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大日經疏妙印鈔口傳

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Text ID
KR6j0664
Date
1308–1352
Dynasty
日本

Dàrì jīng shū miàoyìn chāo kǒuchuán 大日經疏妙印鈔口傳

Oral Transmissions of the Wondrous-Seal Notes on the MahāvairocanaSūtra Commentary (Jp. Dainichikyō sho myōinshō kuden) by 宥範 (Yūhan, 撰)

About the work

A ten-fascicle oral-transmission supplement to 宥範 Yūhan’s principal Dàrìjīng shū commentary, the Miàoyìn chāo (KR6j0663, T58n2213). Where the main Miàoyìn chāo presents the developed written exposition, the Kǒuchuán preserves the verbatim teacher-student question-and-answer exchanges that accompanied the lectures and that constitute the formal kuden 口傳 — the oral-transmission record. The text is structured as a series of numbered topics (大日, 成佛, 神變加持, 然此自證乃至心地, 現覺諸法乃至生死中人, 爾時世尊乃至以是蒙益, etc.) treated under a question-and-answer (問答) format.

Prefaces

The work opens with a topical-index of the headings covered (lines 8–17 of fascicle 1), followed by the first scholastic discussion under “General-title of the scripture — Sūtra 經總題 — Monk Yūhan records 沙門宥範記”:

“Question: ‘Title’ refers to the general designation of the whole work. Is there, then, a customary [discussion] regarding it? “Answer: There is a customary [discussion] of transmitted-reception 相承之習矣…”

The opening exchanges proceed through the topics of (1) why Mahāvairocana 大毘盧舍那 is so called, (2) the meaning of attaining-Buddhahood 成佛, (3) miraculous-power-empowerment 神變加持, etc., each treated by master-disciple dialectic.

The closing colophons (lines from the end of fascicle 10) record transmission:

  • “These four secret-seal transmissions descend from the High-Founder Master [Kūkai] through ten generations down to Bishop Toba 鳥羽僧正, succession recorded without difference. From Genkaku 嚴覺 down to Yūhan 宥範, seven generations have similarly received the master-disciple sealed-tally and direct-heir transmission without break, as here. The empowerment-power of the dharma-Buddha [makes] the membrane-pulse-transmission continuous, and the secret-help of the ancestral teachers has caused these four-seals’ deep secrets to be transmitted. — Right, this is the four secret-seal transmission. — Yūhan.”
  • Transmission notations: Eishō 13 = 1516 (Kōhan), Tenbun 9 = 1540 (Yūi 宥怡), Eiroku 9 = 1566 (Kaihen, age 59), Kanbun 2 = 1662 (Yūsan), Genroku 4 = 1691 (Dokuhō), Bunka 11 = 1814 (Gessui).

Abstract

The Kǒuchuán is the formal oral-tradition record corresponding to the written Miàoyìn chāo. In the Heian-and-Kamakura Shingon scholastic system, the written commentary and the oral transmission form complementary halves of the master-disciple curriculum: the written work supplies the systematic doctrinal exposition, while the oral transmission preserves the master’s secret (奧義) insights into difficult passages, the secret-seal (祕印) and secretmudrā (祕印) iconographies, the secret-mantra (祕咒) recitations, and the guarded (祕傳) ritual practices. The Kǒuchuán presents these in the original master-disciple question-and-answer (問答) format, preserving the spontaneous dynamism of the oral-instruction context.

A particularly important section (lines 670–678 of the source) records that Yūhan received from his master a set of “four secret-seal transmissions” 四箇祕印相承 descending in two lineage-streams: (a) from Kūkai through Bishop Toba in ten generations, and (b) from Genkaku 嚴覺 (the great 11th-century Onoryū transmitter) down through seven generations to Yūhan himself. This lineage-record is one of the most explicit medieval-Japanese statements of the Onoryū’s claim to the Esoteric secret-seal apparatus.

The text was composed in tandem with the main Miàoyìn chāo during Yūhan’s mature career — bracketed conservatively here as 1308–1352 (from the beginning of the Miàoyìn chāo’s second-stage composition to Yūhan’s death). The work survived through a remarkable chain of medieval-and-early-modern transcripts: Eishō 13 (1516), Tenbun 9 (1540), Eiroku 9 (1566), Kanbun 2 (1662), Genroku 4 (1691), and Bunka 11 (1814) — the latter being one of the latest Edo-Buddhist transmission datings.

Translations and research

No substantial secondary literature located.

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