Lèngyán jīng xuányì 楞嚴經玄義
Profound Significance of the Śūraṃgamasūtra by 傳燈 (述)
About the work
A four-fascicle (4卷) profound-significance treatise (xuányì 玄義) on the Śūraṃgamasūtra (KR6j0118) by Yōuxī Chuándēng 幽溪傳燈 傳燈 (1554 – 1628). The genre name xuányì recalls Tiāntái Zhìyǐ’s foundational Miàofǎ liánhuá jīng xuányì 妙法蓮華經玄義 (T1716) and signals Chuándēng’s project: to produce for the Lèngyánjīng the Tiāntái-style five-fold prefatory treatment (wǔzhòng xuányì 五重玄義: shìmíng 釋名, biàntǐ 辨體, míngzōng 明宗, lùnyòng 論用, pànjiào 判教) that the sūtra had not previously received from the Tiāntái lineage. Preserved as X13 no. 282 in the Xùzàngjīng.
Prefaces
The work is prefaced by an extensive essay (the Lèngyán xuányì xù 楞嚴玄義敘) by Chuánrú 傳如 傳如, composed in the spring of Wànlì 25 = 1597 CE at the Jiǔshā chànshì 九沙懺室 in Xīxī, in which Chuánrú frames the work in the broader context of Tiāntái’s centuries-old aspiration to fully integrate the Lèngyánjīng into the Tiāntái doctrinal-meditative system: “The qìjīng 契經’s text and heart cannot easily be marked-and-pointed. Only Zhìzhě dàshī [Tiāntái Zhìyǐ] taught the rotating-dhāraṇī, raised the Fǎhuá, fully demonstrated the ten-fold marvels — all the teaching’s net is brilliantly revealed in detail. They are called Xuányì. However, the great Zhǐguān 止觀 work, in its entirety the body of the Fǎhuá ten marvels — this teaches that teachings-and-contemplations have separate volumes but the principles are not two roads. The Great-Awakened World-Honored-One in [the chapter on] Buddha’s Crown also lifted up the zǒngchí 總持 (dhāraṇī); what is shown of realm-and-contemplation has xuánqì 懸契 (hovering correspondences). But this canonical [book] entered the True-Cinnabar [Land] later and has not yet undergone classification-and-explanation. Time-and-flavor piānyuán 偏圓 (partial-and-perfect) — there is no knowing what to follow. Our Bǎisōng héshàng [百松和尚 = Yīsōng Bǎisōng Zhēnjué 真覺, Chuándēng’s master] once composed bǎiwèn 百問 to open up the gradual approach to the heavy-mystery; in the end he sighed at Dòngtíng’s qíntiān (the Cave-Lake’s qín music of heaven) — listening to it round-and-round, he had only had a few [glimpses]. The disciple-brother Dēnggōng 灯公 [= 傳燈 Chuándēng], not concerned with worldly contradictions, composed the Lèngyán xuányì in four [fascicles] …” (夫契經文心不易標指也。唯智者大師發旋陀羅尼起遵法華具演十妙。絓是教網無不炳著詳悉。稱玄義云。然而止觀大部全體法華十妙。是知教觀殊袠理無二轍也。乃大覺世尊於佛頂又揭總持。所示境觀有懸契焉。但是典後入真丹未經判釋。時味偏圓莫知適從。我百松和尚甞撰百問啟重玄之漸。終慨洞庭鈞天環而聽之之無幾也。參兄灯公不慮世忤。作楞嚴玄義四 …).
Abstract
The work is the Tiāntái-doctrinal prolegomena to Chuándēng’s larger Lèngyán commentarial project, the Yuántōng shū 圓通疏 (KR6j0689), and to the secondary Yuántōng shū qiánmáo 前茅 (KR6j0705). It applies the standard Tiāntái wǔzhòng xuányì framework to the Lèngyánjīng, classifying it as a sūtra of the fāngděng 方等 period in Tiāntái’s wǔshí pànjiào 五時判教 (“five-period classification”), with affinities to the Fǎhuá “perfect teaching” (yuánjiào 圓教).
Together with KR6j0689 and KR6j0705, the Xuányì constitutes Chuándēng’s three-part Tiāntái-doctrinal Lèngyán programme. The dating is precise: 1597 CE for the Chuánrú preface, with the body of the Xuányì itself composed in or shortly before that year.
Translations and research
- Shèngyán 聖嚴, Míngmò fójiào yánjiū 明末佛教研究 (Taipei, 1987), chap. 2 — discusses Chuándēng’s late-Wànlì Tiāntái restoration project including the Xuányì.
- Brook Ziporyn, Beyond Oneness and Difference: Li and Coherence in Chinese Buddhist Thought and its Antecedents (SUNY Press, 2013) — for the broader xuányì genre in Chinese Buddhist exegesis.
- No complete Western-language translation located.