Sānyī xiǎnzhèng tú 三衣顯正圖
Diagrams Manifesting the Correct [Form of] the Three [Monastic] Robes by 妙生 Miàoshēng (述)
About the work
A one-fascicle illustrated Vinaya treatise on the proper construction of the three monastic robes (sānyī 三衣 = saṅghāṭī, uttarāsaṅga, antarvāsa — the sēngjiālí 僧伽棃, yùduōluósēng 鬱多羅僧, and āntuóhuì 安陀會), composed by Miàoshēng 妙生 (妙生) of Huìjī 會稽 (modern Shàoxīng). Author signature: Huìjī shāmén Miàoshēng shù 會稽沙門妙生述. Reprinted in Shàoxīng 紹興 16 bǐngyín (1146) by Miàoshēng’s disciple 本慧 Běnhuì — establishing the composition date as Miàoshēng’s lifetime, before 1146.
Abstract
The Sānyī xiǎnzhèng tú is the second installment of Miàoshēng’s polemic against the standard Sòng-period robe-construction manual, Língzhī 元照 Yuánzhào 元照 (1048–1116)‘s Fózhì bǐqiū liùwù tú 佛制比丘六物圖 (KR6k0186, T1900). Miàoshēng’s first attack — the Liùwù tú biàné 六物辨訛 (KR6k0187, X1102) — argued that Yuánzhào had transmitted errors in the textual commentary; the present work argues that Yuánzhào’s diagrams are equally erroneous, and supplies a corrected illustrated set, organized into fifteen kē 科 covering: (1) cloth color and measurement; (2) the symbolic significance of the long-and-short cloth-strip patterns; (3) the cìyībiān mànféng 剌一邊縵縫 method of seaming one edge; (4) the yāyè niǎozú féng 押葉鳥足縫 (“bird-foot seam”); (5) the alignment of the cloth-strip leaves left and right; (6) reinforcement-patches at the four corners; (7) the four-edge binding; (8) the cì wànzì 剌卍字 svastika-pattern at the corner-joins; (9) the three-stitch break-edge method; (10) the construction of the lined unhemmed (màncì) seam in the double-layer robe; (11) the placement of hooks and loops front and back; (12) the upper grease-patch (yǒushàng dié gòunì 有上揲垢膩); (13) the placement of patches at hook-loop sites; (14) the resolution of the textual difficulty about unstitching the robes (zhāijiě 摘解); and (15) the standard zhǒu-arm-length proportions for the diagrams themselves.
The work’s polemical voice is direct: Miàoshēng accuses Yuánzhào of having “confused the world” (chéng yù jiù shǐméng zhī bì 誠欲救始萌之弊), having “shown the deceptive form and confused the people of the time” (wūwǎng dé qǔ huò yú shírén 誣罔德取惑於時人), and having presented diagrams “without textual basis” — and he counters each point with a textual citation chiefly from 道宣 Dàoxuān’s Sìfēn lǜ shànfánbǔquē xíngshìchāo 四分律刪繁補闕行事鈔 (KR6k0128, T1804), the Jièshū 戒疏, and the Zhāngfú yí 章服儀 (KR6k0180).
The two-stage Miàoshēng polemic against Yuánzhào — first textual (KR6k0187) and then iconographic (the present work) — is the principal recorded instance of public Vinaya disputation between contemporaries within the late-Northern-Sòng Língzhī and Cháoshān Xiàngwù 潮山象塢 lineages.
The colophon adds a brief prosopographical note: “the Vinaya-master Dōngcáng 東藏律師 was the teacher of the Vinaya-master Dàzhì 大智律師 — namely 慧鑑 Huìjiàn lǜshī 慧鑑律師” — reminding the reader that Yuánzhào’s own teacher was Huìjiàn lǜshī, and providing genealogical context for the dispute.
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language secondary literature located.
Other points of interest
- The Sānyī xiǎnzhèng tú is the natural sequel to Miàoshēng’s Liùwù tú biàné (KR6k0187); the two should be read in tandem with the work they both attack, Yuánzhào’s Fózhì bǐqiū liùwù tú (KR6k0186).
- The fifteen-fold structural division corresponds to a sequence of construction-steps in actual robe-tailoring — making the work a unique source for the practical material culture of Sòng-period Buddhist monastic dress.
- The disciple 本慧 Běnhuì who reprinted the work in 1146 may be identifiable in Fózǔ tǒngjì 佛祖統紀 (KR6r0012) juàn 27 (the same source that records Miàoshēng’s death in samādhi).