Yuánjué jīng jízhù 圓覺經集註
Collected Annotations on the Sūtra of Perfect Enlightenment by 元粹 (Yuáncuì, 述)
About the work
A 2-fascicle anthological commentary on the Yuánjué jīng (KR6i0551) compiled by the late-Sòng / early-Yuán Tiāntái master 元粹 Yuáncuì 元粹 (hào Gǔyún 古雲), styled in the work Tiáoshuǐ shāmén 苕水沙門. The work is in the standard jízhù 集註 (“collected annotations”) format: each lemma of the sūtra is followed by a curated selection of glosses drawn from the principal earlier commentaries — chiefly 宗密 Zōngmì’s KR6i0555 Dàshū and KR6i0553 Lüèshū, but also material from the southern-Sòng Lèijiě tradition (see KR6i0563) and Yuáncuì’s own brief connecting remarks (sīzhù 私註). The result is a compact, classroom-oriented guide to the sūtra suitable for the Tiāntái doctrinal curriculum.
Abstract
The autograph preface, preserved at the head of the work (X10 no. 257), is dated 時宋嘉定七年歲在甲戌九月九日 — i.e., the chóngyáng (9/9) day of Jiādìng 7 = 22 October 1214 CE (Sòng Níngzōng’s reign), and signed Tiáoshuǐ shāmén Yuáncuì 苕水沙門元粹. Yuáncuì was a senior dharma-disciple of the Tiāntái master 北峰宗印 Běifēng Zōngyìn (1148–1213) and a native of Tiáoxī 苕溪 (Húzhōu); his other major work is the KR6d0170 Sìjiào yí bèishì 四教儀備釋, a Yuán-period subcommentary on Dìguān’s Tiāntái sìjiào yí.
The Jízhù is the principal Tiāntái-tradition commentary on the Yuánjué jīng and forms a counterpart to the Huáyán-tradition exegetical apparatus represented by the 宗密 Zōngmì corpus. Yuáncuì’s reading domesticates the sūtra into the Tiāntái doctrinal framework: the threefold guān of the Bodhisattva Mighty-Virtue chapter is read in close alignment with the Tiāntái zhǐguān 止觀 doctrine, and the twelve-bodhisattva structure is mapped onto the Tiāntái fourfold-and-fivefold doctrinal classification.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
Other points of interest
The 1214 dating makes the Jízhù close in time to 清遠 Qīngyuǎn’s KR6i0561 Yuánjué jīng shūchāo suíwén yàojiě (1213) and to 孝宗帝 Sòng Xiàozōng’s KR6i0562 Yùzhù Yuánjué jīng (1183). The early-thirteenth century thus emerges from the Xùzàng record as the high-point of southern-Sòng Yuánjué commentary production, with three major works completed within thirty years.