Fànwǎngjīng púsàjièběn shū 梵網經菩薩戒本疏
Commentary on the Bodhisattva Precept-Text of the Brahmajāla Sūtra by 法藏 (Fǎzàng, 撰)
About the work
A six-fascicle commentary on the Fànwǎng bodhisattva-precepts by Fǎzàng 法藏 (法藏, 643–712), the third patriarch and systematic founder of the Huāyán 華嚴 school. This is one of the three principal Tang commentaries on the Fànwǎng jīng, alongside 智顗 Zhìyǐ’s Púsàjiè yìshū (KR6k0078) and 義寂 Yì Jì’s Púsàjièběn shū (KR6k0082).
Prefaces
Author’s colophon: 唐京西崇福寺翻經沙門法藏述.
Abstract
Fǎzàng’s commentary establishes the Huāyán doctrinal interpretation of the Fànwǎng jīng. Where Zhìyǐ read the bodhisattva-precepts within the Tiāntái yīniàn sānqiān framework, Fǎzàng reads them within the Huāyán framework of the four dharma-dhātu (四法界 sìfǎjiè) and the perfect interpenetration of lǐ 理 and shì 事 — treating the precepts as expressions of the cosmic dharmadhātu of the Lotus-Treasury (liánhuázàng 蓮華藏) realm of the Avataṃsaka. The text became the foundational interpretation for Huāyán-Mahāyāna readings of bodhisattva-discipline, and through Korean Hwaom and Japanese Kegon transmissions, an authoritative reference throughout East Asian Mahāyāna.
Translations and research
- Cook, Francis H. Hua-yen Buddhism: The Jewel Net of Indra. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1977.
- Gimello, Robert M. & Peter N. Gregory (eds.). Studies in Ch’an and Hua-yen. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1983.
- Hamar, Imre (ed.). Reflecting Mirrors: Perspectives on Huayan Buddhism. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2007.