Shíyīmiàn shénzhòu xīnjīng yìshū 十一面神呪心經義疏
Doctrinal Commentary on the Heart-Sūtra of the Eleven-Headed Spirit-Dhāraṇī by 慧沼 (撰)
About the work
A one-fascicle (1卷) commentary by Zīzhōu Huìzhāo 淄州慧沼 慧沼 (648–741), the second patriarch of the Chinese Yogācāra (Fǎxiàng) school, on the Shíyīmiàn shénzhòu xīnjīng 十一面神呪心經 (= T20 n1071 Avalokiteśvara-ekādaśa-mukha-dhāraṇī-hṛdaya-sūtra, “Heart-Sūtra of the Eleven-Headed Avalokiteśvara Dhāraṇī”), in the Chinese version translated by Xuánzàng 玄奘 in 656. Preserved as T39 no. 1802 in the Taishō.
Abstract
The Yìshū is a rare instance of a Yogācāra-school doctrinal commentary on a dhāraṇī sūtra: Huìzhāo, the principal scholastic heir to Xuánzàng’s translation enterprise, applies the Cí’ēn-school 慈恩宗 doctrinal apparatus to the Eleven-Headed Avalokiteśvara dhāraṇī liturgy that Xuánzàng had recently translated. The opening passage frames the structure of the commentary in characteristic Tiāntái-style rénfǎ 人法 division: “the path of entering [the Way] is many; but it does not exceed rén and fǎ. The rén spoken of here is the Eleven-Headed One; the fǎ spoken of here is the heart-of-the-spirit-dhāraṇī. Without rén there is none to hold the dhāraṇī; without fǎ there is none [to enable practice].” The work decomposes the dhāraṇī sūtra under the Twelvefold dependent origination ↔ Twelvefold contemplation-of-faces, Eight-Difficulties ↔ Eight Spirit-Dhāraṇīs mappings — assigning each item of the liturgical content a doctrinal-soteriological function. The commentary is one of the principal sources for early-Táng Yogācāra-Avalokiteśvara doctrinal synthesis. Composition window: 690–720 (Huìzhāo’s mature scholarly period in Cháng’ān and Zīzhōu); the work has no internal date.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.