Biàn zhōngbiān lùn shùjì 辯中邊論述記
Commentary on the Treatise Discriminating the Middle from the Extremes by 窺基 (Kuījī, 撰)
About the work
窺基’s three-fascicle running commentary on KR6n0072 Biàn zhōngbiān lùn 辯中邊論 (T31n1600) — 玄奘’s translation of Vasubandhu’s Madhyāntavibhāga-bhāṣya. The standard Cí’ēn-school commentary on the Madhyāntavibhāga in Chinese, completing Kuījī’s series of major commentaries on the principal Yogācāra treatises (cf. KR6n0026 on Chéng wéishí lùn, KR6n0029 on the same, KR6n0057 on Wéishí èrshí lùn).
Structural Division
CANWWW does not list a separate structural division for T44N1835; the three juǎn track Vasubandhu’s bhāṣya on the seven chapters of Maitreya’s Madhyāntavibhāga in sequence.
Abstract
The shùjì is one of 窺基’s major systematic commentaries — composed during his productive teaching years between Xuánzàng’s death (664) and Kuījī’s own death (682). The dating window adopted (661–682) covers the period from Xuánzàng’s translation of KR6n0072 through to Kuījī’s death.
The commentary is densely technical, drawing on the full Cí’ēn doctrinal apparatus: the eight consciousnesses, the three natures, the four-fold cognition (sìfēn 四分), and the bodhisattva-path through the five stages and ten bhūmi. Particular attention is given to the chapter on tattva 真實 (chapter 3), where Kuījī develops his characteristic Cí’ēn synthesis of the trisvabhāva analysis with the broader Mahāyāna-saṅgraha framework.
The work is heavily cited in subsequent Hossō school sub-commentaries in Heian and Kamakura Japan; the principal Japanese sub-commentary is the Biàn zhōngbiān lùn shùjì kō by Zenju 善珠 (723–797), preserved only in fragmentary form. The commentary remains the standard Cí’ēn reference for the Madhyāntavibhāga in East Asian Yogācāra study.
Translations and research
- Yoshimura Makoto 吉村誠. Chūgoku Yuishiki shisōshi kenkyū. Tokyo: Daizō shuppan, 2013.
- Sponberg, Alan. Meditation in Fa-hsiang Buddhism. PhD diss., Princeton, 1979.
- Yokoyama Kōitsu 横山紘一. Yuishiki bunken mokuroku. Tokyo: Daizō shuppan, 1988.