Dàrì jīng yìshì yǎnmì chāo 大日經義釋演密鈔
“Expanding-the-Esoteric” Sub-Commentary on the Doctrinal Explication of the Mahāvairocana-sūtra by 覺苑 (撰)
About the work
A ten-fascicle (10卷) Liáo-dynasty sub-commentary on Yīxíng’s 一行 Dàrì jīng yìshì (KR6j0734) by Lùqīng zǒngmì dàshī Cìzǐ shāmén Juéyuàn 祿卿總秘大師賜紫沙門覺苑 覺苑. Preserved as X23 no. 439 in the Xùzàngjīng. The work is the principal Liáo-period Esoteric Buddhist commentary to survive into the canonical tradition.
Prefaces
The opening Dàpílúzhēnà chéngfó shénbiàn jiāchí jīng yìshì yǎnmì chāo yǐnwén 大毗盧遮那成佛神變加持經義釋演密鈔引文 is by Zhào Xiàoyán 趙孝嚴 趙孝嚴, Cháoyì-dàfū xíng qǐjū jí chōng Qiánwén-gé dàizhì shǐguǎn xiūzhuàn jìdūwèi cìzǐjīnyúdài chén 朝議大夫行起居即充乾文閣待制史館修撰騎都尉賜紫金魚袋臣 (“Court Counselor, Acting Diarist of Activity and Repose, Hanlin-Official of the Qiánwén Pavilion, History Bureau Compiler, Cavalry Commandant, with imperially-granted purple-gold fish-pouch Subject”), composed on imperial command. The preface frames the doctrinal context: the Tathāgata’s teaching is twofold — xiǎn 顯 (manifest, the Five-Natures Three-Vehicles) and mì 密 (secret, the Comprehensive-Held Secret-Treasury); the Mahāvairocana-sūtra belongs to the latter. The Liáo emperor (likely Liáo Dàozōng 道宗) had ordered the carving of the Buddhist canon, and required scholarly examination; Juéyuàn was assigned the task. The preface and Juéyuàn’s own colophon date the work to a span beginning with Liáo Qīngníng 5 = 1059 under Liáo Dàozōng.
Abstract
The Yǎnmì chāo — “Expanding-the-Esoteric Sub-Commentary” — is Liáo Buddhism’s principal contribution to East Asian Esoteric exegesis: a substantial expansion of Yīxíng’s Tang-period Yìshì through Liáo-period scholastic methods, with substantial doctrinal analysis of Mantrayāna concepts (wǔxìng sānshèng 五性三乘 vs. zǒngchí mìcáng 總持秘藏; yuánxiū wànxíng 圓修萬行 vs. jùzhèng shíshēn 具證十身 vs. dùn liǎo yī fǎjiè-xīn 頓了一法界心). The work confirms the substantial Liáo-imperial commitment to Esoteric Buddhism — paralleling the Tang transmission preserved through Heian Japan but not surviving in mainland China through the Sòng — and is one of the very few Liáo-period scholarly works to survive into the Xùzàngjīng canonical tradition. Composition: c. 1059–1085 (Liáo Qīngníng – Dàkāng eras).
Translations and research
- Charles Orzech et al., eds., Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia (Brill, 2011) — discussion of the Liáo Esoteric tradition.
- Robert Sharf and others on the textual transmission of the Mahāvairocana-sūtra.
Other points of interest
As one of the few surviving Liáo Buddhist scholarly texts, the Yǎnmì chāo is an important window onto the Liáo-imperial Esoteric scholarly establishment that flourished in parallel with — but in mainland-Chinese isolation from — the Sòng-period intellectual climate.