Guān suǒyuányuán lùn shì zhíjiě 觀所緣緣論釋直解
Direct Explanation of the Commentary on 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 KR6n0113 Guān suǒyuán lùn shì 觀所緣論釋 — Dharmapāla’s Ālambana-parīkṣā-vṛtti, in 義淨’s translation (T31n1625). Preserved in the Manji Xuzangjing 卍續藏 at X51n0833. Companion piece to Zhìxù’s KR6n0115 Guān suǒyuányuán lùn zhíjiě on the root verses; together the two zhíjiě form a complete late-Míng integrative reading of the Ālambana-parīkṣā corpus.
Prefaces
The opening attribution preserves the full four-tier authorship chain: “Chénnà púsà zào lùn 陳那菩薩造論 (Dignāga composed the root treatise) / Sānzàng fǎshī Xuánzàng yì 三藏法師玄奘譯 (Tripiṭaka Master Xuánzàng translated [the root]) // Hùfǎ púsà zào shì 護法菩薩造釋 (Dharmapāla composed the commentary) / Sānzàng fǎshī Yìjìng yì 三藏法師義淨譯 (Tripiṭaka Master Yìjìng translated [the commentary]) /// Ǒuyì shì Zhìxù jiě 蕅益釋智旭解 (the Ǒuyì bhikṣu Zhìxù explicates).” The text then opens with Dharmapāla’s homage-verse — “If one [a teacher] makes the venom-bearing intelligent person, in order to bring his wisdom to perfect clarity and to dissolve his sin and evil — I bow my head in respect and contemplate his meaning” — and Zhìxù’s first major gloss is on this verse, unpacking the sānbǎo (Three Jewels) symbolism: yánzì (verbal speech) = teaching; guān (investigation) = practice; suǒyuányuán (object-condition) = doctrine; thus the three fǎbǎo (Dharma jewels) — jiào / xíng / lǐ (teaching / practice / principle) — are all encoded in the title’s first three characters.
Abstract
The Zhíjiě on Dharmapāla’s commentary is the more philosophically demanding of Zhìxù’s two Guānsuǒyuán expositions: where the KR6n0115 Zhíjiě on the root verses follows Dignāga’s compact arguments, this work has to track Dharmapāla’s far denser arguments against multiple opposing schools. Zhìxù’s distinctive contribution is the integrative sānbǎo / sāndé (Three Jewels / Three Virtues) reading — by which the entire epistemological apparatus of Yogācāra is read back into the soteriological framework of Buddhist practice, with the perceptual investigation serving as the analytic phase of a contemplative path that culminates in the recognition of vijñapti-mātra as the basis for prajñā-pāramitā practice.
The dating window 1630–1655 brackets Zhìxù’s productive decades after his doctrinal turn around 1631. The Zhíjiě on Dharmapāla and the Zhíjiě on the root verses together constitute the standard late-Míng integrative reading of the Ālambana-parīkṣā corpus, complementing 明昱’s philologically more conservative 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. Columbia University Press, 2014.
- Yoshimura Makoto 吉村誠, Chūgoku Yuishiki shisōshi kenkyū. Tokyo: Daizō shuppan, 2013.