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因明入正理論

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Text ID
KR6o0003
Date
647–647
Dynasty
唐

Yīnmíng rù zhèng lǐ lùn 因明入正理論

Treatise on Entering Correct Reasoning of Hetuvidyā (Nyāyapraveśa) by 商羯羅主菩薩 (Shāng-jié-luó-zhǔ púsà / Śaṅkarasvāmin, 造) and 玄奘 (Xuánzàng, 譯)

About the work

A short propaedeutic treatise of one juǎn on Buddhist formal logic by Śaṅkarasvāmin (商羯羅主菩薩, fl. 6th c.), traditionally identified as a direct disciple of Dignāga, designed as an introductory companion (入論) to Dignāga’s denser Nyāyamukha KR6o0001 (門論). Translated by 玄奘 (Xuánzàng) at the Hóngfú-sì 弘福寺 in Zhēnguān 貞觀 21 (647), this text is by far the most widely studied and commented Buddhist logic treatise in East Asia, far exceeding its parent text in transmission and influence. It opens with the famous summary verse “能立與能破，及似唯悟他；現量與比量，及似唯自悟” — “True proof and true refutation, and their semblances, are only for awakening others; direct perception and inference, and their semblances, are only for self-awakening” — which orchestrates the whole treatise around the eight-fold scheme of two genuine and two semblant operations of parārtha (for-others) reasoning and svārtha (for-self) cognition. It is the source-text for the entire stream of Cí’ēn / Fǎxiàng commentary in this division: Wénguǐ 文軌 KR6o0021, Kuījī 窺基 KR6o0008, Huìzhǎo 慧沼 KR6o0018, KR6o0019, KR6o0022, Zhìzhōu 智周 KR6o0023, KR6o0024, KR6o0025, and the Míng-Qīng commentaries KR6o0026–KR6o0029 all gloss this very text.

Structural Division

CANWWW (T32N1630) lists no internal sub-divisions for this single-juǎn treatise. Related-text pointers in CANWWW link to Kuījī’s commentary KR6o0008 (T44n1840) and Huìzhǎo’s Yìzhuǎnyào KR6o0019 (T44n1842).

Abstract

The Sanskrit Nyāyapraveśa survives in Indian manuscripts; it was edited from Jaina manuscript transmission by Dhruva (1930) and Mironov (1931), since Jaina logicians (Haribhadra, Pārśvadeva) wrote sub-commentaries on it. The catalog meta (data/catalogs/meta/KR6o.yaml) gives the author as 南羯羅主菩薩, an error: the source text and CANWWW both read 商羯羅主菩薩, and the standard reconstruction is Śaṅkarasvāmin. The translation date is fixed by the colophon to the Dà Táng nèi-diǎn lù 大唐內典錄 (T2149) and the Kāiyuán shìjiào lù 開元釋教錄 (T2154), both placing it in 貞觀 21 (647), shortly after the parallel work on the Yogācārabhūmi KR6n0001. The treatise sets out: (1) the genuine parārtha operations — true proof (能立 néng-lì) and true refutation (能破 néng-pò); (2) their semblances (似能立, 似能破) — i.e. the canonical fallacy taxonomies of thesis (似宗 33-fold), reason (似因 14-fold), and example (似喻 10-fold); (3) the genuine svārtha operations — direct perception (現量 xiàn-liàng) and inference (比量 bǐ-liàng); (4) their semblances. The Taishō text is based on the Korean canon (高麗藏) with collations from Sòng, Yuán, Míng, and palace editions. The text remained the principal vehicle for yīnmíng studies in China, Korea, and Japan throughout the medieval and early-modern periods, with a fresh wave of activity in late-Míng and Qīng China (real flourishing in late-Míng under Zhēnjiè 真界 KR6o0026, Wáng Kěntáng 王肯堂 KR6o0027, Míngyù 明昱 KR6o0028, and Zhìxù 智旭 KR6o0029).

Translations and research

  • Tachikawa Musashi 立川武藏. “A Sixth-Century Manual of Indian Logic (A Translation of the Nyāyapraveśa).” Journal of Indian Philosophy 1.2 (1971): 111–145. — English translation from the Sanskrit, with Chinese parallels.
  • Dhruva, A. B. The Nyāyapraveśa, Part I: Sanskrit Text. Gaekwad Oriental Series 38. Baroda, 1930.
  • Mironov, N. D. “Nyāyapraveśa I: Sanskrit text.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 1931: 1–24.
  • Frauwallner, Erich. “Zu den buddhistischen Texten in der Zeit Khri-sroṅ-lde-btsan’s.” Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Süd- und Ostasiens 1 (1957): 95–103.
  • Sūn Zhōngyuán 孫中原. Yīnmíng yīngyòng yánjiū 因明應用研究. Beijing, 2008. — Modern Chinese study of Buddhist logic with full attention to the Rù lùn tradition.
  • Lustaus, Ernest. A Buddhist Treatise on Logic by Dignāga and his Successors (forthcoming).

Other points of interest

The 因明入正理論 is the most-commented logic treatise in East Asia. The early Táng “old commentaries” (古疏) by Dàoxuān 道宣, Wénguǐ 文軌, and Jìngyǎn 淨眼 do not all survive — Wénguǐ’s incomplete shù survives only as KR6o0021; the only complete early commentary is Kuījī’s Dàshū KR6o0008 together with Huìzhǎo’s two supplementary works KR6o0018, KR6o0019, KR6o0022 and Zhìzhōu’s Qiánjì, Hòujì, Shūchāo KR6o0023, KR6o0024, KR6o0025. Together these constitute the “Cí’ēn three masters” (慈恩三家) tradition of yīnmíng exegesis.

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