Fǎjiè shèngfán shuǐlù dàzhāi fǎlún bǎochàn 法界聖凡水陸大齋法輪寶懺
Precious Repentance of the Dharma-Wheel for the Great Waterand-Land Fast of All Sages and Common Beings of the Dharma-Realm by 咫觀 (Zhǐguān, 記)
About the work
A ten-fascicle late-Qīng bǎochàn 寶懺 (precious-repentance liturgy) for the Shuǐlù mass, by the same lay author as KR6k0205 Xìngxiàng tōnglùn — Zhǐguān 咫觀, religious style of Zhèng Yìngfáng 鄭應房 (咫觀), of Jīyuán 雞園 in Yángzhōu. Where the Tōnglùn gives the doctrinal exposition, the Fǎlún bǎochàn supplies the actual liturgy: a ten-fascicle altar-service in which the practitioner walks through the entire zàngjīng 藏經 by category — first the Huáyán 華嚴, then fāngděngxiǎn 方等顯 (exoteric vaipulya), fāngděngmì 方等密 (esoteric vaipulya), bānruò 般若, Fǎhuá 法華, Nièpán 涅槃, Āhán 阿含, Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna vinaya, Indian and Chinese śāstra, and so on — venerating each canonical category as a moving “wheel of dharma” within the structure of the Shuǐlù rite.
Prefaces
(A) Fǎlún bǎochàn yuánqǐ 法輪寶懺緣起 (Origin of the Precious Repentance of the Dharma-Wheel): the author explains his motive — the canonical catalogues had become muddled across the late-Míng Fànjiázàng 梵夾藏 and the early-Qīng Lóngzàng 龍藏 (the Yōngzhèng / Qiánlóng recension), and the Shuǐlù dàochǎng needed an updated jiǎnzàng 檢藏 (canon-survey) function within its liturgy. This preface is dated and signed: Tóngzhì guǐhài jīnshuǐ nián yuè rì shí. Jīyuán zhíshì Zhǐguān jì 同治癸亥金水年月日時。雞園執事咫觀記 — i.e. Tóngzhì 2 = 1863, “Jīyuán steward Zhǐguān recorded this.”
(B) Lìyán 例言 (Editorial Conventions): ten classificatory rules organising the canon under the rite. Of note: indented passages (低二字) are to be chanted kneeling; the order of the categories follows Sòng Yìmén Wǔshí 義門五時 only loosely, modified by the precedents of the Náncáng / Běicáng and Yuèzàng zhījīn 閱藏知津 of Ǒuyì Zhìxù 蕅益智旭 (mid-17th c.).
Abstract
The Fǎlún bǎochàn is the first systematic liturgical adaptation of the post-Lóngzàng canonical catalogue — i.e. the rebuilding of the Shuǐlù rite as an actual canon-survey through which the assembled congregation, reciting one fascicle of liturgy per major canonical category, walks the breadth of the Tripiṭaka. Each of the ten kē corresponds to one of the ten classificatory categories enumerated in the Lìyán. The author signs himself “Jīyuán zhíshì” (steward of Jīyuán) and dates the work explicitly to Tóngzhì 2 / 1863 — notBefore and notAfter are accordingly both 1863. The work is paired with KR6k0205 Xìngxiàng tōnglùn (X1498) and like that work was probably produced for the Jīyuán community at Yángzhōu where Zhǐguān resided with his son, the monk Miàokōng fǎshī (1826–1880). The work explicitly cites Zhìxù’s Yuèzàng zhījīn 閱藏知津 as a model for canonical organisation.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
Other points of interest
- The Lìyán explicitly ranks the historical liturgists: Liáng Wǔdì 梁武帝 (origin), Sìmíng Zhìpán (Sòng codifier — see KR6k0204), Yúnqī Zhūhóng (Míng reviser), and Hóngzàn 弘贊 (Qīng adapter — see KR6k0240 Gòng zhūtiān kēyí).
- One of the very few late-Qīng Shuǐlù manuals to integrate the post-1735 Lóngzàng (Qiánlóngzàng) catalogue into the rite’s structure.
Links
- CBETA online: https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/X1499
- 鄭應房 DILA
- Kanseki DB