Sānlùn yóuyì yì 三論遊意義
The Meaning of the Wandering Intent of the Three Treatises by 磧法師 (Qī fǎshī, 撰)
About the work
A single-fascicle Suí-period Sān-lùn-school doctrinal-systematic treatise by the otherwise-obscure Master Qī 磧法師. T1855 is a compact and well-organised exposition of the Sānlùn 三論 doctrinal programme, structured around four principal zhòng 重 (“layers”): (1) the yóuyì 遊意 “wandering intent” of the sūtras and śāstras; (2) the principal directions of the four canonical śāstras (the three Sānlùn texts plus the Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra / KR6c0005 Dàzhìdù lùn T1509); (3) the doctrinal centre of Mādhyamaka (zhōngguān zōng 中觀宗); and (4) the wúfāng wènnán 無方問難 (“non-positional polemical exchange”) method of doctrinal disputation.
Structural Division
CANWWW gives this text without an internal subdivisions block. The work itself is structured as four zhòng (as listed above), each subdivided into doctrinal sub-headings. Related text per CANWWW: not specified.
Abstract
T1855 opens with a programmatic outline: “There is a brief opening of four layers: first, clarifying the wandering intent of the sūtras and śāstras; second, clarifying the great direction of the four śāstras; third, clarifying the centre of the Mādhyamaka school; fourth, clarifying the non-positional polemical exchange.” 略有開四重：一明經論遊意。二明四論大歸。三明中觀宗者。四明無方問難也。
The first chapter is doctrinally unusual in treating the Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra T1509 as a fourth Sānlùn text — generating a sìlùn 四論 (Four-Treatise) rather than the standard sānlùn (Three-Treatise) framework. This is one of the very few Sān-lùn-tradition texts to extend the canonical core in this way, and is closely paralleled by KR6m0050 Dàshèng sìlùn xuányì 大乘四論玄義 (X784) by 均正 Jūnzhèng — suggesting that both texts may stem from a Sānlùn sub-tradition that recognised the Dàzhìdù lùn as a co-equal foundational treatise. The wúfāng wènnán 無方問難 in chapter 4 — “polemical exchange without a fixed position” — is the doctrinal-rhetorical procedure characteristic of mature Sānlùn dialectic, in which the master shifts dialectical positions to refute whatever the opponent currently holds.
The work is brief, dense, and formally well-organised; it is doctrinally close to Jízàng’s KR6m0026 Sānlùn xuányì T1852 but more compact. The composition probably falls in the mid-to-late Sui period (c. 580–610), within the Sānlùn lineage that Jízàng was consolidating.
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. (Substantial discussion of T1855’s place in the Sān-lùn lineage.)
- Liu, Ming-Wood. Madhyamaka Thought in China. Leiden: Brill, 1994.
- 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
T1855’s adoption of the sìlùn (Four-Treatise) framework — including the Dàzhìdù lùn alongside the canonical Three Treatises — is one of the principal pieces of evidence for the existence of a Sānlùn sub-tradition that did not entirely converge with Jízàng’s three-treatise canon. The same framework is preserved in KR6m0050 Dàshèng sìlùn xuányì by 均正, suggesting a coherent textual lineage.
Links
- CBETA
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (610): [ 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/