Lèngyán jīng xuányì 楞嚴經玄義
Profound Significance of the Śūraṃgamasūtra (智旭’s recension) by 智旭 (撰述), 道昉 (參訂)
About the work
A two-fascicle (2卷) profound-significance treatise (xuányì 玄義) on the Śūraṃgamasūtra (KR6j0118) by Ǒuyì Zhìxù 蕅益智旭 智旭 (1599 – 1655) — the youngest of the late-Míng “Four Great Masters” — with editorial review (cāndìng 參訂) by his fellow-monk Wēnlíng Dàofǎng 溫陵道昉 道昉. Distinct from KR6j0690, the Xuányì of 傳燈 of the same name. The text is preserved as X13 no. 284 in the Xùzàngjīng and forms the prefatory companion to Zhìxù’s full lemma-by-lemma commentary, the Wénjù 文句 (KR6j0693).
Prefaces
The work is prefaced by a “Republication preface to the Dàfódǐngjīng xuánwén” (重刻大佛頂經玄文序), explicitly engaging with the perennial xìngzōng 性宗 / xiàngzōng 相宗 (Tathāgatagarbha-Yogācāra) doctrinal divide: “The xìng and xiàng two schools are like waves and water — from of old not separable. Yet the corruption of [the tradition] has gone so far as to fēnhé yǐnshuǐ (separate the river and drink the waters [i.e., dispute over which is the true source]). How could this be the fault of Mañjuśrī and Maitreya, or how could it be the intent of Aśvaghoṣa and Dharmapāla? To say: Tathatā receives perfuming — like the apocalyptic-fire blazing forth, how could the empty space alone remain cold? To say: Tathatā does not receive perfuming — like the apocalyptic-fire blazing-forth at the [end of] kalpas, how could the empty space ever be ruined? Thus knowing: those who get the language-pulse — uniting them, both are beautiful; losing the lineage-purport — separating them, both are wounded. Looking at the Dàfódǐngjīng fascicle 4: ‘Like empty space — its body is not the qúnxiàng (assembly of phenomena), yet it does not refuse those phenomena to manifest.’ This single statement — both doubts dissolve like ice. Excellent! …” (性相二宗猶波之與水從來不可分隔而其流弊也甚至分河飲水此豈文殊彌勒之過亦豈馬鳴護法之旨哉謂真如受熏譬如劫火洞然虗空安得獨冷謂真如不受熏譬如劫火洞然時虗空何甞爛壞故知得其語脉者合則雙美失其宗趣者離則兩傷觀大佛頂經第四卷云譬如虗空體非羣相而不拒彼諸相發揮只此一言兩疑氷釋善 …).
Abstract
The Xuányì presents Zhìxù’s TathāgatagarbhaYogācāra synthesis as the doctrinal-classificatory framework for reading the Lèngyánjīng. Zhìxù’s distinctive contribution is to integrate the Tiāntái doctrinal-classification (pànjiào 判教) apparatus that Chuándēng had applied in his own Xuányì (KR6j0690) with an explicit Yogācāra-school overlay drawn from his deep study of the Chéng wéishí lùn 成唯識論. The polemical xìngxiàng prefatory essay positions the work against both the late-Wànlì Zhèngmài shū tradition of 真鑑 (which Zhìxù reads as imbalanced toward the xìng side) and the dominant Yogācāra-revival commentaries of his own century (which he reads as imbalanced toward the xiàng side).
The dating bracket is set to 1635 – 1655, the productive period of Zhìxù’s mature exegetical work, ending at his death.
Translations and research
- Beverley Foulks McGuire, Living Karma: The Religious Practices of Ouyi Zhixu (1599–1655) (Columbia UP, 2014) — the standard Western-language monograph on Zhìxù.
- Jiang Wu, Enlightenment in Dispute: The Reinvention of Chan Buddhism in Seventeenth-Century China (Oxford UP, 2008) — discusses Zhìxù in the late-Míng / early-Qīng commentarial network.
- Shèngyán 聖嚴, Míngmò Zhōngguó fójiào zhī yánjiū 明末中國佛教之研究 (Taipei: Xuéshēng shūjú, 1988) — the standard Chinese-language treatment of Zhìxù.
- No complete Western-language translation of the Xuányì located.