Lèngyán jīng shuōyuē 楞嚴經說約
Concise Statement on the Śūraṃgama-sūtra by 陸西星 (述)
About the work
A short single-fascicle (1卷) synoptic essay on the Śūraṃgama-sūtra (KR6j0118) by Lù Xīxīng 陸西星 陸西星 (1520 – 1606), the late-Míng founder of the Eastern School (Dōngpài 東派) of internal-alchemy Daoism, who in late life turned to Buddhist study under the sobriquet Yùnkōng jūshì 蘊空居士. The title Shuōyuē 說約 (“concise statement”) signals a brief, programmatic outline rather than a full lemma-by-lemma commentary — to be read as an introduction to Lù’s longer companion work, the Lèngyán jīng shùzhǐ 楞嚴經述旨 (KR6j0703). Preserved as X14 no. 294 in the Xùzàngjīng.
Prefaces
The work opens with the Lèngyán shuōyuē yǐnyǔ 楞嚴說約引語, signed Huáihǎi cānfó dìzǐ Yùnkōng jūshì Lù Xīxīng Chánggēng shù 淮海參佛弟子蘊空居士陸西星長庚述: “Hidden valley, decaying-self. Originally without prior knowing. Through the master’s awakening, I learned to read the ruǐ 蘂 [Daoist] compilation. Late, I tackled the zhúfēn 竺墳 (Indic-tomb [Buddhist canon]). I gouged-out the heart of jiànxiàng 健相 [tantric vigorous figures], drew-up testimony from the Lǔgào 魯誥 [Confucian texts], and on my own believed they share the same source. Privately I think: Yú’s transmission of jīngyī 精一 (essence-and-unity), Confucius’s juésì 絕四 (cutting-off the four [confusions]), Zǐsī’s pointing to shíxiàng 實相 (real-mark) at the wèifā 未發 (not-yet-emitted), Zēngzǐ’s using dìnglǜ 定慮 (settled deliberation) in place of zhǐguān 止觀 (cessation-and-contemplation) — these together with that-Mencian book’s zhīxìng zhītiān, wànwù bèiwǒ 知性知天萬物備我 doctrines: the Confucian gate’s lineage-purport, how is it different from the Western-coming? But the zīyī 緇衣 (black-robed monastic) crowd specially makes [their teaching] secret-storehouse, beginning to drift from us Confucians, mutually disputing — but is it really so? Those who discuss xìngshù 性術 are many; they have not raised the correct seal — and all fall onto the side-horse. Or there is a sheep lost in sāidú 塞讀 (border-reading); foot-droppings on géténg 葛藤 (kudzu-vines); play-discussion mutually held; the lowly ones — let us not discuss …” (淮海參佛弟子蘊空居士陸西星長庚述 // 幽谷朽生。素無前識。因師覺悟。學讀蘂編。晚討竺墳。刳心健相。質成魯誥。自信同源。竊以。虞傳精一。孔絕四母。子思指實相於未發。曾子以定慮易止觀。與彼軻書知性知天萬物備我之說。儒門宗旨。何異西來。乃緇衣之流。專為密藏。始自左於吾儒。互有諍論。豈其然乎。談性術者多矣。未提正印俱落下驂。或有羊亡於塞讀。踵垂於葛藤。戲論相持。卑當勿論。君子博 …).
Abstract
The Shuōyuē is the most explicit late-Míng Confucian-Daoist-Buddhist syncretic (sānjiào 三教) reading of the Lèngyánjīng: Lù’s preface programmatically argues that the doctrines of the Lèngyán are identical-in-essence with those of the Confucian classics (Yáo’s jīngyī, the Confucian juésì, the Zhōngyōng’s wèifā, the Dàxué’s dìnglǜ, Mencius’s zhīxìng zhītiān) — and conversely, with the Daoist internal-alchemy doctrines that Lù himself had earlier elaborated. The Buddhist monastic establishment, in his view, has artificially “made it a secret storehouse” (zhuānwéi mìzàng 專為密藏), separating the Confucian-Buddhist doctrinal continuity that is the Lèngyán’s true import.
Lù’s reading represents the late-Wànlì jūshìfójiào 居士佛教 / sānjiào héyī 三教合一 movement at its most articulate. The work is conceptually the precursor to Lù’s longer Shùzhǐ (KR6j0703), and the two should be read together.
The dating bracket is set to 1580 – 1606, the late-life Buddhist-study period of Lù’s career between the conventional terminus a quo for the Yùnkōng jūshì sobriquet and his death.
Translations and research
- Liu Ts’un-yan, Buddhist and Taoist Influences on Chinese Novels (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1962) — for Lù’s syncretic sānjiào milieu.
- Russell Kirkland, Taoism: The Enduring Tradition (Routledge, 2004) — for the Eastern School (Dōngpài) of internal alchemy.
- Mu Soeng, “The Diamond Sutra in Late Ming Buddhism”, in John Powers (ed.), Buddhism in the Contemporary World (forthcoming) — for the comparable late-Míng laymen-and-monks commentarial scene.
- No complete Western-language translation of the Shuōyuē located.