Sānlùn xuányì 三論玄義
Profound Meaning of the Three Treatises by 吉藏 (Jízàng, 撰)
About the work
The principal Sānlùn 三論 doctrinal manifesto of 吉藏 吉藏 (549–623) — a single-fascicle systematic exposition of the doctrinal architecture of the Three Treatises (Zhōng lùn 中論 KR6m0001, Bǎi lùn 百論 KR6m0012, Shí’èrmén lùn 十二門論 KR6m0008) considered as a unified Mādhyamaka programme. Composed at the Suí imperial Huìrì dàochǎng 慧日道場 in Yángzhōu 揚州 c. 597–599, the colophon attributes the work to “the śramaṇa Jízàng of the Huìrì dàochǎng, composed by imperial command” 慧日道場沙門吉藏奉命撰. T1852 is the foundational reference for Sānlùn doctrine and one of the most consulted texts in the East-Asian Mādhyamaka exegetical tradition.
Structural Division
CANWWW gives this text without an internal subdivisions block. Related text per CANWWW: not specified in the CANWWW entry.
The work itself is structured in two principal mén 門 (gateways): tōngxù dàguī 通序大歸 (general preface to the great themes) and biéshì zhòngpǐn 別釋眾品 (specific exposition of the chapters). The first is itself divided into pòxié 破邪 (refuting falsehood) and xiǎnzhèng 顯正 (manifesting truth) — Jízàng’s foundational doctrinal pair.
Abstract
T1852 opens with one of the most-quoted statements in the East-Asian Mādhyamaka tradition: “The transformation has no fixed direction, the moulding and inducement is not unitary; investigating the sage’s heart, we take the cessation of suffering as the principal; gathering the meaning of the teachings, we take the reaching of the principle as the foundation. But the ninety-six [tīrthika] arts dwell in the burning house regarding it as the pure way; the five hundred [Buddhist Hīnayāna] schools entangle themselves in the net of views regarding it as nirvāṇa…” 夫適化無方陶誘非一。考聖心以息患為主。統教意以通理為宗。但九十六術栖火宅為淨道。五百異部縈見網為泥洹… The opening establishes the work’s polemical-dialectical method: Mādhyamaka is the corrective both to non-Buddhist views (the ninety-six tīrthika schools) and to defective Buddhist views (the five hundred sectarian abhidharma schools).
The body of the work expounds Jízàng’s principal doctrinal categories: the eight-fold negation (bābù zhōngdào 八不中道) as the gateway to the zhōngdào “middle way”; the èrdì 二諦 doctrine of two truths in its three-fold recursive form (èrdì sānzhòng 二諦三重); the doctrinal classification (jiàopàn 教判) of the three vehicles, the four siddhāntas, and the five teachings; and the systematic refutation of opposing doctrinal positions both inside and outside the Buddhist tradition.
T1852 is the principal source for Jízàng’s doctrinal vocabulary and the entry-point text for almost all subsequent East-Asian Mādhyamaka studies. The work was the principal Sānlùn text taught and commented on in Japanese Sanron monasteries from the Asuka period onward, generating the substantial Japanese Sanron sub-commentarial tradition (cf. the works of 珍海 Chinkai, 澄禪 Chōzen, 貞海 Teikai, and 聞證 Monjō, all of which take T1852 as their primary base text and are catalogued at KR6m0027–KR6m0030).
Translations and research
- Robinson, Richard H. Early Mādhyamika in India and China. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1967. (Foundational English study; substantial discussion of T1852.)
- Liu, Ming-Wood. Madhyamaka Thought in China. Leiden: Brill, 1994.
- Liebenthal, Walter. Chao-lun: The Treatises of Sēng-chao. Hong Kong University Press, 1968. (Discusses T1852 in context of the Sānlùn lineage.)
- 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.
- Ōchō Enichi 横超慧日. Kichizō 吉藏. Tōkyō: Shunjūsha, 1976.
- Itō Takatoshi 伊藤隆寿. Chūgoku Bukkyō no hihanteki kenkyū 中国仏教の批判的研究. Tōkyō: Daizō shuppan, 1992.
Other points of interest
The Sānlùn 三論 (Three-Treatise) school as a distinct historical-doctrinal entity is essentially a creation of Jízàng’s writings, and T1852 is the principal text in which the school’s doctrinal identity is articulated. The work’s two-mén structure (tōngxù dàguī + biéshì zhòngpǐn) became a model for subsequent East-Asian Buddhist doctrinal manuals, and the pòxiéxiǎnzhèng 破邪顯正 (“refuting falsehood and manifesting truth”) doctrinal pair that opens the work became one of the most-quoted formulations in the East-Asian Mādhyamaka tradition.
Links
- CBETA
- Wikipedia
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (599, 600, 602): [ Hirai 1966 ] Hirai Shun’ei 平井俊栄. “Kashō daishi Kichizō no kisoteki kenkyū: chojutsu no zengo kankei o megutte” 嘉祥大師吉藏の基礎的研究――著述の前後関係おめぐつて. Indogaku Bukkyōgaku kenkyū 印度學仏教學研究 14, no.2 (1966): 231-239. 235-236, 239 https://dazangthings.nz/cbc/source/595/