Púsà jièběn zōngyào 菩薩戒本宗要
The Essential Tenets of the Bodhisattva Precepts by 太賢 (Tàixián, 撰)
About the work
A single-fascicle commentary on the Yogācāra bodhisattva-precept text by the Silla Korean monk Tàixián 太賢 / Dàxián 大賢 (太賢, fl. mid-eighth century), the leading Silla Yogācāra master and self-styled Qīngqiū shāmén 青丘沙門 (“Monk of the Blue Hills” = Korea). The Manji edition signs the work 青丘沙門大賢撰 (Composed by Dàxián, monk of Qīngqiū) — using the variant 大賢, which is reflected in the catalog meta. Note: the DILA Buddhist Person Authority (A000152) records the canonical name as 太賢 with 大賢 as a graphic variant.
Prefaces
The Manji edition opens with a xù by Dàofēng 道峯 of Dàjiànfúsì 大薦福寺 (Cháng’ān): 吾觀。悠悠群動。營塵業。以增夫漏根 (“I observe how the multitudinous activities of the throng cultivate the dust-deeds and increase the āsrava roots”). The preface presents Tàixián as Dōngguó Dàxián fǎshī 東國大賢法師 (“Dharma-master Dàxián of the Eastern Country [= Silla]”) and praises his Yújiā zǎn 瑜伽纂 (the Yogācāra compilation tradition).
Abstract
The Púsà jièběn zōngyào is one of Tàixián’s principal extant works on the bodhisattva-vinaya and forms part of his vast Silla Yogācāra commentarial corpus (cf. his Fànwǎng jīng gǔjī jì 梵網經古迹記, T1815, on the Brahma-Net Sūtra; his Běnyuàn Yàoshī jīng gǔjī 本願藥師經古迹, T1770, on the Bhaiṣajyaguru-sūtra; his Chéngwéishí lùn xuéjì 成唯識論學記, X0818, on Xuánzàng’s Cheng-weishi lun). The work expounds the bodhisattva-precepts of the Yogācārabhūmi’s bodhisattva-bhūmi (Púsà dì jièpǐn 菩薩地戒品), transmitted to China via Dharmakṣema’s Púsà jiè běn 菩薩戒本 (T1500) and Xuánzàng’s Yújiā shīdì lùn jièpǐn 瑜伽師地論戒品 — and forms a critical link in the East Asian transmission of the Yogācāra bodhisattva-precept tradition. Composition belongs to Tàixián’s productive period in mid-eighth-century Silla.
Translations and research
- Buswell, Robert E. Jr. The Formation of Ch’an Ideology in China and Korea (1989) — for context on Silla Buddhist scholarship.
- Mun, Chanju. The History of Doctrinal Classification in Chinese Buddhism (2006).
- Lee, Peter H. (ed.). Sourcebook of Korean Civilization (1993) — for Tàixián’s historical context.