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授菩薩戒儀

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Text ID
KR6k0249
Date
760–782
Dynasty
唐

Shòu púsà jiè yí 授菩薩戒儀

A Code for Conferring the Bodhisattva Precepts by 湛然 (Zhànrán, 述)

About the work

A single-fascicle Táng-period bodhisattva-precept conferral manual by Tiāntái Jīngxī Zhànrán 天台荊溪湛然 (湛然, 711–782), the sixth Tiāntái patriarch and the principal mid-Táng restorer of Zhìyǐ’s Tiāntái doctrine. Author signature: Tiāntái shāmén Zhànrán shù 天台沙門　湛然　述. Zhànrán’s prefatory note positions his manual: “following the ancient masters and the Fànwǎng, Yīngluò, Dìchí (i.e. Bodhisattvabhūmi) and Gāochāng (the Gāochāng witness) etc., I summarise the procedural code for conferring the bodhisattva precepts under twelve gates; though I do not exclusively follow any one [tradition], I do not contravene the shèngjiào (sacred teaching).”

Structural Division

Twelve mén 門 (gates):

  1. Kāidǎo 開導 (introductory exhortation);
  2. Sānguī 三歸 (three refuges);
  3. Qǐngshī 請師 (invoking the master);
  4. Chànhuǐ 懺悔 (repentance);
  5. Fāxīn 發心 (arousing the bodhisattva mind);
  6. Wènzhē 問遮 (interrogation about disqualifying offences);
  7. Shòujiè 授戒 (formal precept-conferral);
  8. Zhèngmíng 證明 (witnessing/proof);
  9. Xiànxiàng 現相 (manifestation of an auspicious sign);
  10. Shuōxiàng 說相 (explanation of the precept-marks);
  11. Guǎngyuàn 廣願 (great vows);
  12. Quànchí 勸持 (exhortation to upholding).

Abstract

The Shòu púsà jiè yí is the principal Táng-period Tiāntái-school bodhisattva-precept conferral manual and the canonical successor to Zhìyǐ’s Púsàjiè yìshū 菩薩戒義疏 (T1811). Its synthesis of Fànwǎng, Yīngluò běnyè jīng 瓔珞本業經, Púsàdì chí jīng (the Chinese rendering of the Bodhisattvabhūmi by Tánwúchèn 曇無讖) and the Gāochāng fragmentary tradition under twelve gates became the standard procedural template for all later Chinese bodhisattva-precept conferrals — adopted both at the Táng court and in the Tiāntái school’s mountain-monastery training, and inherited by the Japanese Tendai tradition where it became one of the foundations of Saichō’s endonkai 圓頓戒 system. The four-stage core (chànhuǐ → fāxīn → wènzhē → zhèngshòu) was retained in the late-Sòng and Míng-Qīng zhèngfàn manuals (cf. KR6k0226 for the Bǎohuáshān realisation). Composition is bracketed by Zhànrán’s mature scholarly career and his death; notBefore–notAfter are 760–782.

Translations and research

  • Paul Groner, Saichō: The Establishment of the Japanese Tendai School (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2000) — extensive treatment of Zhànrán’s bodhisattva-precept doctrine and its Japanese reception.
  • Daniel Stevenson, “The T’ient’ai Four Forms of Samādhi and Late North–South Dynasties, Sui, and Early T’ang Buddhist Devotionalism” (PhD, Columbia, 1987).

Other points of interest

  • Companion piece to the Huìsīattributed KR6k0248 Shòu púsà jiè yí and to the Chéngzhào (Dàoxuān)-attributed KR6k0250 Lüè shòu sānguī wǔbā jiè bìng púsàjiè — the three together (X1085–X1087) constitute the late-classical core of bodhisattva-precept conferral literature.

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