Lèngyán jīng zhíjiě 楞嚴經直解
Direct Explanation of the Śūraṃgama-sūtra by 廣莫 (直解)
About the work
A ten-fascicle (10卷) direct-explanation (zhíjiě 直解) commentary on the Śūraṃgama-sūtra (KR6j0118) by Yuèfēng Guǎngmò 月峰廣莫 廣莫, a late-Míng exegete otherwise primarily known for his Vinaya compendium Sìfēn jièběn yuánqǐ shìyì 四分戒本緣起事義 (KR6k0148). The genre name zhíjiě 直解 (“direct explanation”) signals a clear, unencumbered exposition oriented to practical reading rather than scholastic-doctrinal elaboration. Preserved as X14 no. 298 in the Xùzàngjīng.
Prefaces
The work opens with a substantial autobiographical preface (the Shǒulèngyán jīng zhíjiě xù 首楞嚴經直解序): “From childhood I had the obsession with the Four [Confucian] Sections; outside the writings of Confucius and Mencius, I delighted in reading the Western-Land’s various sūtras. Yet of every ten doubts, three I left aside — like 陶潛 Táo Yuánmíng’s ‘not-seeking-the-deep-understanding’. Soon afterward, following Maitreya in serving the Buddha, I set aside all things, took the various sūtras, and read them morning-and-evening. Of those who explain the Śūraṃgama-sūtra, of the more than ten houses of Gūshān [Rényuè] and others, the most distinguished — and yet I increasingly could not but doubt. Why? The Lèngyán is solely from 般剌蜜帝 Pramiti’s one translation, with the literary polish from Chief Minister 房融 Fáng Róng. Its text is concise and recondite, intricately interwoven; its meaning is comprehensive-and-encompassing, brilliantly resonating — seemingly not what cogitation-and-discrimination can fully grasp. Yet of those more-than-ten-houses’ interpretations, in the end they are still merely the ten-houses’ [own] Lèngyán. The recently-published commentaries are profuse and competing for breadth; ear-eaten by the wide-talkers, mutually-perceived as branched-and-erratic, twisted-and-misled, drawing-vines and pulling-creepers — viewing the Lèngyán as the Tathāgata expounded, how could it be merely sky-and-abyss apart? …” (余幼即有四部之癖自孔孟書外喜讀西土諸經而疑常十三輙乙其處如陶元亮不求甚解而巳未幾從慈氏事佛一切屏去益取諸經朝夕讀之解楞嚴者孤山十數家最著而余益不能無疑何以故楞嚴惟般剌密諦一譯而潤色於房相國其文簡奧錯綜其義貫攝照應似非思量分別所能了者而十數家之解終是十數家楞嚴近世詮注紛然兢愽耳食顧支離舛謬引蔓牽藤視如來所說之楞巖豈啻霄淵 …).
Abstract
The work is a relatively concise zhíjiě commentary in the late-Wànlì practical-exegesis tradition, distinguished from the more elaborate Tiāntái- and Chán-doctrinal commentaries by its self-conscious commitment to direct reading without competing-school overlays. Guǎngmò’s preface is a sharp critical assessment of the late-Wànlì Lèngyán commentarial scene, charging the dominant commentators with producing a jiāzhōng zhī Lèngyán (the “ten-houses’ [own] Lèngyán”) rather than reading the sūtra on its own terms.
Guǎngmò is otherwise primarily attested as a Vinaya specialist (DILA Person Authority A001663); the Zhíjiě on the Lèngyán is one of his secondary doctrinal works, situating him in the broader late-Míng Vinaya-revival circle (which intersected with both the Wànlì-era doctrinal renaissance and the late-Míng monastic-discipline movement of 如馨 Gǔxīn Rúxīn).
The dating bracket is set to 1573 – 1644, the broad late-Wànlì-to-Chóngzhēn period to which Guǎngmò’s productive career belongs. Lifedates unrecorded.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language secondary literature located.