Fànwǎngjīng púsàjièběn sījì 梵網經菩薩戒本私記
Personal Notes on the Brahmajāla Bodhisattva Precept-Text by 元曉 (Wǒnhyo, 造)
About the work
A one-fascicle commentary on the Fànwǎng jīng bodhisattva-precepts by the great Silla-dynasty Korean Buddhist philosopher Wǒnhyo 元曉 (元曉, 617–686). 私記 sījì “personal notes” indicates the genre — informal exegetical notes rather than a formal scholastic commentary.
Prefaces
Author’s colophon: 新羅元曉造.
Abstract
Wǒnhyo is the foundational systematic philosopher of Korean Buddhism, the author of the Daśabhūmika-sūtra-vibhāṣā commentary, the Awakening of Faith commentary (Qǐxìn lùn shū 起信論疏), and over seventy other works. His Fànwǎng commentary, though brief, is significant as one of the three principal Silla commentaries on the bodhisattva-precepts (alongside 義寂 Ŭijŏk’s Púsàjièběn shū KR6k0082 and 太賢 Taehyŏn’s Fànwǎngjīng gǔjì jì KR6k0083). Wǒnhyo’s distinctive harmonising (和諍 hwajaeng) interpretive method — reconciling apparently contradictory doctrinal positions — is applied to the Fànwǎng precepts to integrate the bodhisattva-precept tradition with both the Yogācāra and Madhyamaka philosophical frameworks.
Translations and research
- Buswell, Robert E. Jr. The Korean Approach to Zen: The Collected Works of Chinul. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1983.
- Buswell, Robert E. Jr. Cultivating Original Enlightenment: Wonhyo’s Exposition of the Vajrasamādhi-Sūtra. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2007.
- Park, Sung Bae. Wonhyo: Buddhist Philosopher. Seoul, various.