Gēnběn shuō yīqiè yǒubù chūjiā shòu jìnyuán jiémó yífàn 根本說一切有部出家授近圓羯磨儀範
Karman Manual for Going Forth and Receiving Full Ordination according to the Mūlasarvāstivāda by 拔合思巴 (ʼPhags-pa, 集)
About the work
A short single-fascicle Yuán Vinaya-ritual manual on the going-forth (chūjiā 出家 = pravrajyā) and full-ordination (shòu jìnyuán 授近圓 = upasampadā) procedures according to the Mūlasarvāstivāda 根本說一切有部 — the Vinaya-recension of the Tibetan tradition — compiled in Chinese by ʼPhags-pa 拔合思巴 (拔合思巴, 1235–1280), Fifth Patriarch of the Sa-skya sect and Imperial Preceptor of Khubilai’s Yuán court.
Prefaces
The Manji edition opens with a xù: 原夫贍部嘉運。至四佛釋迦文如來遺教利見也 (“the auspicious destiny of Jambudvīpa, reaching the teaching of the fourth-Buddha Śākyamuni, manifests its benefits”), and proceeds to praise the patronage of Dà Yuán yùshì dì wǔzhǔ 大元御世第五主 (= Khubilai Khan, the Fifth ruler of the Yuán house) — Xiàntiān shù dào 憲天述道 (“imitating Heaven and continuing the Way”) with his canonical Mongolian title Dàguāngxiào 大光孝 (Sechen).
Abstract
The Yífàn is one of two short Chinese Vinaya manuals by ʼPhags-pa (with KR6k0192), prepared in Beijing for the Mongol-imperial Buddhist establishment during the Zhìyuán era. Together they introduce the Mūlasarvāstivāda-Vinaya tradition (rather than the Sìfēnlǜ of the Chinese-Buddhist mainstream) into Yuán-imperial monastic ordination practice — a programmatic reflection of Tibetan Buddhist primacy under Yuán imperial sponsorship. The work treats the canonical karman-formulary for the pravrajyā and upasampadā ceremonies in close keeping with the parallel sections of the Mūlasarvāstivāda corpus translated by Yìjìng (T1442–T1459) but now operationalised under the Tibetan Bka’-gdams / Sa-skya model. Composition is bracketed by Khubilai’s enthronement (1260) and ʼPhags-pa’s death (1280).
Translations and research
- Karmay, Heather. Early Sino-Tibetan Art (1975) — for the broader Yuán-court Sino-Tibetan context.
- Petech, Luciano. Central Tibet and the Mongols (1990) — for the political and religious framework of Yuán-Tibetan Buddhism.
- Sperling, Elliot. Studies on the Yuán dìshī 帝師 system.