Wù bù qiān zhèngliàng zhèng 物不遷正量證
Vindication of the Right Reading of “Things Do Not Shift” by 道衡 (Dàohéng, 述)
About the work
A single-fascicle late-Ming defensive essay by 道衡 Dàohéng of the Huìrì Yǒngmíngsì 慧日永明寺 in defence of Sēngzhào’s Wù bù qiān lùn 物不遷論 (the second treatise of the Zhàolùn, KR6m0038 T1858) against the doctrinal-polemical critique of 鎮澄 Yuèchuān Zhènchéng (1547–1617) in KR6m0048 Wù bù qiān zhèngliàng lùn X879. X878 is one of three late-Ming texts that constitute the so-called “Wù bù qiān controversy” — alongside the parent treatise (T1858) and Zhènchéng’s polemic (X879) — and represents the orthodox defense of Sēngzhào against the late-Ming Mādhyamaka-rigourist critique. The work stands explicitly as a “證” (proof, vindication) of the “正量” (the right epistemic standard) for reading Sēngzhào, in opposition to Zhènchéng’s zhèngliàng lùn itself.
Structural Division
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Abstract
Dàohéng’s preface frames the controversy as one in which “the ‘examination’ (彈駁) functions to bring out the depth”: “Truth has its place, and praise alone is insufficient to manifest its excellence; only critical examination opens up its hidden depth. Master Zhào’s Wù bù qiān lùn — its meaning is profound, its phrases beautiful; the text is short and the doctrine complete; it is not merely the compass of students, but truly the essence of the canonical treasury. Yet for several thousand hundreds of years there has been none who knew its true exegesis.” 肇師物不遷論意淵詞麗，文短義周，非徒學者之指南，實海藏之精華也。而數千百年未有知其解者…
The body of the work supplies a doctrinal-philosophical defense of Sēngzhào’s reading of “things do not shift”. Dàohéng argues that Zhènchéng’s polemic — which charged Sēngzhào with adopting the doctrine of “each thing remains in its position” (wù gè xìngzhù 物各性住) and thereby with substantialism — misreads the historical Sēngzhào: properly understood, the Wù bù qiān doctrine asserts not that things have substantial residence in positions, but that the apparent succession of things in time is itself empty of intrinsic temporal continuity, with each “thing” being a punctual phenomenon whose identity-with-itself in the moment does not extend across moments. The argument develops the distinction between xìngkōng 性空 (“intrinsic emptiness”) as the Mādhyamaka category and the conventional designation bùqiān “not-shifting” as a heuristic teaching device.
The work is doctrinally rigorous and well-organised; it is one of the principal late-imperial Chinese Mādhyamaka-doctrinal essays. Together with X879 and the Zhàolùn itself, X878 constitutes a key documentary record of late-Ming Buddhist intellectual life.
Translations and research
- Hsu Sung-peng. A Buddhist Leader in Ming China: The Life and Thought of Han-Shan Te-Ch’ing. Penn State University Press, 1979. (Brief discussion of the Wù bù qiān controversy.)
- Tsukamoto Zenryū 塚本善隆, ed. Jōron kenkyū 肇論研究. Kyoto: Hōzōkan, 1955. (Foundational discussion of the Wù bù qiān tradition.)
- Liebenthal, Walter. Chao-lun: The Treatises of Sēng-chao. 2nd revised ed. Hong Kong University Press, 1968.
Other points of interest
The “Wù bù qiān controversy” of the late Ming (Zhènchéng’s polemic + Dàohéng’s defense + Zhēnjiè’s mediation, KR6m0048 + KR6m0047 + KR6m0049) is one of the most-documented late-imperial Chinese-Buddhist doctrinal disputes preserved in the canon-tradition. The dispute is significant as an instance of late-Ming Buddhist intellectual life engaging with pre-Sòng Chinese-Mādhyamaka tradition on the level of explicit doctrinal-philosophical critique rather than mere commentary.