Shí’èrmén lùn shū 十二門論疏
Sub-commentary on the Twelve-Gate Treatise by 吉藏 (Jízàng, 撰)
About the work
A three-fascicle Suí-period sub-commentary by 吉藏 吉藏 (549–623) on the Shí’èrmén lùn 十二門論 (KR6m0008 T1568). The opening of the text dates the composition explicitly: “Dàyè 4th year, 6th month, 27th day — the lecture-record” (大業四年六月二十七日疏一時講語), i.e. 21 July 608 CE; the commentary is in this respect one of the few precisely datable entries in Jízàng’s massive commentarial corpus. T1825 is the principal extant Chinese exegesis of the Twelve-Gate Treatise and was the standard pedagogical companion to T1568 throughout the East-Asian Sānlùn tradition.
Structural Division
CANWWW gives this text without an internal subdivisions block. Related texts per CANWWW: KR6m0008 Shí’èrmén lùn 十二門論 (T30n1568), KR6m0010 Shí’èrmén lùn zōngzhì yìjì 十二門論宗致義記 (T42n1826).
Abstract
T1825 opens with a substantial xùshū 序疏 (sub-commentary on 僧叡 Sēngruì’s now-lost preface to T1568), in which Jízàng prescribes the six prerequisites for understanding the preface — and through it the text — that became famous as the liùtiáo 六條 of Sānlùn pedagogy: (1) deep insight into the doctrinal intent of the śāstras; (2) thorough mastery of the Lotus Sūtra; (3) subtle discernment of the Prajñāpāramitā; (4) competent reading of the Lao-Zhuang corpus; (5) wide familiarity with the Confucian classics; and (6) skill in literary composition. The list, often quoted in subsequent East-Asian Buddhist scholastic literature, captures Jízàng’s vision of the Sānlùn scholar as a fully literate cross-canonical exegete trained in both nèixué 內學 (Buddhist) and wàixué 外學 (classical Chinese) traditions.
The body of the commentary works through the twelve mén of T1568 in order, supplying philosophical exegesis grounded in Jízàng’s distinctive èrdì 二諦 (two-truths) doctrine. The text foregrounds the zhōngdào 中道 (middle way) as the unification of the two truths and presents the Twelve-Gate Treatise as the introductory pedagogical complement to the Zhōngguān lùn shū (KR6m0006 T1824). Jízàng’s preferred Sānlùn-school reading of the text emphasises its character as a cross-section of the entire Mādhyamaka programme rather than as a self-standing doctrinal treatise.
The composition date of 608 CE places T1825 in Jízàng’s late-Kuàijī to early-Cháng’ān phase, when he was already an established figure but had not yet completed his largest commentaries on the Lotus, Vimalakīrti, and Mahāparinirvāṇa.
Translations and research
- Hirai Shun’ei 平井俊榮. Chūgoku hannya shisōshi kenkyū: Kichizō to Sanronkyō no kenkyū 中国般若思想史研究―吉藏と三論教の研究. Tōkyō: Shunjūsha, 1976. (Foundational study of the Sān-lùn lineage; substantial discussion of T1825.)
- Liu, Ming-Wood. Madhyamaka Thought in China. Leiden: Brill, 1994.
- Itō Takatoshi 伊藤隆寿. Kichizō no kenkyū 吉藏の研究. Tōkyō: Shunjūsha, 1985.
Other points of interest
The liùtiáo (six prerequisites) at the head of T1825 is the locus classicus for the Sānlùn school’s curricular conception of itself as a synthesis of Indian Mādhyamaka and the indigenous Chinese literary tradition. The list explicitly names Lao-Zhuang and the Confucian classics on equal footing with the Lotus and the Prajñāpāramitā, and the inclusion of “skill in literary composition” 巧制文章 captures Jízàng’s view of Buddhist commentarial practice as a literary as well as a doctrinal craft.
Links
- CBETA
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (600): [ T ] T = CBETA [Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association]. Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. Edited by Takakusu Junjirō 高楠順次郎 and Watanabe Kaigyoku 渡邊海旭. Tokyo: Taishō shinshū daizōkyō kankōkai/Daizō shuppan, 1924-1932. CBReader v 5.0, 2014. https://dazangthings.nz/cbc/source/1/