Sìfēnlǜzàng dàxiǎo chíjiè jiēdù lüèshì 四分律藏大小持戒犍度略釋
Brief Commentary on the Skandhaka of Greater and Lesser Precept-keeping in the Sìfēnlǜ-piṭaka by 智旭 (Zhìxù, 釋)
About the work
A single-fascicle late-Míng commentary on the Chíjiè jiēdù 持戒犍度 (“the skandhaka on keeping the precepts”) of the Sìfēnlǜ 四分律 (KR6k0001) by Ǒuyì Zhìxù 蕅益智旭 (智旭, 1599–1655). The author signs himself as 菩薩沙彌古吳智旭際明 釋 (Commented by Bodhisattva-novice Zhìxù Jìmíng of Gǔ-Wú) — using the bodhisattva-precept “novice” status that he adopted in the late Míng. The work is the eighteenth and final fascicle of his original Píní jíyào 毗尼集要 (subsequently re-edited as the seventeen-juan KR6k0151 Chóngzhì píní shìyì jíyào); the post-colophon to KR6k0151 explicitly notes that the original eighteenth juan, the Jiēdù lüèshì, was edited separately and circulates in the present recension as a stand-alone work.
Prefaces
No separate front-matter; the work opens directly with the title-line and Zhìxù’s exposition.
Abstract
The work treats the Chíjiè jiēdù as the canonical site at which the prātimokṣa is grounded in jièběn 戒本 (the precepts as text), distinguishing under two heads: (1) dāngfēn míngyì 當分明義 (“clarification within division”), where dà 大 = bǐqiū 比丘 (fully ordained) and xiǎo 小 = shāmí 沙彌 (novice), and (2) kuàjié míngyì 跨節明義 (“clarification across nodes”). Zhìxù’s analysis re-classifies the precept-system into three orders: bōluótímùchā jiè 波羅提木叉戒 (the prātimokṣa proper), chánjiè 禪戒 (precepts as the basis of meditative absorption — entering the four dhyāna through the abandonment of the five nivāraṇa), and wúlòu jiè 無漏戒 (precepts as the basis of the five higher cognitions and the three liberating insights). This three-fold scheme reflects the late-Míng integrative hermeneutic. Composition belongs to Zhìxù’s mature Vinaya period and is dated to his original Jíyào compilation (post-1632, before his death in 1655).
Translations and research
- Shèngyán 釋聖嚴. Mínmò Zhōngguó fójiào zhī yánjiū 明末中國佛教之研究.