Dàrì jīng kāití 大日經開題
Introductory Exegesis on the Mahāvairocanasūtra (Jp. Dainichi-kyō kaidai) by 空海 (Kūkai, 撰)
About the work
The Dàrì jīng kāití 大日經開題 (Jp. Dainichi-kyō kaidai) is a commentary on the Mahāvairocanasūtra (KR6j0001, T18n0848) by Kūkai 空海 (空海, 774–835), the founder of the Japanese Shingon 真言 school. Strictly speaking, the title designates a set of seven distinct introductory expositions (開題, kāití / kaidai) by Kūkai — distinct compositions on the same scripture, evidently delivered as discourses on different occasions and preserved together. The Taishō (T58n2211) prints all seven recensions consecutively in a single textual block. Each kāití opens with a different programmatic catchphrase (e.g. 三密法要, 隱密漫荼羅, 法界淨心) by which the seven are conventionally distinguished. The genre is uniquely Japanese-Esoteric: an kāití is a doctrinal preface that presents the title’s hidden Esoteric meaning (mìyì 密義) before any verse-by-verse exegesis.
Abstract
The Dàrì jīng kāití is one of the principal extant doctrinal expositions on the Mahāvairocanasūtra by its most consequential East Asian interpreter. Kūkai (774–835) brought the Dàrìjīng shū of Yīxíng (T39n1796, KR6j0080) to Japan in 806 as part of his Esoteric corpus and thereafter taught the Dàrìjīng as the doctrinal core of the Garbhadhātu lineage of Shingon. The seven kāití comprise his sustained meditative-doctrinal exegesis of the sūtra’s title and its hidden Esoteric meaning — an Esoteric homiletical genre that became canonical in Japanese Shingon scholastic practice. Each opens with one of the title’s keywords (Dà 大 “Great”; Pílúzhēnà 毘盧遮那 “Vairocana”; chéngfó 成佛 “Becoming a Buddha”; shénbiàn 神變 “Supernormal Transformations”; jiāchí 加持 “Empowerment”; jīng 經 “Sūtra”) and unpacks its Esoteric significance via the “five wheels” 五輪, “six elements” 六大, a-ji-kan 阿字觀, and the threefold formula bodhi-cause / compassion-root / expedient-end of the sūtra’s first chapter.
The dating of the seven kāití cannot be precisely fixed; internal evidence suggests they were composed during Kūkai’s mature period at Tō-ji 東寺 and Mt. Kōya, between 815 and his death in 835. The compilation as a single textual unit (T2211) is post-Kūkai and reflects the arrangement of his collected works at Tō-ji.
The kāití is one of three of Kūkai’s principal expositions on the Mahāvairocanasūtra, alongside the Hìmìmántúluó shíjùxīnlùn 秘密漫荼羅十住心論 (his great Treatise on the Ten Levels of Mind) and the Hìmìmántúluójiào fùfǎzhuàn 秘密漫荼羅教付法傳 (the lineage history). The kāití is the most accessible and homiletical of the three; it has been a foundational text of Shingon scholastic training since the Heian period.
Translations and research
- Kōbō-Daishi Kūkai zenshū 弘法大師空海全集. Tokyo: Chikuma Shobō, 1983–1986. — The standard Japanese critical edition of Kūkai’s collected works; the Dainichi-kyō kaidai is in vol. 4.
- Hakeda, Yoshito S. Kūkai: Major Works. New York: Columbia UP, 1972. — Translates several of Kūkai’s principal works (not the kāití directly, but contextual material).
- Abé, Ryūichi. The Weaving of Mantra: Kūkai and the Construction of Esoteric Buddhist Discourse. New York: Columbia UP, 1999. — Substantial treatment of Kūkai’s exegesis of the Mahāvairocana-sūtra.
- Yamasaki Taikō 山崎泰廣. Shingon: Japanese Esoteric Buddhism. Boston: Shambhala, 1988. — General introduction with material on Kūkai’s interpretive work.
Other points of interest
The seven kāití are conventionally cited by the opening phrase of each (“三密法要 kāití”, “隱密漫荼羅 kāití”, etc.) — a Japanese Shingon textual-citation practice that has no exact Chinese equivalent. The text exemplifies the mìyì 密義 (Esoteric meaning) hermeneutic by which the same title is read at multiple semantic levels — exoteric, doctrinal, ritual, contemplative — with each level disclosing the next.