Wéishí sānshí lùn yàoshì 唯識三十論要釋
Essential Exegesis of the Thirty Verses on Consciousness-Only (anonymous Dūnhuáng manuscript)
About the work
A single-fascicle anonymous commentary on Vasubandhu’s Triṃśikā — the verse base preserved as KR6n0022 Wéishí sānshí lùn sòng 唯識三十論頌 (T31n1586) — recovered from Dūnhuáng and edited into volume 85 of the Taishō shinshū daizōkyō (T85n2804). The Taishō header notes “[cf. Nos. 1585, 1586],” signalling that the text relates simultaneously to the Chéng wéishí lùn and the verse base.
Structural Division
CANWWW does not assign internal structure for T85N2804. The manuscript breaks off without colophon and is internally organised as a verse-by-verse paraphrase.
Abstract
The yàoshì belongs to the cluster of Yogācāra commentaries surviving only in Dūnhuáng manuscripts (collectively gathered in T85, the Gǔyìbù 古逸部 / “ancient lost works” division). It opens with the standard Cí’ēn-style exposition of the four “yīnyuán” 因緣 (causes, conditions) for the composition of the Triṃśikā: refuting the various heterodox positions that absolutise either matter or mind, and establishing the consciousness-only doctrine through analysis of the eight consciousnesses, the three natures, and the three non-natures. The commentary follows the Xuánzàng-Cí’ēn doctrinal framework — citing the Yújiā shī dì lùn and Xiǎnyáng shèngjiào lùn explicitly — but is not by 窺基 himself, since it differs in technical vocabulary and citation pattern from the authentic Cí’ēn corpus.
The dating bracket (700–900) reflects the post-Xuánzàng / Cí’ēn-school technical vocabulary (requiring a terminus post quem in the late seventh century) combined with the typical date range for Dūnhuáng manuscript material in this textual class. The author was likely a Cí’ēn-school monk operating in the Héxī corridor or in central Cháng’ān during the high or middle Táng.
The text is one of several Dūnhuáng Wéishí-school commentaries that have substantially expanded modern understanding of the diffusion and reception of Cí’ēn Yogācāra in the centuries between 窺基 and the Sòng — see Ueyama Daishun 上山大峻 on Dūnhuáng Yogācāra materials.
Translations and research
- Ueyama Daishun 上山大峻. Tonkō Bukkyō no kenkyū 敦煌仏教の研究. Kyoto: Hōzōkan, 1990.
- Yoshimura Makoto 吉村誠. Chūgoku Yuishiki shisōshi kenkyū. Tokyo: Daizō shuppan, 2013.