Jìngxīn jièguān fǎ 淨心戒觀法
The Method of Pure-mind, Precepts, and Contemplation by 道宣 (Dàoxuān, 撰)
About the work
A two-fascicle Vinaya-meditation manual by Dàoxuān 道宣 (道宣, 596–667). The work integrates jiè 戒 (precepts), guān 觀 (contemplation), and jìngxīn 淨心 (purification of mind) into a single graduated practice manual. Note: the canonical title in the Manji canon is 淨心誡觀法 (Jìngxīn jièguān fǎ with 誡 “admonition” rather than 戒 “precept” — see the CANWWW T45N1893 record); the Kanripo and Taishō main-text title uses 戒 (the form recorded throughout the Sòng-Tang catalogues), and that variant is preserved here.
Prefaces
The Manji edition prints Yuánzhào’s (元照) xù (preface) at the head of the work, signed 餘杭郡沙門釋元照述 — establishing that the surviving recension passed through the eleventh-century Língzhīsì 靈芝寺 editorial workshop. Yuánzhào’s preface opens with the famous formula 太近至易無如自心，入死出生了不知覺 (“nothing is closer or easier than one’s own mind, yet entering death and emerging into birth one is wholly unaware”), establishing the meditative-doctrinal framework for Dàoxuān’s text.
Abstract
The Jìngxīn jièguān fǎ belongs to a small group of Dàoxuān works that integrate Vinaya observance with Mahāyāna doctrinal-meditative content. The work treats the precepts not merely as conduct-norms but as the pure-mind contemplation (jìngxīn guān 淨心觀) — the prātimokṣa internalised as a meditative practice. This integrative approach links the Nánshān Vinaya tradition with the yīchéng 一乘 (“One-Vehicle”) Mahāyāna soteriology that distinguished Dàoxuān from his Vinaya-school rivals (the Xiāngbù of 法礪 and the Dōngtǎ of 懷素). Composition belongs to Dàoxuān’s mature Zhōngnán 終南 period; precise dating is not preserved.
Translations and research
- McRae, John R. Studies on Dàoxuān’s meditative-Vinaya integration.
- Funayama Toru 船山徹. Studies on Tang Vinaya.