Lèngyán jīng hélùn 楞嚴經合論
Combined Treatise on the Śūraṃgamasūtra by 德洪 (論), 正受 (會合)
About the work
A ten-fascicle (10卷) combined-treatise (hélùn 合論) on the Śūraṃgamasūtra (KR6j0118) by the late-Northern-Sòng / early-Southern-Sòng Línjì-Huánglóng Chán literatus-monk Jìyīn Hùihóng 寂音慧洪 德洪 (also known as Déhóng Juéfàn 德洪覺範, 1071–1128), as compiled-and-edited (huìhé 會合) by the Southern-Sòng Línjì master Léi-ān Zhèngshòu 雷庵正受 正受 (1147–1209). Preserved as X12 no. 272 in the Xùzàngjīng.
Prefaces
The work opens with a substantial preface that frames the Lèngyán’s doctrinal-meditative target as the identity of rúláizàngxìng 如來藏性 (“Tathāgata-storehouse-nature”) with zhòngshēng zhī běnyuán 眾生之本源 (“the original wellspring of sentient beings”): “The Śūraṃgamasūtra’s being passed down in the world points to the buddhas’ *Tathāgatagarbha-*nature and to the original-source of sentient beings, with no distinction at all. Only by exhausting the false-mind does the true-seeing spontaneously manifest. Therefore Qìngxǐ [Ānanda] of his own accord raised the question from the midst of confusion-and-awakening; the Buddha responded from the midst of speechlessness. Jade rolling, pearl returning, the holy words spread out … hence the seven-fold examination, the eight-fold reversion, the four cause-and-field-of-perception, the two upside-down—these are all secret indicators … the secret meaning is shown by the five aggregates, six entrances, twelve abodes, eighteen realms, twenty-five-fold completeness; the seven destinies, three increasing-progressions, four bright admonitions, the fifty types of demon — all of these decisively show its purport, vast as the bright sun in the sky to those who do not see. Thus broad-knowledge persons make sub-commentary, make annotation; nothing is not lucidly resolved. But arriving at its inner sanctum, then hóngzǐ (red-and-purple) confuse zhū (vermilion); the reverse …” (首楞嚴經之垂於世也蓋指如來之藏性與眾生之本源了無差別但能窮盡妄心自然發露真見故慶喜自無迷悟中而立問善逝於無言說中而對詶玉轉珠回聖言彌布繇是有七徵八還四緣塵二顛倒之密示五陰六入十二處十八界二十五圓通之詳辯七趣三增進四明誨諸位洎五十種魔之顯決其旨洞達若大明麗天而昧者不覩是以宏識之士為之箋為之疏靡不渙釋然至其堂奧則紅紫亂朱反 …).
Abstract
Hùihóng / Déhóng (1071–1128) is one of the most important late-Northern-Sòng Buddhist literary figures: a LínjìHuánglóng 臨濟黃龍 Chán monk and prolific essayist-historian whose major works include the Línjiān lù 林間錄 (a critical Chán anecdote-history), the Chánlín sēngbǎo zhuàn 禪林僧寶傳 (a major Sòng Chán hagiography), and the Shímén wénzì chán 石門文字禪 (“Stone-Gate Literary Chán”) — a programmatic collection promoting the legitimacy of a wénzì chán 文字禪 (“literary Chán”) tradition against the bùlì wénzì 不立文字 (“no-establishment-of-words”) rhetoric of the dominant Línjì line. The Lèngyánjīng hélùn belongs to his late-life Buddhist exegetical productivity, drawing on the full Sòng Lèngyán commentarial corpus then available (Zǐxuán’s Yìshū, Huáiyuǎn’s Shìyào chāo, Jièhuán’s Yàojiě) and synthesizing them through his own wénzì chán literary lens.
The work was subsequently edited and collated (huìhé 會合) by Léiān Zhèngshòu 雷庵正受 (1147–1209), a Línjì master in the Yángqí 楊岐 lineage descended through Zhuóān Déguāng 拙庵德光. Zhèngshòu is independently celebrated as the compiler of the Jiātài pǔdēng lù 嘉泰普燈錄 (KR6q0010) of 1204, the fifth canonical Sòng Chán lamp-record. His editorial-collation work on the Hélùn is plausibly contemporaneous with the Pǔdēnglù compilation period (1190s–1200s), when he was systematically redacting Sòng Chán literary heritage.
The dating bracket is therefore 1100 – 1209 — Hùihóng’s productive period as authorial source (c. 1100s–1128) and Zhèngshòu’s editorial period (closing in 1209 with his death).
Translations and research
- George A. Keyworth III, “Transmitting the Lamp of Learning in Classical Chán Buddhism: Juéfàn Huìhóng (1071–1128) and Literary Chán” (PhD dissertation, UCLA, 2001) — the principal Western-language monograph on Hùihóng’s life and literary-Chán programme.
- Robert M. Gimello, “Mārga and Culture: Learning, Letters, and Liberation in Northern Sung Ch’an,” in Paths to Liberation, ed. Buswell and Gimello (Hawaiʻi UP, 1992), pp. 371–437 — discusses Hùihóng in the broader Sòng wénzì chán movement.
- Mario Poceski, Ordinary Mind as the Way: The Hongzhou School and the Growth of Chan Buddhism (Oxford UP, 2007).
- No complete Western-language translation of the Hélùn located.