Lèngyán jīng shùzhǐ 楞嚴經述旨
Stating the Purport of the Śūraṃgama-sūtra by 陸西星 (述)
About the work
A ten-fascicle (10卷) full lemma-by-lemma commentary on the Śūraṃgama-sūtra (KR6j0118) by Lù Xīxīng 陸西星 陸西星 (1520 – 1606) — the longer companion to his programmatic Shuōyuē (KR6j0702). The two works together form Lù’s complete Lèngyán commentarial project. Preserved as X14 no. 295 in the Xùzàngjīng.
Prefaces
The work opens with the Quànchí xù 勸持敘 (“Preface urging-and-upholding”), signed Shīzǐlín shāmén Wéishí zhuàn 師子林沙門惟識撰 (“the śramaṇa of the Lion-Grove [Sīzǐlín], Wéishí, composed”). This is not Lù’s own preface but a commendatory preface by the Yuán-Míng monastic figure 惟識 Wéishí of Sīzǐlín. Wéishí writes: “Shǒulèngyán wáng (King Śūraṃgama) is fully equipped with the myriad practices, comprehensive of sānmèi 三昧 (samādhi). Cultivating-and-perfuming the shēmótā 奢摩他 (śamatha) road, opening-and-revealing to sentient beings, marvelously in one-gate transcendentally going-out. Owing to Qìngxǐ (Ānanda) hating multiple-hearing yet without the full Way’s power, therefore Jiāwén (Śākyamuni-Mañjuśrī) on account of false-views, directly-pointed at the people-mind. The seven-fold examination — the precious-mirror grinding the dust, and the original-brightness self-manifests. The eight-fold reversion’s discrimination — the jīnpī 金錍 (golden-pin, a metaphor for surgery) scraping-away the cataract, and the illusory-shadows follow-and-disappear. Repudiating pānyuán (climbing-conditions [conditioned thinking]) — the mind is not really mind. Showing the true awakening — the seeing is also-departing-from-seeing. Thus revealing the true to break the false — yet still going further by the false to discuss the true. Exhausting the yīnrùchùjiè 陰入處界 (skandha-entrance-dwelling-realm), and arranging them as four categories. Yīnyuán (causes-and-conditions) and zìrán (self-so), both being suppressed. Meeting earth-water-fire-wind, calling them together as the seven greats. The true …” (首楞嚴王。具足萬行。總持三昧。熏修奢摩他路。開示眾生。妙在一門超出。由慶喜恨多聞。而未全道力。故迦文因妄見。而直指人心。七處之徵。寶鏡磨塵。而本明自現。八還之辨。金錍刮膜。而幻影隨消。斥攀緣則心不是心。示真覺則見猶離見。即顯真而破妄。仍即妄以談真。窮陰入處界。而列為四科。因緣自然。二俱排擯。會地水火風而通名七大。真 …).
Abstract
The Shùzhǐ presents Lù Xīxīng’s full sustained reading of the Lèngyánjīng in the Confucian-Daoist-Buddhist syncretic (sānjiào 三教) idiom established programmatically in the Shuōyuē. The work systematically reads each section of the sūtra in dialogue with parallel doctrinal-meditative materials from the Confucian classics (especially the Zhōngyōng 中庸 and Dàxué 大學) and the Daoist internal-alchemy corpus (especially Lù’s own Fānghú wàishǐ 方壺外史 (方壺外史)) — a unique late-Wànlì achievement. The Quànchí preface by Wéishí of Sīzǐlín (惟識) is itself notable: Sīzǐlín is the famed Sūzhōu garden-monastery associated with 惟則 Tiānrú Wéizé, the Yuán Tiāntái-Chán synthesist of the Lèngyán Huìjiě tradition. The preface thus places Lù’s syncretic reading explicitly in dialogue with the dominant Tiāntái-Chán tradition.
The dating bracket is set to 1580 – 1606, the late-life Buddhist-study period of Lù’s career.
Translations and research
- Liu Ts’un-yan, Buddhist and Taoist Influences on Chinese Novels (Wiesbaden, 1962) — for Lù’s syncretic sānjiào milieu.
- Lowell Skar and Fabrizio Pregadio, “Inner Alchemy (neidan),” in The Encyclopedia of Taoism (Routledge, 2008), with discussion of the Dōngpài 東派.
- No complete Western-language translation of the Shùzhǐ located.