Fózhì liùwù tú biàné 佛制六物圖辯訛
Refuting the Errors in the Illustrated Manual on the Six Items the Buddha Established by 妙生 (Miàoshēng, 述)
About the work
A single-fascicle Northern Sòng critical response to Yuánzhào’s (元照, 1048–1116) Fózhì bǐqiū liùwù tú (KR6k0186, T1900) by Miàoshēng 妙生 (妙生) of Huìjī 會稽. Biàné 辯訛 (“Refuting Errors”) signals the work’s polemical genre. Author signature: 會稽沙門 妙生 述 (Composed by Miàoshēng, monk of Huìjī).
Prefaces
The work opens with Miàoshēng’s own xù: 三衣六物之制簡自佛心其功固不可量也 (“the regulation of the three robes and the six items proceeds directly from the Buddha’s mind; its merit is incalculable”). The preface explains that Miàoshēng had long wished to correct errors in current understanding of the liùwù but had no occasion until Dōngzàng lǜshī 東藏律師 (= Yuánzhào — Dōngzàng identifying him as the Dōngzàng tradition of the Língzhīsì) “issued separately a Liùwù tú with which to revise the abuses.” Miàoshēng received a copy with great pleasure but found “the meaning of the text loose and full of gaps; in my heart there were many points of unease.” He therefore produced the present biàné “not because of any love of disagreement, but for fear that, should Yuánzhào’s work spread alone, doubts and ambiguities would propagate.” The preface continues with a careful disclaimer of personal animosity.
Abstract
The Biàné is a rare extant instance of explicit critical disputation between two Northern Sòng Lǜzōng contemporaries. Miàoshēng works through Yuánzhào’s Liùwù tú point by point, identifying errors in measurement, regulation, and canonical citation; the work is therefore documentarily critical for understanding the diversity of Sòng Vinaya scholarship. Miàoshēng’s biographical record (per DILA A000462 / Fózǔ tǒngjì j. 27) places him in the company of Chán contemporaries, suggesting that his Vinaya position is informed by the broader Sòng jiàochán 教禪 dialogue rather than from purely Língzhīsì lineage. The work must postdate Yuánzhào’s KR6k0186 of 1080 and falls within Miàoshēng’s productive period.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.