Lèngyán jīng shìzhì yuántōng zhāng shūchāo 楞嚴經勢至圓通章疏鈔
Commentary-and-Subcommentary on the “Mahāsthāmaprāpta Universal-Penetration Chapter” of the Śūraṃgama-sūtra by 續法 (集)
About the work
A two-fascicle (2卷) subcommentary-style commentary (shūchāo 疏鈔) compiled (jí 集) by Bótíng Xùfǎ 伯亭續法 續法 (1641–1728), the early-Qīng Huáyán-school revivalist, on the Mahāsthāmaprāpta Universal-Penetration Chapter (Shìzhì yuántōng zhāng) of the Śūraṃgama-sūtra (KR6j0118). Preserved as X16 no. 311 in the Xùzàngjīng. The shūchāo genre — main commentary (shū) interlaced with sub-commentary (chāo) — was the standard format established by Yúnqī Zhūhóng’s Āmítuó jīng shūchāo (KR6p0019), of which Xùfǎ’s Shìzhì zhāng shūchāo is in part a deliberate echo and complement.
Prefaces
A prefatory note (yǐn 引) is signed by 龍其 Lóngqí 龍其 (the “fierce dragon” — apparently a sobriquet). The author records that he had drafted his own private comments on Pure Land practice when his friend the lay scholar 念東高 Niàndōng Gāo xiānshēng 念東高先生 visited and urged him to “give your mind to this matter.” When Lóngqí showed his note to Bǎitíng fǎshī 百亭法師 (= 續法; the source writes 百亭 / 伯亭 interchangeably), Xùfǎ produced from his desk his own already-drafted Shìzhì niánfó zhāng shūchāo. Two read it together. Lóngqí raised funds, his son organized the cutting of the blocks, and Xùfǎ asked Lóngqí to write the introductory note. The preface stresses that the Mahāsthāmaprāpta niánfó chapter must be read alongside the Āmítuó jīng shūchāo (KR6p0019) and Lóngshū jìngtǔ wén 龍舒淨土文 (KR6p0050) as a fundamental Pure Land scripture.
Abstract
Xùfǎ’s Shìzhì zhāng shūchāo is a major Huáyán-school contribution to the Pure Land scriptural tradition: where Yúnqī Zhūhóng’s Āmítuó shūchāo established the canonical Pure Land subcommentary format, Xùfǎ extends the format to the Mahāsthāmaprāpta chapter — the only “Pure Land in the Lèngyán” — and reads it as a structural complement to the Three Pure Land Sūtras. The work confirms Xùfǎ’s substantial Pure Land sympathies alongside his programmatic Huáyán-school revival. Composition: late seventeenth or early eighteenth century, before Xùfǎ’s death in 1728.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.