Yuánjué jīng xīnjìng 圓覺經心鏡
Mind-Mirror on the Sūtra of Perfect Enlightenment by 智聰 (Zhìcōng, 述)
About the work
A 6-fascicle commentary on the Yuánjué jīng (KR6i0551) by the southern-Sòng monk 智聰 Zhìcōng 智聰, formerly abbot of the Chóngshàn Jiàosì 崇善教寺 on Mount Chìchéng 赤城山 at Tāizhōu 台州 (modern Línhǎi 臨海, Zhèjiāng). The work is structured as a chapter-by-chapter exegesis following the conventional twelve-bodhisattva organisation, with each chapter occupying a discrete section of the commentary. The framing image of the title — xīnjìng 心鏡, “mind-mirror” — is a Tiāntái-tradition figure for the discriminating intelligence that brings clarity to the doctrinal content of a scripture; consonant with this, Zhìcōng’s preface positions the work explicitly within the Tiāntái 台 lineage rather than the Huáyán 華嚴 reading represented by 宗密 Zōngmì.
Abstract
The autograph preface, preserved at the head of the work (X10 no. 254), is dated 皇宋寶慶丁亥夏六月立秋日 = the lìqiū 立秋 day of the sixth month of Bǎoqìng 3 (1227 CE), and signed qiánzhù Tāizhōu Chìchéngshān Chóngshàn jiàosì shì Zhìcōng 前住台州赤城山崇善教寺釋智聰. Zhìcōng describes himself as having “early ascended the Tāi-ridge” (蚤登台嶺) — i.e., having received early monastic training at Tiāntáishān — and as having taken up the Yuánjué jīng in maturity, after a careful comparative study of all the available commentaries (chiefly Zōngmì’s). The preface adopts a notably ecumenical tone: arguing that the orchids of doctrinal truth are not confined to the swamps of Chǔ, nor the jade-stones of insight to Mt Jīng — that is, that the Yuánjué is not the exclusive property of any single doctrinal tradition, and that the present commentary will draw freely on Tiāntái, Huáyán, and Chán materials in order to clarify the sūtra’s intent.
The work survives only through the Wànzì xùzàngjīng recension. It is one of the more independent-minded southern-Sòng commentaries on the sūtra, departing from the Zōngmì-Huáyán mainstream in favour of a Tiāntái-inflected reading; its structural emphasis on the èrshíwǔ dìnglún 二十五定輪 — the twenty-five permutations of the threefold guān (śamatha / samāpatti / chán) generated in the Bodhisattva Mighty-Virtue chapter — reflects this Tiāntái orientation.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
Other points of interest
The Tāizhōu Chìchéngshān region was a major Tiāntái centre throughout the southern Sòng; the Chóngshàn Jiàosì of which Zhìcōng had been abbot was a recognised Tiāntái doctrinal-teaching institution (jiàosì 教寺). His decision to write a Yuánjué commentary from a Tāi-tradition perspective, rather than the Huáyán perspective taken for granted in most contemporary commentaries, is an interesting datum for the history of southern-Sòng inter-school doctrinal exchange.