Guān suǒyuányuán lùn zhíjiě 觀所緣緣論直解
Direct Explanation of the Investigation into the Object-Condition by 智旭 (Ǒuyì Zhìxù, 解)
About the work
A single-fascicle late-Míng commentary by 智旭 Ǒuyì Zhìxù (1599–1655) on Dignāga’s KR6n0112 Guān suǒyuányuán lùn 觀所緣緣論 (T31n1624, in 玄奘’s translation). Preserved in the Manji Xuzangjing 卍續藏 at X51n0831. Part of Zhìxù’s zhíjiě set of compact direct expositions on the late-Míng Yogācāra core curriculum, paired with his KR6n0117 Guān suǒyuányuán lùn shì zhíjiě on Dharmapāla’s commentary.
Prefaces
Authorship line: “Chénnà púsà 造; Sānzàng fǎshī Xuánzàng 譯; Ǒuyì dàorén Zhìxù 解.” The text opens with a doctrinally programmatic gloss of the title that ties the Guānsuǒyuányuán analysis directly into the standard four-condition (sìyuán 四緣) framework: the guān (investigation) is the activity of the sixth consciousness conjoined with right understanding and other wholesome mental factors (dìliù shí yǔ zhèngjiě děng zhū shàn xīnsuǒ 第六識與正解等諸善心所), using the canonical scriptures and right doctrinal reasoning as the liàng 量 (measure of validity), to investigate the suǒyuányuán (object-condition) — which is the xiāngfēn 相分 (image-portion) of the eight cognitions. The four conditions (親因緣 immediate cause, 等無間緣 equal-and-uninterrupted antecedent, 所緣緣 object-condition, 增上緣 contributing condition) are the standard abhidharma conditional analysis; the work focuses on the third because the suǒyuányuán is precisely what the Sarvāstivāda-Sautrāntika opponents misanalyse as external matter.
Abstract
The Zhíjiě is the standard late-Míng Tiāntái-flavoured direct reading of Dignāga’s Ālambana-parīkṣā. Zhìxù narrows the scope explicitly to “the front-five-consciousnesses” (qián wǔ shí 前五識) — i.e. the perceptual rather than the conceptual stratum of cognition — because the contested case is precisely the xiànliàng 現量 (direct-perception) cognition of the wǔ chén 五塵 (five sense-fields), which “ordinary worldlings and non-Buddhists wrongly take as real external matter.” The argument runs through Dignāga’s binary refutation in compact form, with explicit cross-reference to the Chéng wéishí lùn and the standard Cí’ēn analytic vocabulary.
The dating window 1630–1655 brackets Zhìxù’s productive decades after his major doctrinal turn around 1631. This zhíjiě on the root Guān suǒyuányuán lùn is paired with his companion zhíjiě on Dharmapāla’s commentary KR6n0117; together they constitute Zhìxù’s contribution to the late-Míng Ālambana-parīkṣā corpus, alongside 明昱’s KR6n0114 Huìshì and KR6n0116 Shìjì.
Translations and research
- Shèng-yán 聖嚴, Míng-mò Fó-jiào yán-jiū 明末佛教研究.
- Beverley Foulks McGuire, Living Karma: The Religious Practices of Ouyi Zhixu (1599–1655). Columbia University Press, 2014.
- Yoshimura Makoto 吉村誠, Chūgoku Yuishiki shisōshi kenkyū. Tokyo: Daizō shuppan, 2013.
- Douglas Duckworth et al., Dignāga’s Investigation of the Percept. Oxford UP, 2016.