Chéng wéishí bǎoshēng lùn 成唯識寶生論
Treatise on the Generation of the Jewel of Established Consciousness-Only (Dharmapāla, Vimśatikā-vṛtti-tīkā; alt. Èrshí wéishí shùnshì lùn 二十唯識順釋論) by 護法菩薩 (Hùfǎ púsà = Dharmapāla, 造) and 義淨 (Yìjìng, 譯)
About the work
A five-fascicle commentary by Dharmapāla (c. 530–561) on Vasubandhu’s Viṃśatikā — the same text translated by 玄奘 as KR6n0055 (T31n1590) — translated into Chinese by 義淨 (Yìjìng) on his return from his sea-route pilgrimage to India and Śrīvijaya. The alternate title preserved in the catalogs, Èrshí wéishí shùnshì lùn 二十唯識順釋論 (“Sequential Exegesis of the Twenty [Verses of] Consciousness-Only”), is more transparent: Dharmapāla follows the Viṃśatikā verse by verse, expanding each kārikā with the elaborate philosophical apparatus characteristic of his school.
Structural Division
CANWWW (T31N1591) lists KR6n0053 Wéishí lùn (T31n1588) and KR6n0055 Wéishí èrshí lùn (T31n1590) as related texts — i.e. the verse base and the alternate translation. The five fascicles are divided according to thematic groupings of Vasubandhu’s kārikā rather than by individual verses.
Abstract
This is the second extant commentary on the Viṃśatikā attributed to 護法菩薩 (the first is the Vijñaptimātratā-siddhi compilation absorbed into KR6n0016 Chéng wéishí lùn, which is on the Triṃśikā not the Viṃśatikā). Dharmapāla’s exegesis is more philosophically expansive than the vṛtti it comments upon: he develops, against opponents identified as Sarvāstivāda Vaibhāṣika (the “lùnshī” 論師), the impossibility of atomic theory as a basis for perception; he refines the karmic-vāsanā solution to the dream-vs-collective-experience puzzle; and he addresses the apparent solipsism objection by analysis of inter-stream consciousness vāsanā-transmission.
The translation was completed by Yìjìng during the productive Cháng’ān years following his return from India in 695. The dating window adopted (700–711) reflects the active translation period from Yìjìng’s establishment at Dàjiànfúsì 大薦福寺 through to his death. The colophon does not give a precise year; the Kāiyuán shìjiào lù j. 9 lists this among Yìjìng’s later doctrinal output, alongside KR6m0026 Yīmìng lùn and other Indian śāstra translations.
The text is one of the principal sources for late-Indian Yogācāra interpretation of the Viṃśatikā and was widely consulted in the Cí’ēn 慈恩 commentarial tradition, though it never achieved the canonical status of 窺基’s KR6n0057 shùjì 述記 (which is on Xuánzàng’s translation rather than on Dharmapāla’s commentary).
Translations and research
- Frauwallner, Erich. “Dharmapāla on the Vimśatikā.” Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Süd- und Ostasiens 5 (1961): 113–47.
- Yamabe Nobuyoshi 山部能宜. “Bishakubon Joyuishikiron yakushin sui kō” 『釈彼本成唯識論躡足摧』考. In Yamabe and Hayashi (eds.), Yuishikishisō kenkyū, Tokyo, 2000.
- Yoshimura Makoto 吉村誠. Chūgoku Yuishiki shisōshi kenkyū. Tokyo: Daizō shuppan, 2013.
Links
- CBETA
- 義淨 Yìjìng DILA
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (705): [ T ] T = CBETA [Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association]. Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. Edited by Takakusu Junjirō 高楠順次郎 and Watanabe Kaigyoku 渡邊海旭. Tokyo: Taishō shinshū daizōkyō kankōkai/Daizō shuppan, 1924-1932. CBReader v 5.0, 2014. https://dazangthings.nz/cbc/source/1/