Púsà jiè jiémó wén shì 菩薩戒羯磨文釋
Commentary on the Karman-text of the Bodhisattva Precepts by 智旭 (Zhìxù, 釋)
About the work
A single-fascicle late-Míng commentary by Ǒuyì Zhìxù 蕅益智旭 (智旭, 1599–1655) on the Púsà jiè jiémó wén 菩薩戒羯磨文 — the karman-text (procedural formulary) for the bodhisattva precepts, drawn from the jièpǐn 戒品 of the Yogācārabhūmi and translated by Xuánzàng 玄奘 (T1499). Author signatures in the source: 彌勒菩薩說 (spoken by Maitreya); 唐三藏法師 玄奘 譯 (translated by Tang Tripiṭaka-master Xuánzàng); 明菩薩弟子 智旭 釋 (commented by the Míng-dynasty bodhisattva-disciple Zhìxù).
Prefaces
The work opens directly with Zhìxù’s commentary. Zhìxù’s framing remarks identify the source-text: 此文出瑜伽師地論本地分中菩薩地之戒品。凡受菩薩戒者。最宜知之。故奘師譯出別行也 (“this text comes from the Púsàdì jièpǐn of the Běndìfēn of the Yogācārabhūmi; whoever receives the bodhisattva-precepts most properly knows it; therefore Xuánzàng translated it out in separate-circulation form”). Zhìxù then enumerates the structural divisions of the Yogācārabhūmi (the five-fold fēn 分 framework, the seventeen-fold dì 地 framework) to locate the source-text within Xuánzàng’s vast hundred-juan translation.
Abstract
The Jiémó wén shì is the procedural complement to Zhìxù’s KR6k0195 Púsà jièběn jīng jiānyào: where the latter expounds the precepts as text (jièběn), the present work expounds the karman-formulary for transmitting and receiving them. Zhìxù’s commentary supplies the operational manual for late-Míng bodhisattva-precept transmission and is closely tied to the contemporary Chinese revival of the bodhisattva-precept tradition under Yúnqī Zhūhóng 雲棲袾宏 and the Bǎohuáshān ordinations. Composition is contemporary with KR6k0195 in Zhìxù’s mature productive years.
Translations and research
- Tatz, Mark. Asaṅga’s Chapter on Ethics with the Commentary of Tsong-kha-pa, the Basic Path to Awakening, the Complete Bodhisattva (1986) — for the Tibetan parallel of the same source-text.
- Shèngyán 釋聖嚴. Mínmò Zhōngguó fójiào zhī yánjiū.