Dàrì jīng zhùxīnpǐn shū sījì 大日經住心品疏私記
Private Notes on the Stages-of-Mind Chapter of the MahāvairocanaSūtra Commentary (Jp. Dainichikyō jūshin-bon sho shiki) by 曇寂 (Donjaku, 撰)
About the work
A 20-fascicle Edo-period scholastic sub-commentary on the Stages-of-Mind chapter 住心品 — the doctrinal first chapter of the Mahāvairocanasūtra — as treated in Yīxíng’s Dàrìjīng shū (KR6j0662, T39n1796), by the Edo-period Shingon scholar Donjaku 曇寂 (曇寂, 1674–1742). This work is the Edo counterpart to Saisen’s late-Heian Sījì on the same chapter (KR6j0665, T58n2215), and together with Donjaku’s other major works (the Vajraśekhara private notes KR6j0029 and his Mahāvairocanasūtra principal-teacher exposition) represents the systematic Edo-period Shingon scholastic revival of the foundational Esoteric commentary tradition.
Prefaces
The opening of fascicle 1 (lines 4–6) identifies the author and editor:
“Dàrì jīng zhùxīnpǐn shū sījì fascicle 1. “Monk Donjaku 曇寂, collected and recorded 集記. “Monk Dōkū 道空, added-removed-and-rectified 添刪治正.”
So the work was edited (添刪) by a second figure, Dōkū 道空, who supplemented and emended Donjaku’s original text. The opening doctrinal frame is then immediately addressed:
“In treating the one-scripture, theme-and-substance, there are three [analyses]: First, with the single-syllable a as the theme — for in fascicle 1, the beginning and end [of the commentary] all rest on this intention. Second, with the four-a, five-syllable approach as the theme: thus the commentary’s fascicles 11 and 13 say, ‘a-upper, a-upper-intensifier, am, aḥ. These four syllables are the proper theme-substance of this one scripture. All secret-treasury is born from this; this is the heart of Vairocana…‘”
The fascicle 9 closing colophon (lines 13130–13133 of the source text) preserves the detailed composition-and-revision history:
“Kyōhō 8 [享保八年], year-cycle Guǐmǎo [癸卯], summer 5th month, 26th day, [= 26 June 1723 CE] — Monk Donjaku. “Genbun 2 [元文二年], star-mansion Dīngsì [丁巳], spring 3rd month, 6th day [= 1737 CE], the heavy-revision was finished and the pen was laid down 重正治閣筆. “Hōreki 7 [寶暦七年], year-cycle Yǐchǒu, autumn 9th month, 2nd day [transcript-copy date, ca. 1745–1757 CE], at the Kyoto Enmei-in 京都延命院, the ācārya Zenjū 善住 copied [this] from the venerable autograph manuscript. — Junyō 順庸.”
The fascicle 10 opens (line 13136 onwards): “Monk Donjaku, composed 撰. — Stages-of-Mind chapter, first chapter, remainder.” The subsequent fascicles all bear the same “Monk Donjaku composed” header, signaling a unified authorial recension.
Abstract
The Sījì (Jp. shiki) — “private notes” — is the standard Japanese-Buddhist scholastic format for a continuous sub-commentary: the author works through the parent text passage by passage, recording his lectures, marginalia, and exegetical observations. Donjaku’s Sījì on the Stages-of-Mind chapter is encyclopedic in scope and synthesizes the entire medieval Japanese-Shingon scholastic tradition on the most doctrinally-foundational chapter of the Mahāvairocanasūtra.
His method is dense, citationally exhaustive, and doctrinally synthetic:
- He quotes Yīxíng’s commentary segment by segment;
- For each, he provides further exegesis drawing on the full Esoteric apparatus (the Six Great Elements, the Five Wisdoms, the Three Mysteries, the Ten Stages of Mind);
- He systematically cites the medieval Japanese commentaries: Saisen’s KR6j0665 (which provides the Heian Onoryū baseline), Yūhan’s KR6j0663 (the Miàoyìn chāo Onoryū tradition), the Tō-ji Sanbō KR6j0666 (the Yǎnào shāo), and Yūkai’s KR6j0668 (the late-Kōya orthodox systematization);
- He cross-references Kūkai’s foundational works as authoritative interpretive touchstones;
- He cross-references the parallel Mahāvairocanasūtra / Vajraśekhara literature, including his own commentary on the latter (KR6j0029, T61n2225).
The work proceeds chapter-by-chapter through Yīxíng’s first chapter (the Stages-of-Mind chapter 住心品), with 20 fascicles dedicated to this single chapter — a measure of how doctrinally-foundational Donjaku considered the Ten Stages of Mind exposition to be. After this opening chapter, Donjaku did not extend the Sījì to the remaining chapters of Yīxíng’s commentary; like Saisen before him, he treated only the foundational doctrinal first chapter.
Composition dates: The 1723 colophon (Kyōhō 8) marks the original drafting of fascicle 9; the 1737 colophon (Genbun 2) records the completion of a heavy-revision (重正治). The work was therefore drafted in the late 1710s through 1723, and revised through 1737. The conservative bracket of 1715–1737 captures the full known composition-and-revision span. The 1745+ Hōreki-era colophon records a Kyoto Enmei-in transcript by ācārya Zenjū 善住 and the monk Junyō 順庸 from Donjaku’s autograph — providing the immediate manuscript-recension that entered the Edo Shingon scholastic apparatus.
The editorial collaborator Dōkū 道空 — identified in the running header as the adder-remover-rectifier (添刪治正) — is the Shingon scholar who supplemented and emended Donjaku’s text after his master’s death, contributing to the work’s final canonical form. The 道空 figure here is the same Edo-period Shingon scholar otherwise known as a transmitter of Donjaku’s lineage.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
Links
- CBETA online: https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/T2219
- 曇寂 DILA
- Kanseki DB