Shè dàshèng lùn chāo 攝大乘論抄
Excerpts from the Compendium of the Mahāyāna (anonymous Dūnhuáng manuscript)
About the work
A single-fascicle anonymous Dūnhuáng-manuscript “excerpts” / “extracts” (chāo 抄) compendium drawn from Paramārtha’s KR6n0061 Shè dàshèng lùn shì 攝大乘論釋 (T31n1595), edited into volume 85 of the Taishō (T85n2806). The manuscript opens with a striking exordium praising the Mahāyāna-saṅgraha as “the secondary axle of the Mahāyāna, the standard of the supreme Dharma” (大乘之副軸。建正法之勝幢) and as the doctrinal corrective for the post-Buddha “image-Dharma” (xiàngfǎ 像法) age.
Structural Division
CANWWW (T85N2806) does not assign internal structure. The single fascicle is a thematic extraction from the Paramārtha bhāṣya with original prefatory matter.
Abstract
The chāo opens with a hagiographic introduction to Asaṅga (referred to here by the transliteration Āsēngjiā 阿僧伽 with the gloss “cǐ yún Wúzhuó. Yì míng Wúài” — “this is rendered as Wúzhuó / ‘Unattached’; he is also called Wúài / ‘Unobstructed’”), placing his appearance “1100 years after the Buddha’s parinirvāṇa” — a date roughly consistent with the Indian Yogācāra hagiographic tradition. The body of the text consists of doctrinal extracts and paraphrases focused on the eighth consciousness (ālaya), the three natures, and the three trainings.
The work is the principal extant witness to a peculiarly Shèlùn-school style of textual presentation: the extraction of doctrinal loci from Paramārtha’s translation for didactic use, with original framing material added by the Chinese editor. The dating window (600–900) reflects the standard Dūnhuáng manuscript range and the post-Paramārtha terminus post quem. With its companions KR6n0066, KR6n0068, KR6n0069, and KR6n0070, it documents the subsequent fortunes of the Shèlùn school in northwest China after its supersession in central China by the Cí’ēn school.
Translations and research
- Ueyama Daishun 上山大峻. Tonkō Bukkyō no kenkyū. Kyoto: Hōzōkan, 1990.
- Funayama Tōru 船山徹. Shintai sanzō kenkyū ronshū. Kyoto, 2012.
- Yoshimura Makoto 吉村誠. Chūgoku Yuishiki shisōshi kenkyū. Tokyo: Daizō shuppan, 2013.