Guān suǒyuányuán lùn shì jì 觀所緣緣論釋記
Notes on the Commentary on the Investigation into the Object-Condition by 明昱 (Gāoyuán Míngyù, 錄記)
About the work
A single-fascicle late-Míng sub-commentary by 明昱 Gāoyuán Míngyù on KR6n0113 Guān suǒyuán lùn shì 觀所緣論釋 — Dharmapāla’s commentary on Dignāga’s Ālambana-parīkṣā, in 義淨 Yìjìng’s translation (T31n1625). Preserved in the Manji Xuzangjing 卍續藏 at X51n0832. The function-marker lùjì 錄記 (“transcribed notes”) suggests the text is a record of Míngyù’s lectures on the Shì, edited and circulated under his name.
Prefaces
The text opens with a substantial preface, Guān suǒyuányuán lùn shì jì xù 觀所緣緣論釋記序 (No. 832-A). The preface explicitly summarises the three-tier exegetical chain that the Shìjì presupposes: (1) Dignāga “陳那菩薩 深窮緣性，洞徹見源” — Dignāga deeply exhausted the nature of conditioning and penetrated to the source of seeing, demonstrating that “outside the mind there is no object” (xīn wài wú jìng 心外無境); (2) the Sautrāntika-school masters (Jīngbùshī děng 經部師等) wrongly held the external aggregated atoms to be the suǒyuányuán, and Dignāga refuted their two reciprocally-deficient analyses; (3) Dharmapāla (護法菩薩) further developed Dignāga’s compressed argument, “exhausting the deep recesses, composing the Shì to broaden its purport, raising up the radiance of right reasoning.” The Shìjì is therefore “notes on the commentary” — a third-tier sub-commentary on Dharmapāla on Dignāga.
Abstract
The Shìjì is one of the densest pieces of late-Míng Yogācāra scholarship — Míngyù tracking Dharmapāla tracking Dignāga through a chain of philosophical refutation against various śrāvaka schools. The doctrinal target is the demonstration that the Sautrāntika attempt to make sense of the suǒyuányuán via external aggregations, and the Sammitīya / Zhèngliàngbù 正量部 attempt to deny the biàndài 變帶 (transformation-and-bringing-forth) relation, both fail to provide a coherent account of perception, and that only the Yogācāra account in terms of internal xiāngfēn (cognitive image arising within consciousness) is consistent. The preface explicitly notes that the early Mahāyāna doctors (gǔ Dàshèng shī 古大乘師), if they “abbreviate the xiédài” (the “carrying-along” relation), end up with the zhì (root wisdom) cognising zhēnrú (suchness) being treated as a suǒyuányuán, with consequent loss — the Shìjì takes care to preserve both the xiédài and the biàndài in their full Yogācāra form.
The dating window 1590–1620 brackets Míngyù’s Wànlì productive period. The Shìjì together with KR6n0114 Huìshì constitute Míngyù’s two principal contributions to the late-Míng Ālambana-parīkṣā corpus.
Translations and research
- Shèng-yán 聖嚴, Míng-mò Fó-jiào yán-jiū 明末佛教研究, esp. on Míngyù.
- 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 — discusses the late-imperial Chinese reception of Dharmapāla on the Ālambana-parīkṣā.