39, often subdivided differently across editions. The Korean Tripiṭaka (高麗藏) preserves the abbreviated form as 4 fascicles; the Míng-Northern (北明) edition reduces it to 2 in some sub-editions. The work was composed in the years following Zōngmì’s awakening on the Yuánjué jīng under his master Suízhōu 道圓 Dàoyuán (after 807 CE), and most likely circulated in close-to-final form by the time of Zōngmì’s residency at the Guīfēng-shān monastery in the late 820s. The standard preface is by Zōngmì’s lay disciple 裴休 Péi Xiū 裴休 (787–860), who served as the principal lay supporter and preface-writer for the entire Zōngmì commentary corpus. Péi’s preface is one of the most significant late-Táng prose statements on the relationship between Chán and doctrinal Buddhism, and it survives as an independent literary classic. The Lüèshū is the form most commonly cited in subsequent literature; even Zōngmì’s own later expansion-glosses (notably the KR6i0559 Yuánjué jīng lüèshū chāo) are arranged as line-by-line subcommentary on the Lüèshū, not on the Dàshū.
The Lüèshū is the basis of all Sòng, Yuán, Míng, and Qīng Yuánjué jīng commentaries, including those of 觀復 Guānfù (KR6i0560), 清遠 Qīngyuǎn (KR6i0561), 行霆 Xíngtíng (KR6i0563), 周琪 Zhōuqí (KR6i0564), 元粹 Yuáncuì (KR6i0568), 德清 Déqīng (Hānshān, KR6i0569), 通潤 Tōngrùn (KR6i0570), and 通理 Dátiān Tōnglǐ (KR6i0574).
Structural Division
CANWWW lists the parent sūtra as the related text: KR6i0551 Dàfāngguǎng yuánjué xiūduōluó liǎoyì jīng (T17n0842).
Translations and research
- Gregory, Peter N. Tsung-mi and the Sinification of Buddhism. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991. — Foundational English-language study; treats the Lüèshū and Dàshū in detail.
- Kamata Shigeo 鎌田茂雄. Shūmitsu kyōgaku no shisō shi-teki kenkyū 宗密教学の思想史的研究. Tokyo: Tōkyō Daigaku Shuppankai, 1975. — The standard Japanese monograph on Zōngmì’s exegesis.
- Yoshizu Yoshihide 吉津宜英. Kegonzen no shisōshi-teki kenkyū 華厳禅の思想史的研究. Tokyo: Daitō shuppansha, 1985. — On the Huáyán-Chán synthesis carried by the Yuánjué commentaries.
Other points of interest
The Lüèshū preface by Péi Xiū opens with the celebrated formulation 教也者，諸佛菩薩所留之言；禪也者，諸佛菩薩所傳之心 (“‘Teaching’ is the words bequeathed by the Buddhas and bodhisattvas; ‘Chán’ is the mind transmitted by the Buddhas and bodhisattvas”), which became Zōngmì’s most-quoted slogan and the foundation of the integrative jiàochán yīzhì 教禪一致 program.