Píní zhǐchí huìjí 毗尼止持會集
A Convergent Collection on Vinaya Restraint-Upholding by 讀體 (Dútǐ, 集)
About the work
A sixteen-fascicle early-Qīng compendium on the zhǐchí 止持 (restrictive-discipline; the prātimokṣa offences) half of vinaya-keeping, by Jiànyuè Dútǐ 見月讀體 (讀體, 1601–1679), the founding figure of the Bǎohuáshān 寶華山 Vinaya revival. The companion to the zhǐchí (restrictive precepts: jiè 戒) is the zuòchí 作持 (procedural / karmavācanā observances), which Dútǐ treated separately. The author signature reads Diānnán Jīzú bǐchú Dútǐ shí yú Bǎohuáshān zhī Guānxī xuān 滇南鷄足苾芻讀體識於寶華山之觀西軒 (“Dútǐ, bhikṣu of Jīzúshān in southern Yúnnán, recorded this at the Guānxīxuān of Bǎohuáshān”).
Prefaces
The author’s xù: “Now vinaya is the very lifespan of the True Dharma. For when the precepts are pure and the saṅgha is true, then xìng- and zhē- offences (xìngè 性遮, intrinsic and prohibitory transgressions) are not concealed by defilement; the Way is broad and virtue full; the quánshí 權實 (provisional and real) teachings can be openly proclaimed; one’s own conduct and the benefit of others traverse the ocean of suffering and reach the further shore; one continues the predecessors and inaugurates the successors, sustaining the wisdom-life and reviving the profound principles. Hence: while vinaya abides, the True Dharma abides.” The colophon-line is dated: Shùnzhì jǐchǒu nián qián ānjū rì 順治己丑年前安居日 — i.e. 1649, the day before the start of the rains-retreat (ānjū 安居).
Structural Division
The work is organised under seven gates (qī mén 七門, lüè kāi qī mén 略開七門) before opening into the canonical prātimokṣa-categories:
- fascicles 1–2: general framework — preface, fánlì 凡例, gāngyào 綱要 (essentials), the seven gates;
- fascicles 3+: the sì pāluóyí fǎ 四波羅夷法 (four pārājika: sex, theft, killing, falseclaimofattainment); the shísān sēngjiāpóshīshā fǎ 十三僧伽婆尸沙法 (thirteen saṅghāvaśeṣa); and continuing through the standard prātimokṣa sections (nìsàqí 尼薩耆, bōyìtí 波逸提, bōluótítíshění 波羅提提舍尼, shìzhòngxué fǎ 式眾學法, and mièzhèng fǎ 滅諍法).
Abstract
The Píní zhǐchí huìjí is the foundational Bǎohuáshān Vinaya pedagogical handbook for the fourpart vinaya’s restrictive precepts. It offered a complete restoration of Sìfēnlǜ learning after the institutional collapse of late-Míng monastic discipline, uniting Dàoxuān’s Xíngshì chāo heritage, Yuánzhào’s Língzhī commentaries, and Ǒuyì Zhìxù’s 蕅益智旭 immediate Míng predecessor work into a single early-Qīng synthesis. The companion to this volume is Dútǐ’s later zuòchí (procedural observance) compendium and the Sāntán chuánjiè zhèngfàn 三壇傳戒正範 (KR6k0226, X1128). The catalog records four edition-witnesses (Korean, Qīngshā 磧砂, Wànzì 卍續, Jiāxīng 嘉興), reflecting the work’s standard status in the post-Bǎohuáshān Vinaya curriculum. Composition is precisely datable to 1649 (Shùnzhì 6) on the basis of the author’s preface; notBefore and notAfter are both 1649.
Translations and research
- Holmes Welch, The Practice of Chinese Buddhism, 1900–1950 (Harvard University Press, 1967) — for the Bǎohuáshān ordination tradition’s continuity into the modern era.
- Marcus Bingenheimer, “Bǎohuáshān and the Reconstruction of Chinese Buddhist Vinaya in the Early Qing” (various studies).
- Jiang Wu, Enlightenment in Dispute: The Reinvention of Chan Buddhism in Seventeenth-Century China (Oxford University Press, 2008) — context for Dútǐ’s milieu.
Other points of interest
- The author signs himself “Diānnán Jīzú bǐchú” — referencing his birth in Jīzúshān 雞足山 in Yúnnán (the Mahākāśyapacult mountain). His Yúnnán origin and subsequent migration to Bǎohuáshān is a noted feature of his biography.
Links
- CBETA online: https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/X0709
- 讀體 DILA
- Kanseki DB