Yuánjué jīng jùshì zhèngbái 圓覺經句釋正白
Phrase-by-Phrase Explication and Plain Reading of the Sūtra of Perfect Enlightenment by 弘麗 (Luófēng Hónglì, 著)
About the work
A 2-fascicle commentary on the Yuánjué jīng (KR6i0551) by the early-Qīng Cáodòng-school chánshī 弘麗 Luófēng Hónglì 羅峰弘麗 (active 1640–1680), of the Rìqīnshān 日親山 monastic seat in Sháozhōu 韶州 (modern Sháoguān 韶關, Guǎngdōng). The title jùshì zhèngbái — “phrase-by-phrase explication and plain reading” — announces the commentary’s twofold method: (a) jùshì 句釋, a granular phrase-level exegesis that breaks each line of the sūtra into its constituent grammatical and doctrinal units; followed by (b) zhèngbái 正白, a “plain-language declaration” that gives the meaning of the line in straightforward Chinese without specialised vocabulary. The work is therefore in two voices throughout: technical and explanatory.
Abstract
Hónglì was a dharma-heir of 智誾 Xuěguān Zhìyín in the Cáodòng (Sōtō) lineage and a close associate of the prominent late-Míng / early-Qīng vinaya-cum-Chán revivalist 弘贊 Zàishēn Hóngzàn (1611–1685). The commentary is part of the Sháozhōu Cáodòng-school monastic-publishing program of the early Qīng period, which produced a substantial commentarial output across major Mahāyāna sūtras (the Heart Sūtra, the Yuánjué jīng, the Lèngyán jīng) for use in the Cáodòng monastic curriculum.
The work has no surviving autograph preface fixing its date, and Hónglì’s lifedates are not preserved in standard reference works. The active period 1640–1680 reflects the conventionally attested span of his teaching career on Rìqīnshān; the commentary is bracketed within that period. The commentary is unusually accessible by Cáodòng-school standards, with the zhèngbái layer making it usable by educated lay readers as well as monastic students. It is a substantial Cáodòng-school complement to the late-Míng Línjì-tradition commentaries of 德清 Hānshān (KR6i0569) and 通潤 Tōngrùn (KR6i0570).
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
Other points of interest
The bipartite jùshì zhèngbái commentarial method represents an early-Qīng formal innovation in Buddhist exegesis: the explicit separation of philological-technical and plain-explanatory layers, each addressed to a different reading audience within the same printed page. The format had antecedents in SòngYuán precedents but reaches its characteristic mature form in early-Qīng Cáodòng-school productions like the present work.