Yúqié shī dì lùn fēnmén jì 瑜伽師地論分門記
Notes Dividing the Sections of the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra by 法成 (Fǎchéng / Chos-grub, 撰) and recorded by 智慧山 (Zhìhuìshān / Prajñāparvata, 記)
About the work
A six-fascicle Dūnhuáng manuscript text in which the East-Tibetan / Hexi-corridor master 法成 (Chos-grub, fl. early-to-mid 9th c.) lectured on the structure of the Yúqié shī dì lùn (KR6n0001), with his lectures recorded by his disciple 智慧山 (Prajñāparvata). The “fēnmén” 分門 (“dividing the sections”) title indicates that the work is a topical-structural commentary, providing a formal subdivision of the 100 juǎn of the master treatise rather than a lemma-by-lemma gloss. It is preserved only in Dūnhuáng manuscripts (Pelliot Chinois 2061 and related fragments) and was first edited into the modern canon as Taishō No. 2801 in vol. 85 (the Dūnhuáng-text volume).
Structural Division
CANWWW (T85N2801) lists KR6n0001 Yúqié shī dì lùn 瑜伽師地論 (T30n1579) as the parent text. The six surviving fascicles cover only a portion of the master treatise.
Abstract
法成 (Tib. Chos-grub) was the most important Sino-Tibetan-bilingual Buddhist scholar of the late Tang, active at the Yúlín 榆林 and Mògāo 莫高 cave-temples of Dūnhuáng during the period of Tibetan rule and after the Zhāng Yìcháo 張議潮 restoration in 848. His lecture-translation of the Yogācārabhūmi and other Yogācāra treatises into Tibetan is the principal route by which Cí’ēn-doctrine reached Tibetan Buddhism; conversely, his lecture-records in Chinese — preserved at Dūnhuáng — are major witnesses to the late-Tang scholastic reception of 窺基’s tradition outside Cháng’ān itself. The composition window adopted here (833–865) brackets his most active teaching period, attested in the Dūnhuáng manuscripts.
T2801 and the parallel KR6n0010 Yúqié lùn shǒu jì 瑜伽論手記 (T85n2802) — recorded by 福慧 — represent two streams of 法成’s teaching activity. T2801 in particular preserves Fǎchéng’s scheme for subdividing the 100 juǎn into intelligible study-units, a project of considerable practical value for monastic curricula.
Translations and research
- Ueyama Daishun 上山大峻. Tonkō Bukkyō no kenkyū 敦煌仏教の研究. Kyoto: Hōzōkan, 1990. (Standard monograph on Dūnhuáng Buddhism, with detailed treatment of Fǎchéng’s commentarial corpus.)
- Ueyama Daishun. “Daibankoku daitoku sanzō hōshi shamon Hōjō no kenkyū” 大蕃國大徳三藏法師沙門法成の研究. Tōhō Gakuhō 38 (1967): 133–198, 39 (1968): 119–222. (Foundational two-part biographical and bibliographical study of Fǎchéng / Chos-grub.)
- Demiéville, Paul. Le Concile de Lhasa. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1952. (Important context for Sino-Tibetan Buddhist exchange in the period.)
- Iwao Kazushi 岩尾一史. Tonkō Hōjō no Yugashichiron-bumon-ki ni tsuite 敦煌法成の瑜伽師地論分門記について. Indogaku Bukkyōgaku Kenkyū, various. (Specific studies on T2801.)
Other points of interest
The Dūnhuáng manuscripts preserving T2801 also preserve 法成’s parallel translations of the same material into Tibetan, providing one of the very few instances in the entire Buddhist canonical tradition where a single master’s exegesis of a single text is preserved in two languages simultaneously. The texts have therefore been important for Sino-Tibetan philology beyond their immediate doctrinal interest.