Yīshèng fóxìng jiūjìng lùn 一乘佛性究竟論
Treatise on the Ultimate Doctrine of the One Vehicle and Buddha-Nature by 法寶 (Fǎbǎo, 述)
About the work
A single-fascicle Táng treatise by 法寶 Fǎbǎo defending the eka-yāna (One-Vehicle, yīshèng 一乘) and universal Buddha-nature (fóxìng 佛性) doctrines against the Cí’ēn-school five-gotra analysis. Preserved in the Manji Xuzangjing 卍續藏 at X55n0902 — only fascicle 3 (the yīshèng xiǎnmì zhāng 一乘顯密章 — “manifest and secret One-Vehicle essay”) survives. The doctrinal counterpart from the rival side to 慧沼’s KR6n0128 Néng xiǎn zhōngbiān huìrì lùn — that is, the principal Táng-period defence of the eka-yāna universalism that the Cí’ēn-school challenged.
Prefaces
Authorship line: “Shāmén Fǎbǎo shù 沙門法寶述.” The text opens directly into the body of the surviving fascicle — the sixth essay in the original work, Yīshèng xiǎnmì zhāng dìliù 一乘顯密章第六. The opening citations are from the Liáng Shèlùn (Paramārtha’s Mahāyāna-saṃgraha): “the Mahāprajñā says the [Bodhisattva] vehicle has three meanings: (1) xìng (nature), (2) xíng (practice), (3) guǒ (fruit) — the sān wúxìng truth-as-such revealed through the twofold emptiness is named xìng; through this nature one cultivates the ten pāramitās and the ten stages, named xíng; through this xíng one ultimately attains the four virtues of permanence, joy, self, and purity, named guǒ.” The argument continues from the Madhyāntavibhāga: the vehicle has five meanings — exit-as-essence, merit-and-wisdom-as-cause, sentient-beings-as-grasped-objects, supreme-awakening-as-fruit, and three-confusions-as-obstacle.
Abstract
The Yīshèng fóxìng jiūjìng lùn is one of the principal Táng-period treatises arguing for the eka-yāna / universal Buddha-nature position against the Cí’ēn-school five-gotra doctrine. The work draws extensively on the Mahāyāna-saṃgraha (Shè dàshèng lùn) tradition transmitted through 真諦 Paramārtha — i.e. on the older pre-Xuán-zàng Yogācāra translations preserved in the Shè-lùn-school synthesis — and uses these to argue against the Xuánzàng-Kuījī Cí’ēn synthesis on the question of icchantika salvation and universal Buddha-nature.
法寶 Fǎbǎo (active mid-to-late seventh century / early eighth) was a Táng abhidharma and Madhyamaka-school master, reportedly a disciple of Xuánzàng who later distanced himself from the Cí’ēn-school orthodoxy. He is also associated with the Jùshè lùn shū commentary tradition. The dating window 700–770 brackets his productive period; the survival of only fascicle 3 means the work as a whole was several times longer in its original form.
Translations and research
- Stanley Weinstein, Buddhism Under the T’ang. Cambridge University Press, 1987.
- Yoshimura Makoto 吉村誠, Chūgoku Yuishiki shisōshi kenkyū. Tokyo: Daizō shuppan, 2013 — covers the Táng eka-yāna / gotra debate.
- Kashiwagi Hiroo 柏木弘雄, “Tō-dai Yuishiki gakuha no shomondai” 唐代唯識学派の諸問題. Various studies on the Táng Yogācāra-school internal disputes.