Fànwǎng jièběn shū rìzhū chāo 梵網戒本疏日珠鈔
The Sun-Pearl Sub-Commentary on the Brahmajāla Precept-Text Commentary by 凝然 (Gyōnen, 撰)
About the work
A massive fifty-fascicle Japanese sub-commentary by Gyōnen 凝然 (凝然, 1240–1321) of Tōdai-ji 東大寺 — a sub-commentary on Fǎzàng’s Fànwǎngjīng púsàjièběn shū (KR6k0080). 日珠 rìzhū “sun-pearl” is the metaphorical title; 鈔 chāo “extracts/sub-commentary” indicates the genre.
Prefaces
Author: 凝然 (Gyōnen), late 13th–early 14th c.
Abstract
The Rìzhū chāo is the largest and most thorough Japanese-Buddhist commentary on the Fànwǎng jīng tradition, comprehensively analysing every line of Fǎzàng’s commentary and through it the precept-text of the Fànwǎng jīng itself. As the principal scholastic resource of Kamakura-period Kegon-Risshū learning at Tōdai-ji, the work documents the full Japanese reception of the East Asian bodhisattva-precept tradition. As a Japanese scholastic work, it is preserved in the Japanese Daizōkyō supplement rather than the standard Chinese canon.
Translations and research
- Groner, Paul. Saichō: The Establishment of the Japanese Tendai School. Berkeley, 1984; rev. 2000.
- Yifa, Bhikṣuṇī. The Origins of Buddhist Monastic Codes in China. Honolulu, 2002.
- Quinter, David. From Outcasts to Emperors: Shingon Ritsu and the Mañjuśrī Cult in Medieval Japan. Leiden: Brill, 2015. — On the Kamakura Vinaya revival context.