Yúqié shī dì lùn lüèzuǎn 瑜伽師地論略纂
Compendious Selection from the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra by 窺基 (Kuījī, 撰)
About the work
A 16-fascicle exegetical compendium on the Yúqié shī dì lùn (KR6n0001, T30n1579), composed by 窺基 (632–682) — Xuánzàng’s chief disciple and the systematiser of the Cí’ēnzōng / Fǎxiàng 法相 school — sometime between the completion of his teacher’s translation in 648 and his own death in 682. The lüèzuǎn 略纂 (“compendious selection”) format treats the Yogācārabhūmi not by lemma-by-lemma gloss but by topical reorganisation, drawing out the doctrinal arguments from across the seventeen bhūmi and arranging them under thematic headings. It served as Kuījī’s master-text for his lectures on the Yogācārabhūmi at the Dà Cí’ēnsì 大慈恩寺.
Structural Division
CANWWW (T43N1829) lists KR6n0001 Yúqié shī dì lùn 瑜伽師地論 (T30n1579) as the related text. Internally the Yúqié shī dì lùn lüèzuǎn covers principally the Běndì fēn 本地分 of T1579 — the seventeen-bhūmi foundational section in juǎn 1–50 — without going into systematic detail on the four Saṃgrahaṇī sections.
Abstract
The text is the second of 窺基’s three major commentaries on the Yogācārabhūmi (alongside his lost Yúqié shī dì lùn shū 瑜伽師地論疏 in 100 juǎn, mentioned in KR2m0019 Sòng gāosēng zhuàn T2061 j. 4). It survives complete and is the principal independent witness to Kuījī’s reading of the master treatise — much of the rest is preserved only as quoted yún in KR6n0007 Yúqié lùn jì. The dating bracket adopted here (660–682) reflects the period of Kuījī’s most intensive teaching activity at the Dà Cí’ēnsì.
The text was widely transmitted to Sillan Korea and Heian Japan, where it became the principal text for Hossō 法相 lecture-courses; the Bussho kaisetsu daijiten 仏書解說大辭典 lists multiple Japanese sub-commentaries, including significant works by Zenju 善珠 (723–797).
窺基’s exposition in T1829 is the canonical source for the Cí’ēn reading of the eight-consciousness doctrine (bā shí 八識), the three-nature doctrine (sānxìng 三性), and the systematic correlation between the Yogācārabhūmi path-structure and the Vijñaptimātratā-siddhi (KR6n0016, T31n1585) doctrine of consciousness-only.
Translations and research
- Weinstein, Stanley. “Subtraditions of T’ang Buddhism.” In Buddhism in Chinese Society. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1959. (Includes important context on Kuījī’s commentarial corpus.)
- Sponberg, Alan. Meditation in Fa-hsiang Buddhism. PhD diss., Princeton University, 1979. (Uses T1829 as a primary source for Cí’ēn meditative theory.)
- Cook, Francis H. Three Texts on Consciousness Only. Berkeley: Numata Center, 1999. (Includes translations of related Cí’ēn material.)
- Mukai Akira 向井亮. Yugashichiron no shisō. Tokyo: Daizō shuppan, 1981.
- Yoshimura Makoto 吉村誠. Chūgoku Yuishiki shisōshi kenkyū 中国唯識思想史研究. Tokyo: Daizō shuppan, 2013. (Standard Japanese monograph on the Cí’ēn lineage and its commentarial production.)
Other points of interest
The Yúqié shī dì lùn lüèzuǎn is one of three works by 窺基 that together constitute the canonical Cí’ēn introduction to the Yogācārabhūmi: T1829 (this work), KR6n0014 Yúqié lùn jiézhāng sòng 瑜伽論劫章頌 (X794) on the cosmological kalpa-section, and the lost Yúqié shī dì lùn shū in 100 juǎn. The Korean Hossō tradition added Wŏnch’ŭk’s (圓測) parallel commentaries; together these formed the Tang-dynasty Cí’ēn curriculum.