Yúqié lùn jì 瑜伽論記
Notes on the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra by 遁倫 (Dùnlún / Toryun, 集撰)
About the work
The longest and most systematic Tang-era commentary on the Yúqié shī dì lùn (KR6n0001, T30n1579), compiled by the Sillan-Korean monk 遁倫 (Dùnlún / Toryun) probably in the third or fourth quarter of the seventh century. The work is presented as a jízhuàn 集撰 (“compiled and composed”) — that is, an edited synthesis of earlier oral and written commentary by 窺基 (632–682), Huìzhāo 慧沼 (650–714), Yuáncè 圓測 (613–696), Shéntài 神泰, and other Cí’ēn / Xīmíngsì 西明寺 masters, framed by Dùnlún’s own analytical scaffolding. Originally in 48 juǎn (according to the Kāiyuán shìjiào lù 開元釋教錄), the work is preserved in 24 juǎn in the Taishō, with each juǎn covering two of the original units.
Structural Division
CANWWW (T42N1828) lists KR6n0001 Yúqié shī dì lùn 瑜伽師地論 (T30n1579) and KR6n0008 Yúqié shī dì lùn lüèzuǎn 瑜伽師地論略纂 (T43n1829) as the principal related texts. Internally the Yúqié lùn jì tracks the 100-fascicle structure of T1579 and is conventionally cited by location (e.g. Yúqié lùn jì juǎn 1上 commenting on Yogācārabhūmi juǎn 1).
Abstract
Dùnlún’s project preserves the Tang Cí’ēn lemma-by-lemma exegesis of the Yogācārabhūmi in a way that no other surviving text does — large portions of 窺基’s and Huìzhāo’s lecture-notes that are not extant as independent works survive only as quoted yūnyún 云云 in the Yúqié lùn jì. The text is therefore the indispensable companion for any reading of the Yogācārabhūmi in its Cí’ēn (East Asian) reception, and it has been used as the principal interpretive framework in modern Japanese editions and translation projects (esp. the Taishō reading-edition committee under Mukai Akira 向井亮).
The text is sometimes also cited under the alternative author-name 道倫 Dàolún, reflecting a scribal alternation in the Tang-period sources. Its date can be set to the period after the death of 窺基 in 682 — when the major lecture-notes Dùnlún draws on had been completed — and before the rise of the Korean Yogācāra commentarial tradition in the early eighth century; the 670–705 window adopted here follows the consensus of Stanley Weinstein and Alan Sponberg.
The Yúqié lùn jì is the principal Tang exegetical record of the technical doctrines that came to define the Cí’ēn 慈恩 / Fǎxiàng 法相 school: the eight consciousnesses (bā shí 八識), the three natures (sānxìng 三性), the ālayavijñāna 阿賴耶識, the manas 末那識, the doctrine of the seed (bīja 種子), and the bodhisattva-bhūmi system.
Translations and research
- Sponberg, Alan. Meditation in Fa-hsiang Buddhism: Studies on the Cheng wei-shih lun and Related Texts. PhD diss., Princeton University, 1979. (Treats Dùnlún’s Yúqié lùn jì as the principal source for the Cí’ēn reading of the Yogācārabhūmi.)
- Weinstein, Stanley. “The Concept of Ālaya-vijñāna in Pre-T’ang Chinese Buddhism.” In Yūki Kyōju shōju kinen Bukkyō shisōshi ronshū 結城教授頌寿記念仏教思想史論集. Tokyo: Daizō shuppan, 1964. (Important context for Dùnlún’s place in the Cí’ēn lineage.)
- Mukai Akira 向井亮. Yugashichiron no shisō 瑜伽師地論の思想. Tokyo: Daizō shuppan, 1981. (Standard Japanese monograph; uses Dùnlún throughout as exegetical authority.)
- Hattori Masaaki 服部正明 and Ueyama Daishun 上山大峻. “Donrin Dōrin Yugaron-ki: shoshigakuteki kenkyū” 遁倫道倫瑜伽論記：書誌学的研究. Indogaku Bukkyōgaku Kenkyū 13.1 (1965). (On the textual history and the 遁倫 / 道倫 name variation.)
Other points of interest
The text is the principal source for our knowledge of the lost commentary of Yuáncè 圓測 (613–696), the Sillan-Korean rival to 窺基 in the early Cí’ēn community, whose direct works survive only in a few Korean manuscript fragments. Where Yuáncè and Kuījī differ, Dùnlún normally records both readings; these passages are the principal evidence for the early-Tang doctrinal divergence within Yogācāra Buddhism in China.