Dìchí yìjì juǎn dìsì 地持義記卷第四
Notes on the Meaning of the Bodhisattvabhūmi (Fascicle Four)
About the work
A single fragmentary fascicle (the surviving fourth juǎn) of an anonymous Sui-Tang exegetical commentary on the Púsà dìchí jīng (KR6n0003, T30n1581) — Dharmakṣema’s translation of the Bodhisattvabhūmi. Recovered from the Dūnhuáng cave-deposit and edited as Taishō No. 2803 in the Dūnhuáng-text volume (T85). No author is named in the manuscript and the work cannot be confidently associated with any known commentary tradition; on internal grounds it is sometimes ascribed to the Dìlùn 地論 / Shèlùn 攝論 milieu, possibly the school of 淨影慧遠 Suí Huìyuǎn (523–592), but the attribution is not secure.
Structural Division
CANWWW (T85N2803) lists KR6n0003 Púsà dìchí jīng 菩薩地持經 (T30n1581) as the parent text. The fragment covers material from the third or fourth pǐn of T1581.
Abstract
The text is one of a small group of pre-Xuánzàng exegetical fragments on the Bodhisattvabhūmi recovered from Dūnhuáng (alongside Huìyuǎn’s Dìchí lùn yìjì KR6n0013 = X39n0704 and several smaller fragments). It is important as direct evidence of the early-medieval Northern Chinese reception of the Bodhisattvabhūmi tradition before this material was effectively superseded by 玄奘’s complete translation of the Yogācārabhūmi (KR6n0001) in 648.
The dating bracket adopted here (600–800) reflects scholarly uncertainty: the work could be Sui (a contemporary of Huìyuǎn’s Dìchí lùn yìjì) or it could be early Tang, predating or paralleling the introduction of Xuánzàng’s superior version. The textual evidence does not permit a tighter bracket. The Dynasty tag 唐 is conventional rather than firmly attested.
Translations and research
Reminder: AI generated list - beware of hallucinations. Corrections and additions welcome
- Ueyama Daishun 上山大峻. Tonkō Bukkyō no kenkyū. Kyoto: Hōzōkan, 1990. (Discusses the Dūnhuáng Bodhisattvabhūmi commentarial fragments collectively.)
- Dunhuang baozang 敦煌寶藏. Various facsimile editions.