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成唯識論

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Text ID
KR6n0016
Date
659–659
Dynasty
唐

Chéng wéishí lùn 成唯識論

Demonstration of Consciousness-Only (Vijñaptimātratā-siddhi-śāstra) by 護法菩薩 (Hùfǎ púsà / Dharmapāla, 等造) and 玄奘 (Xuánzàng, 譯)

About the work

The single most important Yogācāra-Vijñānavāda systematic treatise in East Asian Buddhism, and the founding text of the Cí’ēnzōng / Fǎxiàng 法相 school: the great compilation by 玄奘 of the ten Indian commentaries on Vasubandhu’s Triṃśikā-vijñaptikārikā (the Wéishí sānshí lùn sòng 唯識三十論頌, KR6n0022, T31n1586) — fused into a single treatise structured around the verses themselves, with the commentary of Dharmapāla 護法 (護法菩薩) of Nālandā taken as the doctrinal “main author” and the others (Sthiramati 安慧, Bandhuśrī 親勝, Citrabhānu 火辯, Dharmapālabhadra 護月, Viśeṣamitra 勝友, Jinaputra 最勝子, Nanda 難陀, Śuddhacandra 淨月, Jñānacandra 智月) digested as supporting material with their own positions clearly identified. The translation was made at the Yùhuásì 玉華寺 in 659 CE (Xiǎnqìng 顯慶 4) at the urgent recommendation of Kuījī 窺基, who persuaded Xuánzàng to set aside his original plan of translating each commentary separately and instead to produce a synoptic single-text version. The result is the canonical East Asian Yogācāra system in 10 juǎn and the doctrinal foundation of the entire Cí’ēnzōng tradition.

Structural Division

CANWWW (T31N1585) lists KR6n0022 Wéishí sānshí lùn sòng 唯識三十論頌 (T31n1586) and KR6n0052 Wéishí sānshí lùn yàoshì 唯識三十論要釋 (T85n2804) as the principal related texts. The 10 juǎn are conventionally divided in the Cí’ēn commentaries into three large blocks tracking the 30 verses of the Triṃśikā:

  • Yī kōng yǒu 依空有 (verses 1–24): exposition of the yī tā qǐ 依他起 (other-dependent), biàn jì suǒ zhí 遍計所執 (imagined), and yuán chéng shí 圓成實 (perfectly accomplished) natures, the eight consciousnesses, and the doctrine of vijñaptimātra.
  • Liù wèi 六位 (verses 25–29): the five paths and the bodhisattva-stages.
  • Bù dòng 不動 (verse 30): the ultimate state of awakening.

Abstract

The translation event of 659 is described in remarkable detail in the Dà Cí’ēnsì Sānzàng Fǎshī zhuàn 大唐大慈恩寺三藏法師傳 (KR2m0017 T2053, j. 9) and in the prologue to 窺基’s Chéng wéishí lùn shùjì (KR6n0026, T43n1830). According to the latter, 玄奘 originally proposed to translate each of the ten Indian Triṃśikā commentaries separately and to publish them as a Vijñaptimātratā-saṅgraha — but Kuījī objected that this would simply transmit Indian doctrinal disputes without resolution, and persuaded the master to instead produce a synthetic version with Dharmapāla’s reading made authoritative. 玄奘 consented, and the translation team (with Kuījī as chief drafter, Pǔguāng 普光 as primary scribe, and Jiāshàng 嘉尚 and Pī-shén 披神 as collators) completed the Chéng wéishí lùn at Yùhuásì in 659.

The doctrinal contributions of the work define East-Asian Yogācāra thereafter: (1) the eight-consciousness scheme (the six sense-consciousnesses plus manas 末那識 and ālayavijñāna 阿賴耶識) is given its canonical articulation; (2) the doctrine of the three natures (sānxìng 三性) and three non-natures (sān wúxìng 三無性) is fixed in the form that determined all subsequent East Asian Yogācāra; (3) the seed (bīja 種子) doctrine of the ālayavijñāna is articulated in detail; (4) the relations among the eight consciousnesses, the xīnsuǒ 心所 (mental factors), and their objects are systematically classified.

The dominance of 護法 in the synthesis came at a cost: the alternative readings of 安慧菩薩 Sthiramati and Nanda 難陀 are recorded but rejected, and the work effectively closed off in East Asia those alternative Yogācāra streams. Modern Yogācāra scholarship (especially since the rediscovery of Sthiramati’s Triṃśikā-bhāṣya in Sanskrit in 1922) has used T1585 as the principal Chinese witness to Dharmapāla’s lost original Sanskrit commentary, and the comparative philology has produced a substantial revisionist literature (Ueda Yoshifumi 上田義文, Lambert Schmithausen, Florin Deleanu, Dan Lusthaus).

The text is the locus classicus for the Liù wèi 六位 (six paths of cultivation) of the Yogācāra path: zī liáng 資糧 (provisioning), jiā xíng 加行 (applied effort), tōng dá 通達 (penetration), xiū xí 修習 (cultivation), and jiū jìng 究竟 (ultimate); together with the technical doctrine of the zhuǎn yī 轉依 (the “transformation of the basis”) at awakening.

Translations and research

  • Cook, Francis H., trans. Three Texts on Consciousness Only. BDK English Tripiṭaka 60-I, II, III. Berkeley: Numata Center, 1999. (Includes complete English translation of T1585.)
  • de la Vallée Poussin, Louis. Vijñaptimātratāsiddhi: La Siddhi de Hiuan-Tsang. 2 vols. Paris: Geuthner, 1928–1929. (The classic French translation, still indispensable; based on the Chinese text of T1585.)
  • Wei Tat, trans. Ch’eng Wei-shih Lun: The Doctrine of Mere-Consciousness. Hong Kong: Ch’eng Wei-shih Lun Publication Committee, 1973. (Older complete English translation.)
  • Lusthaus, Dan. Buddhist Phenomenology: A Philosophical Investigation of Yogācāra Buddhism and the Ch’eng Wei-shih lun. London: Routledge, 2002. (Major modern English-language interpretive study.)
  • Ueda Yoshifumi 上田義文. Yuishiki shisō nyūmon 唯識思想入門. Tokyo: Asahi shimbun, 1964. (Foundational modern Japanese interpretive study.)
  • Yoshimura Makoto 吉村誠. Chūgoku Yuishiki shisōshi kenkyū. Tokyo: Daizō shuppan, 2013.
  • Sponberg, Alan. Meditation in Fa-hsiang Buddhism. PhD diss., Princeton University, 1979.
  • Funahashi Naoya 舩橋尚哉. Yuishiki nijū-jūron no kenkyū 唯識二十・三十論の研究. Tokyo: Sankibō Busshorin, 1989. (Comparative study of the Triṃśikā and Viṃśatikā and their commentarial traditions in Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Chinese.)

Other points of interest

The “ten authors” attribution (the so-called shí dà lùnshī 十大論師, “ten great commentators”) of the Chéng wéishí lùn is itself a doctrinal product of the Chéng wéishí lùn shùjì (KR6n0026, T43n1830) — Kuījī’s prefatory exposition lists ten Indian masters whose Sanskrit Triṃśikā commentaries Xuánzàng integrated, but the textual reconstruction of which Sanskrit material corresponds to which “author” within T1585 has been a major problem in modern Yogācāra scholarship. The Chéng wéishí lùn liào jiǎn (KR6n0033, X48n0806) and the Chéng wéishí lùn bié chāo (KR6n0034, X48n0808) — both also by Kuījī — preserve material that did not enter the published synthesis.

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