Cíbēi dàochǎng shuǐchànfǎ kēzhù 慈悲道場水懺法科註
A Sub-Section Commentary on the Compassion-Site Water-Repentance Liturgy by 西宗 (Xīzōng, 集註)
About the work
A three-fascicle late-Qīng kēzhù 科註 (subsection + interlinear commentary) on the Táng-period Cíbēi shuǐchànfǎ 慈悲水懺法 (T1910 / KR6c0007) attributed to Wùdá guóshī Zhīxuán 悟達國師知玄. Compiled by Chéngjiǎn Xīzōng 成簡西宗 (西宗, ?–1688), dharmaheir of Lǚpíng Zhìxián fǎshī 履平智賢法師 (1608–1673) at Jīn’ésì 金峩寺 in Níngbō, while resident at the Lóngzhùsì 龍住寺 in Xīxiāng 西鄉. The author signature reads Lóngzhù shì Chéngjiǎn Xīzōng jízhù 龍住釋 成簡西宗 集註.
Prefaces
(A) Cíbēi dàochǎng shuǐchàn yuán xù 慈悲道場水懺原敘 — a recapitulation of the yuánqǐ 緣起 of the parent Shuǐ chàn: the encounter between Wùdá guóshī 悟達國師 (Zhīxuán 知玄) and the bodhisattva Jiānuòjiā zūnzhě 迦諾迦尊者 (Kanaka) under the Táng emperor Yìzōng 懿宗, the affliction of the rénmiàn chuāng 人面瘡 (the “faceshaped boil”) born from the karmic enmity of Yuán Àng 袁盎 and Cháo Cuò 晁錯 of the Western Hàn, and its washing by the bodhisattva’s sānmèi shuǐ 三昧水 (water of samādhi) at Péngzhōu Jiǔlóngshān 彭州九龍山 in Western Shǔ.
(B) Yuánqǐ wén 緣起文 — Xīzōng’s own opening statement on the rite’s purpose: “to turn the resentful into kin and to transform sin’s morass into a field of merit.”
A later editorial colophon clarifies that the master “followed the old block-edition’s kē divisions and continued his interlinear notes [until] illness reached its crisis and he laid down the brush” (病篤而止) — the work was therefore finished only as far as the master’s strength held before his death in early 1688 (Kāngxī 26 / 27, 12th lunar month).
Abstract
Xīzōng’s Kēzhù parses the Shuǐ chàn sentence by sentence, supplementing the source-text with a kē 科 (section-tree) skeleton followed by Chán/Jiào doctrinal annotations. The zhù threads canonical citations (the Jīngāng jīng, Nièpán jīng, the seven-Buddha fùfǎ jié 付法偈, etc.) into a comprehensive devotional commentary. Composition is precisely bracketed: Xīzōng was tonsured in middle age after a family disaster, kept a long period of canon-reading retreat under his master Lǚpíng (d. 1673), then taught at Pǔqiū 普邱, Dìngqiáo 定橋 and Jiāngxīn 江心 monasteries; the Kēzhù must have been completed in the period between his teacher’s death in 1673 and his own in early 1688 — notBefore and notAfter are accordingly set 1670–1688. The work is preserved by the Jīn’ésì zhì 金峩寺志, juan 5.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
Links
- CBETA online: https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/X1496
- 西宗 DILA
- Kanseki DB