Dàrì jīng yìshì 大日經義釋
Doctrinal Explication of the Mahāvairocana-sūtra by 一行 (述記)
About the work
A fourteen-fascicle (14卷) doctrinal commentary on the Mahāvairocana-sūtra / Pílúzhēnà chéngfó shénbiàn jiāchí jīng 毗盧遮那成佛神變加持經 (KR6j0001 / T18 no. 848) by Yīxíng 一行 一行 (683–727), the Tang-dynasty polymath monk who served as the principal Chinese amanuensis-disciple of Śubhakarasiṃha (Shànwúwèi 善無畏 善無畏) on the Mahāvairocana translation. Preserved as X23 no. 438 in the Xùzàngjīng. The Yìshì is the fourteen-fascicle revised recension of Yīxíng’s earlier and longer Dàrìjīng shū 大日經疏 (KR6j0080 / T39 no. 1796), prepared after Yīxíng’s death by his disciple Wēngǔ 溫古 溫古 (a co-disciple of Yīxíng under Śubhakarasiṃha).
Prefaces
The opening Pílúzhēnà chéngfó shénbiàn jiāchí jīng yìshì xù 毗盧遮那成佛神變加持經義釋序 is by Wēngǔ 溫古, who narrates the commentary’s genesis: Śubhakarasiṃha (Zhōngtiānzhú sānzàng zì Shūpójiāluó Sēnghē 中天竺三藏字輸婆迦羅僧訶, “the central-Indian trepiṭaka whose name is Śubhakarasiṃha”) had been imperially summoned to the Tang court; Yīxíng — described as the “uniquely talented one of his age, with bright comprehension and pervasive wisdom” — was on imperial command paired with him in the translation. After the translation was complete, Yīxíng went on to compose the Yìshì commentary, with monk Bǎoyuè 寶月 寶月 serving as the translation-language assistant. Wēngǔ explains the rationale for the fourteen-fascicle revised recension preserved as the Yìshì.
Abstract
The Yìshì is the principal Esoteric-school doctrinal commentary on the Mahāvairocana-sūtra in East Asia: along with its earlier twenty-fascicle counterpart (KR6j0080), it transmits Śubhakarasiṃha’s oral teachings on the Mahāvairocana and provides the doctrinal foundation for both Chinese Mìzōng 密宗 / 真言宗 and the Japanese Shingon 真言宗 traditions. The Garbhadhātu (Tāizàng 胎藏) maṇḍala doctrines that Śubhakarasiṃha transmitted are explicated here in their canonical form. The relationship between the longer Dàrìjīng shū (T39n1796) and the shorter Dàrì jīng yìshì (X23n0438) — both attributed to Yīxíng with Wēngǔ’s editorial role — has been the subject of extensive scholarly investigation; the consensus is that the Yìshì is Wēngǔ’s posthumous abridgment-and-revision of Yīxíng’s lecture-notes. Composition: 720s, before Yīxíng’s death in 727; Wēngǔ’s editorial work likely shortly thereafter.
Translations and research
- Charles Orzech et al., eds., Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia (Brill, 2011) — extensive treatment of the Tang Esoteric corpus.
- Chen Jinhua, Yixing’s Astronomical Works and Their Buddhist Context (École française d’Extrême-Orient, 2016) — situates Yīxíng’s Mahāvairocana work in his broader scholarly career.
- Charles Orzech, Politics and Transcendent Wisdom: The Scripture for Humane Kings in the Creation of Chinese Buddhism (Penn State UP, 1998) — discusses the Tang Esoteric school context.
Other points of interest
The Yìshì and the Dàrìjīng shū together constitute the textual foundation of the East Asian Esoteric Buddhist exegetical tradition; their reception in Heian-period Japan via Kūkai and Saichō was decisive for the formation of Shingon and Tendai esotericism.