Lèngyán jīng xù zhǐwèi shū 楞嚴經序指味疏
“Pointing to the Flavour” Commentary on the Preface of the Śūraṃgama-sūtra by 諦閑 (述)
About the work
A one-fascicle (1卷) Tiāntái-school commentary by Dìxián Gǔxū 諦閑古虛 諦閑 (1858–1932) on the prefatory section alone of the Śūraṃgama-sūtra (KR6j0118). The author identifies himself as Huángyán Táizōng yìsūn bǐqiū Dìxián shùshū 黃巖台宗裔孫比丘諦閑述疏 (“monk Dìxián, lineal heir of the Tiāntái school in Huángyán, composed the commentary”), with a colophon by his disciple 華山 Huāshān. Preserved as X16 no. 313 in the Xùzàngjīng. The title’s metaphor — zhǐwèi 指味, “pointing to the flavour” — signals an exegesis that aims to bring out the doctrinal taste of the prefatory section rather than analyze it line by line.
Prefaces
The author’s own preface is dated Guāngxù 19 guǐsì 癸巳, summer fifth month, Dragon-Boat Festival (5 May 1893) and signed Táizōng wǎnxué Zhuósān bǐqiū Dìxián 台宗晚學卓三比丘諦閑 (“Junior Tiāntái student Zhuósān, monk Dìxián”). Disciple Huāshān’s postface is dated Guāngxù 28 rényín 壬寅, spring (1902), at Yànnán 雁南.
Abstract
The work is the most prominent late-Qīng Tiāntái-school treatment of the Śūraṃgama prefatory section: the author limits himself to the opening xù 序 (the canonical narrative of the sūtra’s setting, audience, and yīnyuán causation), reading it through a fivefold jiětí 解題 system (合釋 / 離釋 / 釋別題 [釋大佛頂 / 釋首楞嚴] / 釋通題) and then through a four-part shìwén 釋文 covering the yījīng dàzhǐ 一經大旨 (“cardinal purport of the entire sūtra”), the shízhóu wényì 十軸文義 (“textual sense of the ten fascicles”), the míngyì yīnguǒ 名義因果 (“naming-and-meaning, cause-and-effect”), and the lǐxíng xìngxiū 理行性修 (“principle/practice, nature/cultivation”). The work is firmly within the Tiāntái-school tradition begun by 子璿 Chángshuǐ Zǐxuán in the Sòng and continued by 靈耀 Língyào in the early Qīng (whose Guānxīn dìngjiě KR6j0714 Dìxián studied), but represents a more concentrated and pedagogical late-Qīng restatement. Composition: 1893; editorial preparation through 1902.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
Other points of interest
The Xù zhǐwèi shū is the seed-work of Dìxián’s larger Lèngyán jīng zhǐwèi shū 楞嚴經指味疏 commentarial project; the early-Republican Dìxián dàshī yíjí 諦閑大師遺集 contains the full project, but only this xù-fascicle was prepared for the Xùzàngjīng compilation. It is therefore one of the few late-nineteenth-century Tiāntái commentaries to find its way into the Xùzàng as an independent canonical work.