Fǎjiè shèngfán shuǐlù dàzhāi pǔlì dàochǎng xìngxiàng tōnglùn 法界聖凡水陸大齋普利道場性相通論
A General Discourse on Natureand-Phenomena for the Universal-Benefit Site of the Great Waterand-Land Fast for All Sages and Common Beings of the Dharma-Realm by 咫觀 (Zhǐguān, 述)
About the work
A nine-fascicle late-Qīng theoretical-cum-procedural treatise on the Shuǐlù mass, by Zhǐguān 咫觀, the religious style of the Yángzhōu lay Buddhist Zhèng Yìngfáng 鄭應房 (咫觀). The full author signature reads Jìngyè xíngrén Zhǐguān Zhèng Yìngfáng 淨業行人 咫觀 鄭應房 (“Puredeeds practitioner Zhǐguān, Zhèng Yìngfáng”). Where Zhìpán’s Sòng manual (KR6k0204) and Zhūhóng’s Míng revision give the yíguǐ 儀軌 (procedural code), the present work supplies the xìngxiàng tōnglùn 性相通論 — a comprehensive treatment of the doctrinal basis of the rite, mapping its symbolism onto Huáyán yīzhēn fǎjiè 一真法界 metaphysics on one side and the yújiā yànkǒu 瑜伽燄口 hungry-ghost feeding tradition on the other.
Prefaces
The opening zǒnglùn 總論 (general statement) declares the rite’s dual genealogy:
“梁武以降。行法有人。志磐以後。書卷可考。蓮師酌之。大略仍古。洪師演之。多半宜今.” “From Liáng Wǔdì 梁武帝 onwards there have been those who performed the rite; from Zhìpán onwards there are texts to consult. Master Lián (i.e. Yúnqī Zhūhóng 雲棲祩宏 袾宏) revised it conservatively, mostly following the old; Master Hóng (probably Hóngzàn 弘贊 弘贊 of the Qīng) restaged it, mostly suiting present needs.”
This preface positions Zhǐguān’s own work as the doctrinal companion to those liturgies, not a competitor.
Abstract
The Xìngxiàng tōnglùn lays out the Shuǐlù rite under nine fascicles of doctrinal discussion, taking the standard Shuǐlù manual as already given. The author traces three founding episodes: (1) Ānanda’s encounter with the piṣāca and the institution of the yújiā yànkǒu (Yogastyle feeding-of-burning-mouths) — the prototype of the lower altar; (2) the Liáng Wǔdì dream-vision said to have inaugurated the Shuǐlù rite proper; (3) the codification of the manual by Sòng Sìmíng Zhìpán and the editorial reception of the rite at Yúnqī in the late Míng. The treatise then walks through the huàyán hǎihuì 華嚴海會 (“dharma-flower ocean assembly”) theme of the upper altar and the fàngyànkǒu lower-altar service, harmonising the xìng (nature) and xiàng (phenomena) modes — hence the title.
The author’s life-dates are not preserved, but he was the father of the Pure-Land monk Miàokōng fǎshī 妙空法師 (1826–1880), and he himself died at age 71 at the Mílèdiàn of Jīyuán 雞園. His floruit therefore falls in the third quarter of the 19th century; notBefore and notAfter are bracketed 1850–1880 as a defensible window. The work travels with the same author’s Fǎlún bǎochàn 法輪寶懺 (KR6k0206, X1499); both were produced for the Jīyuán community in Yángzhōu.
Translations and research
- Stevenson, Daniel B. “Text, Image, and Transformation in the History of the Shuilu fahui” (see KR6k0204 for full citation) — discusses the late-Qīng commentarial layer of the Shuǐlù tradition, of which this work is the principal product.
Other points of interest
- The author was a layman (淨業行人, jìngyè xíngrén), one of the rare cases in the Xùzàng of a Shuǐlù manual produced outside the monastic hierarchy.
- The companion volume, KR6k0206 Fǎlún bǎochàn, is the actual liturgical adaptation Zhǐguān derived from this theoretical exposition.
Links
- CBETA online: https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/X1498
- 鄭應房 DILA
- Kanseki DB