Lǜxiàng gǎntōng zhuàn 律相感通傳
Records of the Spiritual Communications about the Vinaya Marks by 道宣 (Dàoxuān, 撰)
About the work
A short single-fascicle work by Dàoxuān 道宣 (道宣, 596–667) recording his gǎntōng 感通 (“spiritual communications”) with the Indian Buddhist deity Wèituó 韋馱 (= Skanda / Vighnāntaka) and other heavenly beings during his late residence at Jìngyèsì 淨業寺 on Zhōngnánshān. The communications concern the proper interpretation of vinaya details and the textual history of the Indian Vinaya-piṭaka. The work is conventionally dated to 667 (Dàoxuān’s death-year) on the basis of the Sòng gāosēng zhuàn’s biography.
Prefaces
The Manji edition opens with a re-printing preface (Chóngkè lǜxiàng gǎntōng zhuàn xù 重刻律相感通傳序) identifying Táng Zhōngnánshān Chéngzhào dàshī 唐終南山澂照大師 (= Dàoxuān, with his canonical posthumous title) as jiāntōng sānzàng 兼通三藏 (master of the three piṭakas), specially expert in bǐní 毘尼 (Vinaya), and as the direct heir of the Tánwúdé 曇無德 (= Dharmagupta) lineage.
Abstract
The Lǜxiàng gǎntōng zhuàn is the principal documentary witness to the hagiographic Wèituó tradition of the Nánshānlǜ school: Dàoxuān’s reported visions of Wèituó (= Skanda, the protective deity of the Vinaya-piṭaka) during his Zhōngnán residence in 667 became the theological foundation for the Nánshān’s self-presentation as the divinely-authenticated Vinaya school. The work transcribes Dàoxuān’s reported dialogues with Wèituó on points of Vinaya interpretation and on the authenticated transmission of the Indian Vinaya-piṭaka. It is studied in two distinct registers: as a hagiographic-religious document of Tang Buddhist devotion to the Tian-rén 天人 (heavenly beings), and as a doctrinal-Vinaya document where Dàoxuān grounds his interpretive choices in revealed authority. The text is precisely datable to 667 — the year of the visions and of Dàoxuān’s death.
Translations and research
- Birnbaum, Raoul. The Healing Buddha (1979) — for the broader context of Tang revelatory traditions.
- Funayama Toru 船山徹. Studies on Tang Buddhist hagiography.
- Strickmann, Michel. Studies on Tang revelatory literature.