Lèngyán jīng jīngjiě pínglín 楞嚴經精解評林
Critical-Evaluation Forest of Refined Explanations on the Śūraṃgama-sūtra by 焦竑 (纂)
About the work
A three-fascicle (3卷) critical-evaluation compendium (pínglín 評林) on the Śūraṃgama-sūtra (KR6j0118) compiled by Jiāo Hóng 焦竑 焦竑 (1540 – 1620), the late-Wànlì zhuàngyuán polymath, Hànlín historian, and central literati-Buddhist patron of the Jīnlíng circle. The pínglín genre — comparable to Jiāo’s better-known Fǎhuá jīng jīngjiě pínglín on the Lotus Sūtra (KR6d0078) — is a late-Wànlì literati genre that compiles and critically evaluates the most refined explanations from a wide range of preceding commentators, organized as a forest (lín 林) of selections each followed by Jiāo’s editorial assessment. Preserved as X15 no. 301 in the Xùzàngjīng.
Prefaces
The work opens with a substantial Shìjiào zǒnglùn 釋教總論 (“General discussion of the Buddha’s teaching”), in which Jiāo programmatically frames his Buddhist-commentarial project in syncretic Confucian-Buddhist terms: “The constant nature of human beings is the Lord-on-High’s bestowed zhōng 衷 [centrality]. What human beings have in common: that it is wúsī wúwéi 無思無為 (without thought, without action) — therefore it is called jì 寂 (stillness). That it is unable to be seen-and-heard — therefore it is called wēi 微 (subtle). That it is without things — therefore it is called xū 虗 (empty). That it is without desire — therefore it is called jìng 靜 (quiet). That its wisdom encompasses the myriad things — therefore it is called jué 覺 (awakened). And its归 returns nothing if not wú 無 (no/non-being) of the singular. To say wú: it is the foundation of yǒu 有 (being). Therefore jì by which to penetrate the world’s gǎn (responses); jìng by which to settle the world’s dòng (movements); wēi by which to manifest the world’s xiǎn (apparent); xū by which to drive the world’s shí (real); jué by which to spirit the world’s yìng (responses). This is what is called the thousand-sages-mutually-transmitted wúsuǒyǐ 無所倚 (no-place-of-leaning) learning. The Hàn Confucians took only philological-and-exegetical [labor] as study; patching-and-supplementing, zhānghuáng (expanding-and-glossing), examining-and-determining at the level of form-and-name, instrument-and-number — taking the worthies’-and-sages’-already-walked tracks, marking them as canonical-essentials, mutually keeping them as …” (人之恒性。廼上帝降衷。人所同具者。以其無思無為故。謂之寂。以其不可覩聞故。謂之微。以其無物故。謂之虗。以其無欲故。謂之靜。以其智周萬物故。謂之覺。而其歸不出於無之一。言無者有之基也。故寂以通天下之感。靜以貞天下之動。微以效天下之顯。虗以御天下之實。覺以神天下之應。是謂千聖相傳無所倚之學。漢儒徒以訓詁為學。補綴張皇攷訂於形名器數之末。取古聖賢巳行之跡。著為典要。相守以為 …).
Abstract
The work is a quintessential expression of late-Wànlì literati-Buddhist syncretism: Jiāo Hóng’s substantial preface positions the Lèngyán commentarial project within a broader Confucian-Buddhist (èrjiào héyī 二教合一) doctrinal framework that recognizes the doctrines of jì, wēi, xū, jìng, jué as the common possession of the sages of all traditions. The pínglín format then provides a curated, evaluatively-annotated reading of the sūtra through selected passages from the most distinguished prior commentators. Jiāo’s substantial role as a literati patron of the Jiāxīngzàng 嘉興藏 publishing project documents the institutional importance of late-Wànlì literati Buddhism in the production of the late-Míng monastic publishing renaissance.
The dating bracket is set to 1589 – 1620, between Jiāo’s zhuàngyuán year and his death; the work is most plausibly placed in his middle-to-late period (1600s–1610s) of intensive Buddhist study.
Translations and research
- Edward T. Ch’ien, Chiao Hung and the Restructuring of Neo-Confucianism in the Late Ming (Columbia UP, 1986) — the standard Western-language monograph on Jiāo Hóng, with extensive treatment of his Buddhist-syncretist intellectual programme.
- Timothy Brook, Praying for Power: Buddhism and the Formation of Gentry Society in Late-Ming China (Harvard University Asia Center, 1993).
- Yü Chün-fang, The Renewal of Buddhism in China: Chu-hung and the Late Ming Synthesis (Columbia UP, 1981) — discusses Jiāo Hóng in the late-Wànlì literati Buddhist circle.
- No complete Western-language translation of the Pínglín located.
Other points of interest
The Lèngyán Pínglín is the paired companion to the better-known Fǎhuá jīng jīngjiě pínglín (KR6d0078) — Jiāo Hóng having undertaken parallel critical-evaluative compilations on the two most influential Mahāyāna sūtras of the late-Wànlì commentarial scene. Together the two Pínglín form Jiāo Hóng’s principal Buddhist exegetical project.