Lèngyán jīng zhèngshū guǎngjiě 楞嚴經證疏廣解
Punctuated Broad Explanation of the Verifying Commentary on the Śūraṃgamasūtra by 凌弘憲 (點釋)
About the work
A ten-fascicle (10卷) punctuated-and-glossed (diǎnshì 點釋) recension of an underlying zhèngshū 證疏 (“verifying commentary”) on the Śūraṃgamasūtra (KR6j0118) by the Wúxīng 吳興 lay scholar Líng Hóngxiàn 凌弘憲 凌弘憲. The Líng family of Wúxīng was a major Jiāngnán literati lineage with significant book-collecting and printing activity in the late Wànlì–Tiānqǐ period; the present work belongs to that family’s late-life devotional-scholarly productions. Preserved as X14 no. 288 in the Xùzàngjīng.
Prefaces
The work opens with the Qiān Lèngyán yuánqǐ 鋟楞嚴緣起 (“Origin-account of engraving the Lèngyán”), Líng’s autobiographical preface: “Late-day quiet living. White clouds sealed the door. Huéyán’s jīzhú chéngfēng (striking bamboo to make a wind), Huìtáng’s huáxiāng yíngzuò (flower-fragrance filling the seat). Suddenly came the sound of footsteps; a guest opened the door and entered. Sat in lonely meditation a long while; he sighed and said: ‘Human life is a horse passing a crack — all day long busy-busy — and what does it come to in the end?’ I casually responded: ‘Wearing the purple sash, with elbows of yellow gold — like this is sufficient.’ The guest did not reply. I then said: ‘In life, white silk; after death, the green-blue [scholar’s red-and-cyan biographical inscription] — like this it stops.’ The guest said: ‘Hmph! What I called 究竟 究竟 — is it not also a great Nirvāṇa of human life?’ I did not understand. The guest also slowly retreated. Several days later, I took up the Lèngyán and read it. Then I knew that all things-and-dharmas have nothing without their final-end. Our Master [Confucius] said: born-knowing, learned-knowing, and worked-out-knowing; serene-acting, beneficial-acting, forced-acting — all return to one [unitary] knowing in the achievement of one. All are one …” (遲日閒居。白雲封戶。黃巖之擊竹成風。晦堂之華香盈座。忽跫然履聲。有客啟扉而入。兀坐良久。嘆曰。人生駒隙。終日忙忙。究竟何如。余漫應之曰。腰紫紱肘黃金。如是足矣。客不應。余復謂之曰。生前簡白。死後翰青。如是止矣。客曰。嘻吾所謂究竟。不有人生一大涅槃乎。余未解。客亦逡巡而退。越數日。取楞嚴讀之。廼後知一切事法莫不有究竟。吾夫子所云。生知學知困知。安行利行勉行。歸根到知之一成功。一皆一 …).
The preface is dated Tiānqǐ 1 = 1621 CE (天啟元年).
Abstract
The Zhèngshū guǎngjiě presents a curated, punctuated-and-glossed reading of an underlying zhèngshū tradition (most plausibly drawn from the late-Wànlì Zhèngmài shū lineage of 真鑑, the dominant late-Wànlì reform commentary). Líng’s editorial contribution is the diǎnshì (“punctuation-and-explanation”), making the underlying commentary accessible to literati readers without monastic-scholastic training. The work belongs to the broader phenomenon of late-Wànlì literati editions of Buddhist commentaries — a Jiāngnán publishing-cultural movement that included the Líng family’s celebrated colour-printed editions of literary classics.
The dating is precise: 1621 CE by the author’s preface.
Translations and research
- For the late-Wànlì–Tiānqǐ Jiāngnán literati publishing context: Lucille Chia, Printing for Profit: The Commercial Publishers of Jianyang, Fujian (11th–17th Centuries) (Harvard University Asia Center, 2002); Cynthia Brokaw, Commerce in Culture: The Sibao Book Trade in the Qing and Republican Periods (Harvard University Asia Center, 2007).
- No substantial Western-language secondary literature on the work itself.