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佛說齋經科註

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Text ID
KR6k0241
Date
1620–1655
Dynasty
明

Fóshuō zhāi jīng kēzhù 佛說齋經科註

A Sub-Section Commentary on the Sūtra of Fasting Spoken by the Buddha by 支謙 (Zhī Qiān, 譯經); 智旭 (Zhìxù, 科註)

About the work

A single-fascicle late-Míng kēzhù 科註 (subsection + interlinear commentary) by Ǒuyì Zhìxù 蕅益智旭 (智旭, 1599–1655) on the Wú-period (3rd c. CE) translation by Zhī Qiān 支謙 of the Fóshuō zhāi jīng 佛說齋經 (T87 / KR6c0079) — the canonical short sūtra in which the Buddha explains the bāzhāi (eight-precepts-and-fast) to the laywoman Wéiyē 維耶. Author signature: Wú yōupósài Zhī Qiān yìjīng / Míng qiújìnán Zhìxù kēzhù 吳　優婆塞　支謙　譯經／明　求寂男　智旭　科註 — note the selfstyled qiújìnán 求寂男 (“seekeraftertranquillity man”, i.e. śrāmaṇera) below his ordination-name Zhìxù.

Opening doctrinal frame

Zhìxù opens with two registers of xuányì 玄義 (“profound meaning”) analysis — the fùwén 附文 (text-attached) and kuàjié 跨節 (section-spanning) approaches familiar from his other Tiāntáistyle commentaries. The fùwén analysis runs the work through the standard Tiāntái triple frame — jíkōng 即空, jíjiǎ 即假, jízhōng 即中 (immediateemptiness, immediateprovisionality, immediate-middle):

  • Jíkōng: in bāzhāi practice, “internally one does not see a me receiving the fast, externally does not see one administering the dharma, and in the middle does not obtain the dharma being received — yet single-mindedly cultivates without slackening or retreating, without doubt.” This is the yīniàn jíkōng moment.
  • Jíjiǎ: by accord with the rite, ten dharma-realms of cause-and-effect arise (shí jiè yīnguǒ 十界因果) — believer / non-believer, receiver / non-receiver, upholder / breaker, xiāng (withmark) and líxiāng (without-mark) reception, etc. This is the jíjiǎ moment.
  • Jízhōng: “One day and one night are not by nature partitioned; the eight branches and five recollections are by substance the dharmadhātu itself; whether ‘upholder’ or ‘thing upheld’, whether ‘shì’ or ‘lǐ’, their substance is itself absolute, unrelative; raising one [aspect] one obtains the whole. Hence: ‘zhāi (fasting) is qí 齊 (uniformity)’ — the oceanseal blazing-pervasion crosswise and depthwise to its end, with no single dharma not encompassed.” This is the jízhōng.

Abstract

The Fóshuō zhāi jīng kēzhù is the principal late-Míng doctrinal commentary on the Bāzhāi sūtra, integrating Zhìxù’s signature Tiāntáistyle xuányì technique with practical lay-precept pedagogy. It supplies the doctrinal lǐ (principle) framework that complements Hóngzàn’s pragmatic Bāguān zhāifǎ (KR6k0234). The text-by-text gloss draws on Tiāntái Púsàjièyìshū 菩薩戒義疏 (Zhìyǐ’s Bodhisattvaprecept commentary) for its three-phase analysis. Composition is bracketed by Zhìxù’s mature commentary period (from the early 1620s onwards) and his death in 1655; notBefore–notAfter are 1620–1655.

Translations and research

  • For Zhìxù’s broader commentary corpus and Tiāntáistyle hermeneutics: Beverley Foulks, The Tiantai Foundations of Ouyi Zhixu’s Buddhism (PhD thesis, Princeton 2009); Shengyan, Míngmò Fójiào yánjiū 明末佛教研究 (Taipei: Dōngchū, 1987).

Other points of interest

  • One of the very few Tiāntái-school commentaries on a Vinaya-related sūtra; Zhìxù was unique in his generation in pursuing the integration of Tiāntái doctrine with the vinayapiṭaka.

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