Chóngzhì píní shìyì jíyào 重治毗尼事義集要
Re-edited Compendium of Vinaya Affairs and Meanings by 智旭 (Zhìxù, 彙釋)
About the work
A seventeen-fascicle revised digest of Sìfēnlǜ 四分律 vinaya material compiled by Ǒuyì Zhìxù 蕅益智旭 (智旭, 1599–1655), the late-Míng integrative Buddhist master who is one of the Wǎn-Míng sì dà gāosēng 晚明四大高僧 (“Four Great Masters of Late Míng Buddhism”). The work is a chóngzhì 重治 (“re-edited”) version of an earlier compilation by Zhìxù; the post-colophon note in the source records that the original ran to eighteen juan, with the eighteenth (Jièdù lüèshì 犍度略釋) circulating separately and edited in this Manji recension as a stand-alone work (KR6k0174).
Prefaces
The 卍 Xuzangjing edition opens with two prefaces: a Chóngzhì píní shìyì jíyào xù 重治毗尼事義集要敘 by the Vinaya monk Zhìtái 智[台/十] of Jìnzhōu 晉州 (the source preserves the unusual character form 台/十 in the name), recording that the editio princeps was prepared at the urging of Jiǔshèng 九聖, Huìshí 慧石, Fóbì 佛璧, and Qiānshòu 千壽 with the unblemished Vinaya master Wúxiá 無瑕 of Jìn-Liáo as the principal collator; and Zhìxù’s autobiographical xù opening with his birth on the third day of the fifth month of Wànlì 27 = 1599. The author’s terminal bá is dated gēngyín 庚寅 8th month 8th day = 1650 (Shùnzhì 7), which therefore fixes the terminus ad quem of the present recension; the underlying first compilation was prepared in the late-Chóngzhēn (after 1632) when Zhìxù’s Vinaya career was already mature.
Abstract
The Jíyào digests, classifies, and re-arranges the standard Sìfēn vinaya material — pātimokkha, jiémó 羯磨 (karmavācanā), jiēdù 犍度 (skandhaka) — in a form designed for late-Míng monastic use. Zhìxù was active in Vinaya scholarship throughout his career: the work belongs together with his Píní shìyì yàolüè 毗尼事義要略 and Sìfēnlǜzàng dàxiǎo chíjiè jiēdù lüèshì (KR6k0174) as a coherent late-Míng programme of Vinaya synthesis. As a Tiāntái-Chán-Pure Land synthesist, Zhìxù was atypical among Vinaya commentators of his generation: his interest in the Vinaya was framed by the late-Míng concern (shared with Zhūhóng, Hānshān Déqīng, and the Bǎohuáshān revivalists) for restoring observant monastic discipline as the precondition for meditative and devotional practice. The text was eventually integrated into the Bǎohuáshān Vinaya curriculum and supplied with a follow-up gloss, Píní guānyào 毗尼關要 (KR6k0152), by Dìngān Déjī 定菴德基 (德基, 1634–1700/01).
Translations and research
- Shèngyán 釋聖嚴. Mínmò Zhōngguó fójiào zhī yánjiū 明末中國佛教之研究 (Tokyo, 1975; Chinese trans. Taipei, 1988): the standard study of late-Míng Buddhist Vinaya, including Zhìxù’s contribution.
- Yū, Chün-fang. The Renewal of Buddhism in China. New York, 1981.