Yīnmíng rù zhèng lǐ lùn xù shū 因明入正理論續疏
Continuation of the Commentary on the Treatise on Entering Correct Reasoning by 慧沼 (Huìzhǎo, 述)
About the work
A one-juǎn “continuation commentary” (續疏 xù shū) by 慧沼 (Huìzhǎo, 651–714) supplying a sustained gloss on the lower portion of the Yīnmíng rù zhèng lǐ lùn KR6o0003 — i.e. continuing where Kuījī’s Dàshū KR6o0008 breaks off mid-juǎn. The source text is explicitly headed “因明入正理論疏下，正等寺沙門慧沼續” — “Commentary on the Rù lùn, lower [juǎn]: continued by Huìzhǎo, monk of Zhèngděngsì 正等寺”; this is the third element of Huìzhǎo’s three-part completion of his teacher Kuījī’s logic project, alongside the Yìduàn KR6o0018 (disputed-question arbitration) and the Yìzuǎnyào KR6o0019 (topical synthesis).
Structural Division
The Xuzangjing recension of this text is not in CANWWW. The work continues the commentary on the Rù lùn KR6o0003 from where the Dàshū breaks off.
Abstract
The opening lemma “能立法不成者至猶如極微” (i.e. the section on the fallacy of the néng-lì-fǎ bù chéng — failure to establish the property of the predicate — running through the example “as in the case of paramāṇu [極微 atoms]”) shows that the Xù-shū takes up the Rù lùn in the latter portion of its section on fallacies of the reason (似因). Huìzhǎo’s gloss is closely aligned with Kuījī’s manner; he treats the same sequence of disputed questions, frequently citing Kuījī’s Dà-shū by name and resolving its ambiguities in the same Cí’ēn idiom. The text functions in practice as the missing third juǎn of the Dà-shū: it covers exactly the territory the Dà-shū leaves untreated. The colophon attributes the work to Huìzhǎo’s residence at Zhèngděng-sì 正等寺 — the imperial monastery in Cháng’ān — placing the composition in his late period after his transfer from Zīzhōu, conventionally given as c. 705–714. The Xuzangjing transmits the text from a Japanese manuscript line; the work was rare in the Chinese tradition and appears to have circulated mainly through the Japanese Hossō school.
Translations and research
- Takemura Shōhō 武邑尚邦. Inmyōgaku — sono genri to tenkai 因明學――その原理と展開. Kyoto: Hyakkaen, 1986.
- Shen Jianying 沈剣英. Yīnmíng xué yánjiū 因明學研究. Shanghai, 1985.
Other points of interest
The status of the Xùshū as a “third juǎn” continuation of Kuījī’s Dàshū is a striking feature of the Cí’ēn yīnmíng tradition: rather than re-commenting from scratch, Huìzhǎo treats his teacher’s interrupted work as authoritative and writes himself in directly where the Dàshū fails. This pattern — of a disciple producing literally a second half of a teacher’s incomplete commentary — is unusual in East Asian Buddhist scholarship.