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觀所緣論釋

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Text ID
KR6n0113
Date
710–711
Dynasty
唐

Guān suǒyuán lùn shì 觀所緣論釋

Commentary on the Investigation into the Object-Condition (Ālambana-parīkṣā-vṛtti / -ṭīkā) by 護法菩薩 (Dharmapāla, 造), translated by 義淨 (Yìjìng, 譯)

About the work

A single-fascicle commentary by 護法菩薩 Dharmapāla (c. 530–561) on Dignāga’s Ālambana-parīkṣā (= KR6n0112 Guān suǒyuányuán lùn), translated into Chinese by 義淨 Yìjìng in the early-eighth-century Táng. Preserved in the Taishō at T31n1625. Dharmapāla was the principal Yogācāra master of Nālandā in the generation after Dignāga and the doctrinal source of the Cí’ēn-school synthesis transmitted through 玄奘; this commentary is one of the principal Indian witnesses to how Dignāga’s epistemological argument was received within the Yogācāra mainline.

Structural Division

CANWWW preserves the related-text relation T31N1625 ↔ KR6n0112 (T31N1624), confirming the commentary relation. The text is internally organised as a verse-by-verse exposition of Dignāga’s eight kārikās plus the auto-commentary, with Dharmapāla’s prose explication weaving in references to the broader Yogācārabhūmi and abhidharma literature.

Prefaces

The text opens with Dharmapāla’s own salutary verse: “If [a teacher] makes the venom-bearing intelligent person — / so as to bring his wisdom to perfect clarity, / and to dissolve completely his sin and evil — / I bow my head respectfully and contemplate his meaning.” This is the standard opening of the vṛtti genre: a homage-verse to Dignāga as the teacher whose argument the commentary will expound.

Abstract

Dharmapāla’s vṛtti is the principal Indian Yogācāra commentary on the Ālambana-parīkṣā and one of the densest pieces of late-classical Indian Buddhist philosophy translated into Chinese. It systematically unfolds Dignāga’s two-stage refutation (atom-as-cause and aggregate-as-cause) using the technical resources of the post-Asaṅga Yogācāra: xiāngfēn / jiànfēn (image-portion / view-portion) analysis of the cognitive event, èrfēn / sānfēn / sìfēn debates on the structure of consciousness, and the zhuǎnyī (transformation-of-basis) doctrine. Dharmapāla’s reading is the source of the Cí’ēn-school’s own settled position on the suǒyuányuán, transmitted by 玄奘 from his Nālandā studies and standardised in the Chéng wéishí lùn 成唯識論 (T31n1585).

義淨 Yìjìng (635–713) was the second great Táng pilgrim-translator after Xuánzàng; he travelled to India 671–695 and brought back a substantial body of Sarvāstivāda vinaya and Yogācāra literature. He established his translation bureau in Chángān after his return; the Guān suǒyuán lùn shì is from his late, post-Cháng-ān period, conventionally dated 710–711 in the closing years of his career. (Yìjìng died in 713 in his 79th year.)

The text is the only surviving Chinese translation of any work attributed to Dharmapāla on the Ālambana-parīkṣā and is the principal scholastic resource for the late-imperial Chinese commentary tradition: 明昱’s KR6n0116 Shìjì and 智旭’s KR6n0117 Shì zhíjiě are direct sub-commentaries on this Shì.

Translations and research

  • Erich Frauwallner, “Dignāgas Ālambanaparīkṣā: Text, Übersetzung und Erläuterungen,” Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 37 (1930), 174–194 — discusses the Dharmapāla vṛtti.
  • Susumu Yamaguchi 山口益 and Henriette Meyer, Dignāga: Examen de l’objet de la connaissance: Textes tibétain et chinois et traduction des stances et du commentaire, éclaircissements et notes d’après le commentaire tibétain de Vinītadeva. Paris: Geuthner, 1929.
  • Douglas Duckworth, Malcolm David Eckel, et al. (trans.), Dignāga’s Investigation of the Percept. Oxford University Press, 2016 — includes the Dharmapāla commentary in translation.

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