Jīngāngdǐng jīng jìshì 金剛頂經偈釋
Verse-Explication of the Vajraśekhara-sūtra (Jp. Kongōchō-gyō geshaku) by 賴尊 (Raison, 撰)
About the work
A short verse-explication (jìshì 偈釋, “explication of the gāthās”) of the Vajraśekhara-sūtra (KR6j0024, T18n0865) by the Japanese Esoteric scholar Raison 賴尊 (賴尊). The text focuses specifically on the verse-passages of the Vajraśekhara — the gāthās (頌) embedded in the prose narrative that articulate the principal doctrinal content — providing line-by-line Esoteric exegesis.
Abstract
The Jìshì genre is a sub-category of Buddhist commentary devoted specifically to the verse-passages of a scripture, distinct from the full prose commentary (shū 疏). For the Vajraśekhara-sūtra, whose prose narrative is heavily punctuated with doctrinally-loaded gāthās (including the foundational verses on the pañcābhisaṃbodhi — the five-stage Vajradhātu attainment of Buddhahood), the verse-passages bear particular doctrinal weight, and Raison’s selective focus on these verses produces a focused doctrinal exegesis.
The composition dates and lifedates of Raison are uncertain; the text is conventionally placed in the late Heian to Kamakura period (12th–13th c.) based on the manuscript tradition and stylistic features. The text is one of the medium-length Heian-Kamakura Japanese commentaries on the Vajraśekhara.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.