Wéishí lùn tóngxué chāo 唯識論同學鈔
Records of Fellow Students on the Treatise on Consciousness-Only by 良算 (Ryōsan, 抄)
About the work
A sixty-eight-fascicle Kamakura-period Japanese Hossō 法相 mondō compendium on the Chéng wéishí lùn (KR6n0016, T31n1585), recorded by 良算 (b. 1202) of Kōfuku-ji 興福寺. Preserved as T2263 (Taishō vol. 66). The title Dōgakushō 同學鈔 (“records by fellow students”) signals the work’s character: it is not a single-authored commentary but a curated transcript of the doctrinal mondō 問答 (questions and answers) exchanged among the Kōfuku-ji faculty during the lecture-cycle on the Chéng wéishí lùn, organised by the same topical headings as the parallel anonymous KR6n0017 Honmon-shō (T2262).
Structural Division
CANWWW (T66N2263) lists two related texts: the master text KR6n0016 Chéng wéishí lùn 成唯識論 (T31n1585), and KR6n0021 Chéng wéishí lùn lüèshū 成唯識論略疏 (T68n2267, Fujaku). The 68 kan track the structure of the parent honmon-shō / dōgakushō curriculum-complex at Kōfuku-ji, the longest single Hossō work preserved in the Taishō.
Abstract
The Dōgakushō is the doctrinal-disputation pendant to KR6n0017 Jōyuishikiron honmon-shō (T2262, 45 fasc., anon.): where the Honmon-shō anthologises the canonical source-passages, the Dōgakushō presents the mondō discussion that examines them. The Kōfuku-ji scholastic tradition behind both works is the doctrinal lineage continuing Jōkei 貞慶 (1155–1213) — the Kamakura Hossō revival whose Triṃśikā commentary KR6n0023 Chū-sanjū-ju 注三十頌 (T2268) is also preserved in the same Taishō supplement-volume sequence.
The work is particularly important as a witness to the Silla Yogācāra reception in Japan. Ryōsan cites Wŏnch’ŭk 圓測 (613–696) more than 230 times, alongside Sinbang 神昉, Wŏnhyo 元曉 (617–686), and Kyŏnghŭng 憬興 — i.e. the entire Silla Yogācāra school. This breadth of Silla citation is exceptional within East-Asian Yogācāra literature and reflects the longstanding Kōfuku-ji preference for the “Northern Temple” 北寺 (Hokuji) Hossō lineage of Genbō 玄昉 ↔ Chitsū 智通 ↔ Dōshō 道昭, which had imported the Wŏnch’ŭk-line of Silla Yogācāra alongside the Kuījī-line Cí’ēn tradition.
The date-bracket adopted here (1240–1280) follows the standard placement of Ryōsan’s mature productive period: born 1202, the Dōgakushō must have been compiled after his completion of training at Kōfuku-ji and before the late thirteenth century when the next generation of Hossō scholars (e.g. Ryōhen 良遍, d. 1252; Sonkyō 尊鏡) succeeded him.
Translations and research
- A. Charles Muller and Ronald S. Green. “Early Japanese Hossō in Relation to Silla Yogācāra: Doctrinal Disputes between Nara’s Northern and Southern Temple Traditions.” Treats the Dōgakushō as the principal Kamakura Hossō witness to the Silla Yogācāra reception.
- Fukushi Jinin 福士慈稔. Studies of Ryōsan’s use of Wŏnch’ŭk, Sinbang, Wŏnhyo, and Kyŏnghŭng. Various articles.
- James L. Ford. Jōkei and Buddhist Devotion in Early Medieval Japan. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. (Sets the doctrinal context for Kamakura Kōfuku-ji Hossō.)
Other points of interest
The sixty-eight-fascicle length makes the Dōgakushō the single longest Hossō text preserved in the Taishō supplements and one of the longest scholastic works in the canon overall, comparable in scale to KR6n0028 Jōyuishikiron jukki shūjōhen 成唯識論述記集成編 (T2266, 45 fasc.) of 湛慧.