Lèngyán jīng yìshū shìyào chāo 楞嚴經義疏釋要鈔
Sub-commentary Elucidating the Essentials of the Annotated Commentary on the Śūraṃgamasūtra by 懷遠 (錄)
About the work
A six-fascicle (6卷) Northern-Sòng sub-commentary (chāo 鈔) on Chángshuǐ Zǐxuán’s Yìshū (KR6j0673). The author is Chángshuǐ Huáiyuǎn 長水懷遠 懷遠, a personal disciple of Zǐxuán. The work is preserved as X11 no. 267 in the Xùzàngjīng.
Prefaces
The author’s self-preface explains the work’s genesis: “Chángshuǐ dàshī, in expounding the Lèngyán jīng, called his work Yìshū and used a single tradition’s essential meanings to dissolve the sūtra. Although it has circulated for some time, no chāo (sub-commentary) has been composed. One day my fellow-disciples bowed before me and requested that I compose a chāo to assist the shū. I told them: what the late master composed, both as text and as meaning, is brilliant as the sun and moon — what need is there for any record? But two and three of them said: ‘Of the master, [the meaning] is illuminated; of us, it is yet obscured.’ Reluctantly I assembled this six-fascicle chāo. As it elucidates the essential meanings of the shū, I title it Shìyào …” (長水大師釋楞嚴經曰義疏者蓋直以一家要義而消經也流通雖久而鈔闕焉一日門弟子稽首於余請製鈔以輔疏余告之曰先師所作若文若義煥猶日月何俟于記二三子曰於師雖明於某猶昧乃不得巳集成鈔文六卷既釋疏之要義故以釋要命題云耳).
The preface is dated the 15th day of the 10th month of jiāyòu xīnchǒu = 1061 CE (時鉅宋四葉嘉祐辛丑十月望日序).
Abstract
The work is the principal Sòng sub-commentary supportive of Zǐxuán’s reading, providing extended explanations of the Yìshū’s technical HuáyánChán doctrinal vocabulary and clarifying citations to Zōngmì 宗密, Fǎzàng 法藏, and the Awakening of Faith. Together with KR6j0676 (Sītǎn’s Jízhù) and the parent KR6j0673, it forms the core of the Sòng HuáyánChán reading-tradition of the Lèngyánjīng, against which the later Tiāntái huìjiě tradition (from KR6j0689 onward) and the late-Míng Zhèngmài shū tradition (KR6j0683 of 真鑑) define themselves polemically.
The dating is precise: 1061 CE.
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language secondary literature located. For the parent commentary’s place in Sòng Buddhist scholarship, see the bibliography at KR6j0673.