Dàshèng bǎifǎ míngmén lùn kāizōng yìjué 大乘百法明門論開宗義決
Decisional Supplement to the Notes on the Founding Doctrine of the Mahāyāna Hundred-Dharmas Treatise by 曇曠 (Tánkuàng, 撰)
About the work
A single-fascicle late-Táng Cí’ēn-school decisional sub-commentary by 曇曠 Tánkuàng on his own KR6n0107 Dàshèng bǎifǎ míngmén lùn kāizōng yìjì 大乘百法明門論開宗義記, written to clarify difficult passages of the original Yìjì whose “doctrinal intent is far-reaching and the language is profound” (shū zhǐ jiōng wén yōu 疏旨敻文幽). Composed at Dūnhuáng (撰煌, zhuàn huáng — i.e. composed at Shāzhōu / Dūnhuáng) in the year Dàlì 9 = 774 CE by its own colophon. Preserved in the Taishō supplement at vol. 85, no. 2812.
Structural Division
CANWWW preserves the related-text relation T85N2812 ↔ KR6n0107 (T85N2810). The text proceeds topic by topic through the difficult passages of the parent Yìjì, opening with an exposition of the yī jiànlì Ālài-yē shì liǎo jiào 依建立阿賴耶識了教 (the foundational establishment of the ālaya-vijñāna as the criterion separating the Mahāyāna liǎoyì “definitive” teaching from the Hīnayāna bùliǎoyì “non-definitive” teaching).
Prefaces
The opening preface is also Tánkuàng’s most substantial autobiographical statement and a key dating witness. He records: “I, Tánkuàng, served the transmission [of the Cí’ēn doctrine] obscurely. Initially in my native region I cut [studied] Wéishí and Jùshè (the Vidyāmātra-siddhi and Abhidharmakośa); later I travelled to the capital [Chángān] and specialised in [the] Qǐxìn and Vajracchedikā. Although I did not enter the deep arcana, I gained a rough survey. When I returned home to the Héyòu [the right bank of the Yellow River = Héxī corridor / Liángzhōu region], I devoted myself to propagation. In a meagre time of difficult fortunes, monks of the failing way were anxious about food and clothing, and students were exhausted from servile attendance. Even small treatises and small sūtras prompted thoughts of standing on a precipice; the great works and great commentaries broke the heart of resolution… Distressed at this empty spending of time and grieved at this prolonged confusion, I sometimes supplemented the missing text of earlier scholars to complete a full exposition; sometimes pruned the over-abundant of the elders to produce a concise zhāng (essay). I began at Shuòfāng [= Liángzhōu] composing the Jīngāng zhǐzàn (the Vajracchedikā sub-commentary KR6c0107); next at Liángchéng I composed the Qǐxìn xiāowén (the Awakening of Faith tract); afterwards at Dūnhuáng I composed the Rùdào cìdì kāijué (= KR6n0130) and the Bǎifǎ lùn kāizōng yìjì (KR6n0107). Concerned that the doctrinal intent of that work is far-reaching and the language profound, and that students would have difficulty penetrating it, I now further sought out additional doctrinal arguments and composed Kāijué shūwén — that the lost-learning students may complete their work. The time was the great Táng’s Dàlì nine, jiǎyín year, sixth month, first day [= 1 July 774 CE].”
Abstract
The Kāizōng yìjué is the most precisely datable text in Tánkuàng’s surviving corpus and one of the principal Dūnhuáng witnesses to the doctrinal life of the Héxī Cí’ēn-school in the immediate aftermath of the An Lùshān rebellion and just at the eve of the Tibetan occupation of Dūnhuáng (which began in 781 and ran to 848). The autobiographical preface provides the standard chronology of Tánkuàng’s productive geography: studies in his native region (likely Liángzhōu) → travels to Chángān → return to Héxī → late-life propagation work culminating at Dūnhuáng. The four works he names — the Vajracchedikā zhǐzàn (KR6c0107), the Qǐxìn xiāowén, the Dàshèng rùdào cìdì kāijué (KR6n0130), and the Bǎifǎ lùn kāizōng yìjì (KR6n0107) — together with the present Yìjué and the lost Qǐxìn xiāowén establish the canonical Tánkuàng corpus.
Body of the text: a topic-by-topic decisional supplement to the parent Yìjì, beginning from the doctrinal identification of the ālaya-vijñāna as the criterion that separates the Mahāyāna definitive teaching from Hīnayāna provisional teaching, and proceeding through the difficult points of the hundred-dharma scheme.
Translations and research
- Ueyama Daishun 上山大峻, Tonkō Bukkyō no kenkyū 敦煌仏教の研究. Kyoto: Hōzōkan, 1990 — the principal monograph on Tán-kuàng with a critical study of all his works including this one.
- Yoshimura Makoto 吉村誠, Chūgoku Yuishiki shisōshi kenkyū 中国唯識思想史研究. Tokyo: Daizō shuppan, 2013.