Shè dàshèng yìzhāng juǎn dìsì 攝大乘義章卷第四
Doctrinal Sections on the Mahāyāna-saṅgraha, Fascicle Four (anonymous Dūnhuáng manuscript)
About the work
A single-fascicle anonymous Dūnhuáng-manuscript “yìzhāng” 義章 (“doctrinal sections”) work on the Mahāyāna-saṅgraha, surviving only as juǎn 4 of the original. Edited into volume 85 of the Taishō (T85n2809). The genre — yìzhāng — is distinct from the zhāng of KR6n0068 / KR6n0069 in being more systematically philosophical, treating each doctrinal topic with a seven-part subdivision (qīmén fēnbié 七門分別).
Structural Division
CANWWW (T85N2809) does not assign internal structure. The fascicle opens with the topic of “duàn jié” 斷結 — the elimination of the fetters — and treats it through a seven-fold scheme: (1) name (shì míng), (2) substance (tǐxìng), (3) the differentiation of the antidotes, (4) sameness and difference of contemplation, (5) regression / non-regression, (6) numerical-grade analysis, (7) stage-correlation of the antidotes.
Abstract
The seven-fold method (qīmén) characterising this yìzhāng is reminiscent of the methodological organisation in KR6o0100 Dàshèng yìzhāng by 慧遠 (Sui Huìyuǎn 慧遠, 523–592), the encyclopedist who systematised early Chinese Buddhist doctrine. This stylistic affinity has led some scholars (Ueyama, Funayama) to suggest that the Shè dàshèng yìzhāng (T85n2809) belongs to or near the Sui Huìyuǎn lineage rather than to the Paramārtha Shèlùn school proper, complicating the simple Shèlùn-school attribution of the other Dūnhuáng Mahāyāna-saṅgraha commentarial fragments.
Like the other Dūnhuáng Shèlùn manuscripts, authorship is unknown and the dating window (600–900) follows standard Dūnhuáng manuscript bracket. The text is the principal surviving witness to the seven-fold encyclopedic method applied to Mahāyāna-saṅgraha doctrine.
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.