Sìfēnlǜ shū shìzōng yìjì 四分律疏飾宗義記
Records of Adorning the School: Sub-commentary on the Sìfēnlǜ shū by 定賓 (Dìng Bīn, 作)
About the work
An eight-fascicle Tang jì 記 sub-commentary on Fǎlì’s (法礪, 569–635) Sìfēnlǜ shū (KR6k0161) by Dìng Bīn 定賓 (定賓), a senior scholar of the Xiāngbù 相部 Sìfēnlǜ school. Shìzōng 飾宗 (“adorning the school’s tenets”) signals Dìng Bīn’s editorial intent of expounding and defending Fǎlì’s Xiāngbù doctrine.
Prefaces
The Manji edition opens with a mùcì 目次. The first juan (本/末) is recorded as 不傳 (“not transmitted”); the surviving fascicles begin with juan 2.
Abstract
Together with Fǎlì’s parent Shū (KR6k0161) and Dìng Bīn’s other Vinaya commentary KR6k0132 Sìfēn bǐqiū jièběn shū, the Shìzōng yìjì is one of the principal surviving witnesses to the Xiāngbù 相部 Sìfēnlǜ tradition — the second of the three competing Tang Vinaya schools (Nánshān 南山 / Xiāngbù 相部 / Dōngtǎ 東塔). Dìng Bīn defends the Xiāngbù distinctive position on the substance of the precepts (jiètǐ 戒體) against the Nánshān alternative, and his jì is therefore important documentation of the early-Tang Vinaya disputes that were ultimately settled in favour of Dàoxuān’s tradition. Dating: Dìng Bīn was active across the early-eighth century (under Empress Wǔ and Xuánzōng); the bracket here gives a defensible composition window. The opening juan of the work was already lost by the time of the Manji canon’s source-witnesses.
Translations and research
- Funayama Toru 船山徹. Studies on Tang Vinaya schools.
- Wáng Jiànguāng 王建光. Zhōngguó lǜzōng tōngshǐ 中國律宗通史.