Dàshèng fǎjiè wú chābié lùn shū 大乘法界無差別論疏
Commentary on the Mahāyāna Treatise on the Non-Differentiation of the Dharmadhātu by 法藏 (Fǎzàng = Xiánshǒu Fǎzàng, 撰)
About the work
法藏’s (Xiánshǒu Fǎzàng, 643–712) single-fascicle commentary on KR6n0089 Dàshèng fǎjiè wú chābié lùn 大乘法界無差別論 (T31n1626) — the short Tathāgatagarbha treatise attributed to Sāramati and translated by 提雲般若 (Devaprajñā) c. 690–691. Fǎzàng was himself part of Devaprajñā’s translation team and presumably composed this commentary shortly after the translation campaign. The work is a foundational Hua-yan-school text on the Tathāgatagarbha doctrine.
Structural Division
CANWWW (T44N1838) lists KR6n0089 Dàshèng fǎjiè wú chābié lùn (T31n1626) as the related text — i.e. the parent / commented work. The single fascicle treats Sāramati’s twelve-aspect doctrine of bodhicitta and the doctrine of the non-differentiated dharmadhātu through Fǎzàng’s characteristic Hua-yan philosophical framework.
Abstract
Fǎzàng (the third patriarch of the Hua-yan 華嚴 school) was the author of more than thirty doctrinal works, including the foundational Huáyán jīng tànxuán jì 華嚴經探玄記 (T1733), the Wǔ jiào zhāng 五教章 (T1866), and the parabolic Jīnshīzǐ zhāng 金獅子章 (T1880). His commentary on the Dharmadhātu-aviśeṣa short treatise is one of his shorter doctrinal works but is theologically central to the Hua-yan-school synthesis of Tathāgatagarbha and Avataṃsaka doctrines. Fǎzàng treats Sāramati’s text as a key locus for the Hua-yan position that the dharmadhātu — the realm of all phenomena viewed in their ultimate inter-penetrating nature — is identifiable with the universal Buddha-nature.
The dating bracket adopted (691–712) covers the period from the completion of Devaprajñā’s translation (in which Fǎzàng participated) to Fǎzàng’s death. The colophons do not give a precise date.
The work is one of the principal Tang-dynasty Tathāgatagarbha-tradition commentaries and is the textual foundation for the Sòng-period sub-commentaries KR6n0092 Dàshèng fǎjiè wú chābié lùn shū lǐngyào chāo kē and KR6n0093 Dàshèng fǎjiè wú chābié lùn shū lǐngyào chāo by 普觀 of the Sòng dynasty.
Translations and research
- Liebenthal, Walter. “The Mahāyāna-dharmadhātu-aviśeṣa-śāstra.” Sino-Indian Studies 5 (1957): 70–110.
- Hamar, Imre, ed. Reflecting Mirrors: Perspectives on Huayan Buddhism. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2007.
- Cook, Francis H. Hua-yen Buddhism: The Jewel Net of Indra. University Park: Penn State Press, 1977.
- Gimello, Robert M. “Chih-yen and the Foundation of Hua-yen Buddhism.” PhD diss., Columbia University, 1976.
- Wěi Dào-rú 魏道儒. Zhōngguó Huá-yán zōng tōngshǐ 中國華嚴宗通史. Nanjing, 1998.