Lèngyán jīng wénjù 楞嚴經文句
Phrase-by-Phrase Commentary on the Śūraṃgamasūtra by 智旭 (撰述), 道昉 (參訂)
About the work
A ten-fascicle (10卷) full lemma-by-lemma commentary 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 Wēnlíng Dàofǎng 溫陵道昉 道昉. The genre name wénjù 文句 (“text-phrases”) deliberately echoes the title of Tiāntái Zhìyǐ’s Miàofǎ liánhuá jīng wénjù 妙法蓮華經文句 (T1718), a classical Tiāntái commentarial format that Zhìxù — himself a self-identified later Tiāntái restorer — reproduces here for the Lèngyánjīng. Together with the prefatory Xuányì (KR6j0692) it forms Zhìxù’s two-part Lèngyán commentarial corpus. Preserved as X13 no. 285 in the Xùzàngjīng.
Prefaces
The work opens directly with the sūtra’s title and the standard fēnkē 分科 articulation: “Dàfódǐng rúlái mìyīn xiūzhèng liǎoyì zhū púsà wànxíng shǒulèngyán jīng fascicle 1, wénjù. Tang Tiānzhú śramaṇa Pramiti, translator of the sūtra. Míng bodhisattva śrāmaṇera Gǔ-Wú Zhìxù, wénjù. Míng bodhisattva bhikṣu Wēnlíng Dàofǎng, cāndìng. The sūtra-title is fully as in the Xuányì; now I again briefly raise the outline. This sūtra takes person and dharma as the title. That is to say: this Dàfódǐng dharma is neither cause nor effect; all causes and effects can do nothing but rely on it. The Tathāgata, fruit-person, takes this as the secret cause; therefore whether cultivating or attesting, none is not ‘the meaning made full.’ And the fruit penetrates back to the cause-source. The various bodhisattva cause-persons also use this to fully equip the myriad practices. Therefore the gēn (faculties) …” (大佛頂如來密因修證了義諸菩薩萬行首楞嚴經卷第一文句。唐天竺沙門般剌密諦譯經。明菩薩沙彌古吳智旭文句。明菩薩比丘溫陵道昉參訂。經題具如玄義中說今更略提綱要此經以人法為名謂此大佛頂法非因非果一切因果無不依之如來果人以此為密因故若修若證無非了義而果徹因源諸菩薩因人亦以此具足萬行故根 …).
Abstract
The Wénjù is Zhìxù’s full doctrinal-meditative commentary on the Lèngyánjīng in 10 fascicles, complementing his shorter prefatory Xuányì. Together the two works present the Tiāntái-revivalist YogācāraTathāgatagarbha synthesis that is Zhìxù’s most distinctive doctrinal contribution. The work explicitly engages with the dominant Wànlì-era Lèngyán commentaries — particularly 真鑑’s Zhèngmài shū (KR6j0683), 德清’s Tōngyì (KR6j0687), and 傳燈’s Yuántōng shū (KR6j0689) — and aims to provide a synthetic alternative that reconciles their competing doctrinal frameworks within Zhìxù’s broader TiāntáiYogācāra programme.
The dating bracket is set to 1635 – 1655, the productive period of Zhìxù’s mature exegetical career.
Zhìxù self-styled as Gǔ-Wú 古吳 (“Old Wú”) bodhisattva śrāmaṇera, and Dàofǎng as Wēnlíng 溫陵 bodhisattva bhikṣu — the dignified self-identifications signal the work’s place in late-Míng jūshìfójiào 居士佛教 (“lay Buddhism”) sensibility, even though both are formally ordained.
Translations and research
- Beverley Foulks McGuire, Living Karma: The Religious Practices of Ouyi Zhixu (1599–1655) (Columbia UP, 2014).
- Shèngyán 聖嚴, Míngmò Zhōngguó fójiào zhī yánjiū 明末中國佛教之研究 (Taipei: Xuéshēng shūjú, 1988).
- No complete Western-language translation of the Wénjù located.