Sēng jiémó 僧羯磨
Karmavācanā for Monks (Dōngtǎ school) by 懷素 (Huáisù, 集)
About the work
A three-fascicle Dharmaguptaka karmavācanā compendium for the monks’ saṅgha, compiled by Huáisù 懷素 (懷素, 624–697) of the Dōng-tǎ 東塔 (Eastern Pagoda) school of Sìfēn Vinaya. Composed in the second half of the 7th century at Cháng’ān, the text presents an alternative — and in some traditions, a competing — karmavācanā compendium to Dàoxuān’s Sìfēn lǜ shānbǔ suíjī jiémó (KR6k0046).
Prefaces
Author’s colophon: 唐西太原寺沙門懷素集.
Abstract
The Sēng jiémó represents the Dōngtǎ school of Sìfēn Vinaya — one of the three competing exegetical traditions of the Tang Sìfēn Vinaya, alongside Dàoxuān’s Nánshān and Fǎlì’s Xiāngbù. Where Dàoxuān gave priority to a synthesising approach combining multiple Vinaya traditions to clarify the Sìfēn lǜ, Huáisù’s Dōngtǎ school took a strict-textualist approach, working only from the Sìfēn lǜ itself and rejecting external supplementation. The two karmavācanā compendia accordingly differ in detail. After the eclipse of the Dōngtǎ school in the late Tang, Dàoxuān’s tradition became universal — but Huáisù’s text remained a respected secondary authority, especially in the Sòng under the influence of Yuánzhào’s eclectic recovery.
Translations and research
- Wáng Jiànguāng 王建光. Zhōngguó lǜ-zōng tōng-shǐ 中國律宗通史. Nanjing, 2008.
- Wèi Dào-rǔ 魏道儒. Zhōngguó fójiào lǜ-zōng. Beijing, 1995.