Píní rìyòng qièyào 毗尼日用切要
Crucial Essentials of Vinaya for Daily Use by 讀體 (Dútǐ, 彙集)
About the work
A single-fascicle early-Qīng handbook of dailycycle gāthās and dhāraṇīs compiled by Jiànyuè Dútǐ (讀體, 1601–1679), the Bǎohuáshān 寶華山 Vinaya restorer. The full author signature reads Bǎohuáshān hóngjiè bǐqiū Dútǐ huìjí 寶華山弘戒比丘 讀體 彚集 (“Dútǐ, bhikṣu who promotes the precepts at Bǎohuáshān, gathered this together”). The work compiles, in serial order across the daily cycle, the standard gāthā (verse) and dhāraṇī to be silently recited at each of fiftysome routine activities of the bhikṣu’s day — from waking to sleeping, from washing to going to poṣadha.
Structural Division
The cycle proceeds in canonical order: zǎojué 早覺 (early-waking, with the suìmián shǐwù 睡眠始寤 gāthā of Huáyán §11), míngzhōng 鳴鐘 (striking the bell), wénzhōng 聞鐘 (hearing the bell), zhuóyī 著衣 (donning robes), xiàdān 下單 (descending the meditation-platform), wénbǎn 聞板 (hearing the wooden gong), xíngbùbùlǚchóng 行步不履蟲 (walking without trampling insects), chūtáng 出堂, dēngcè 登廁 (entering the toilet), jǐngshēn 淨身 (cleansing the body), xǐjìng 洗淨 (washing), qùhuì 去穢, shùkǒu 漱口 (rinsing the mouth), the various premeal verses (zhōushī 粥施, fànshí 飯食 with the wǔguān 五觀 contemplation), and the analogous postmeal and end-of-day formulae. Each entry contains: (i) a smallfont ritual rubric introducing the activity and its scriptural authority; (ii) the gāthā (often a yuàn yī qiè zhòngshēng 願一切眾生 transposition from the Huáyán’s Jìngxíng pǐn 淨行品); (iii) where canonical, the corresponding dhāraṇī in transliterated Sanskrit.
Abstract
The Píní rìyòng qièyào is the most influential single Vinaya pedagogical handbook produced in early-Qīng China and the basis of all standard Chinese-Buddhist daily-discipline manuals to the present. It systematises into a single recital-cycle the gāthās drawn principally from the Jìngxíng pǐn of the Huáyánjīng (the jièjiè qǐ niàn 戒戒起念 verses of Mañjuśrī’s teaching to the bodhisattva Zhìshǒu 智首) together with later canonical and ritual additions. Each item is keyed to a specific moment of the bhikṣu’s day, transforming the entire monastic routine into an unbroken thread of devotional practice. The work has spawned an extensive commentarial literature, of which the principal early-Qīng item is Shūyù 書玉’s Píní rìyòng qièyào xiāngrǔ jì 毗尼日用切要香乳記 (KR6k0227). Composition is bracketed by Dútǐ’s accession to the Bǎohuáshān seat (1645) and his death (1679); notBefore–notAfter are accordingly 1645–1679.
Translations and research
- Holmes Welch, The Practice of Chinese Buddhism, 1900–1950 (1967): pp. 60–80 ff., on Bǎohuáshān ordination ritual and the daily gāthā cycle preserved through the modern Chinese saṅgha.
- Bingenheimer, Marcus, Chinese Buddhist Ritual Texts (various studies on Bǎohuáshān).
Other points of interest
- The work is paired with KR6k0227 Píní rìyòng qièyào xiāngrǔ jì (Shūyù’s commentary), which became the standard pedagogical companion in 18th- and 19th-century novitiates.
- Standard reading by every Chinese-Buddhist novice into the modern era.
Links
- CBETA online: https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/X1115
- 讀體 DILA
- Kanseki DB