Biǎo wúbiǎo zhāng qīwán jì 表無表章栖翫記
Notes on the Essay on Manifested and Non-Manifested [Karma] by 守千 (Shǒuqiān, 述)
About the work
A single-fascicle Sòng Cí’ēn-school sub-commentary by 守千 Shǒuqiān on the Biǎo wúbiǎo zhāng 表無表章 — one of the constituent essays of 窺基’s KR6n0124 Dàshèng fǎyuàn yìlín zhāng 大乘法苑義林章, treating the doctrine of biǎo (manifested = bodily-and-verbal) and wúbiǎo (non-manifested = mental-residual) karma (action). Preserved in the Manji Xuzangjing 卍續藏 at X55n0884. The function-marker qīwán jì 栖翫記 (“notes from settled-and-savouring [study]”) indicates a leisurely, reflective study-record rather than a polemical commentary.
Prefaces
No separate preface; the text opens directly with the topical division: “Biǎo wúbiǎo zhāng — biǎo and wúbiǎo; biǎo wúbiǎo of an essay; the two glosses given in this order.” The body of the work then proceeds in question-and-answer form (wèndá 問答), with each wèn (question) addressing a specific doctrinal puzzle in Kuījī’s Yìlín zhāng essay and Shǒuqiān’s dá (answer) drawing on the broader Cí’ēn-school abhidharma literature.
Abstract
The Biǎo wúbiǎo doctrine is a central topic in Buddhist abhidharma: actions of body and speech are biǎo (manifested — outwardly observable acts that, on Sarvāstivāda doctrine, generate a corresponding wúbiǎo substance that persists invisibly within the agent and ripens later as karmic result), while purely mental acts may also generate wúbiǎo under certain conditions (the four brahma-vihāra meditations, etc.). The Cí’ēn-school treatment in Kuījī’s Yìlín zhāng essay is the locus classicus for the Yogācāra reading of this abhidharma doctrine; Shǒuqiān’s Qīwán jì is one of the principal Sòng-period sub-commentaries on it, working through the difficult points of Kuījī’s exposition with reference to the broader abhidharma and yogācāra literature.
守千 Shǒuqiān is otherwise unattested except as the author of this work; the catalog meta classifies him 宋 (Sòng), which the doctrinal vocabulary supports. The dating window 1000–1100 reflects the eleventh-century revival of Yogācāra study in Sòng China, of which this is one of the few surviving witnesses.
Translations and research
- Yoshimura Makoto 吉村誠, Chūgoku Yuishiki shisōshi kenkyū. Tokyo: Daizō shuppan, 2013 — covers the post-Táng Cí’ēn tradition.
- Étienne Lamotte, “Le traité de l’acte de Vasubandhu: Karmasiddhi-prakaraṇa.” Mélanges chinois et bouddhiques 4 (1936), 151–264 — the principal Western treatment of the biǎo / wú-biǎo doctrine.