Sān zhī bǐ liàng yì chāo 三支比量義鈔
Excerpts on the Three-Member Syllogism’s Doctrine by 玄奘 (Xuánzàng, 立 / propounded), 延壽 (Yánshòu, 造 / discussed) and 明昱 (Míngyù, 鈔 / excerpted)
About the work
A short late-Míng compilation in one juǎn by 明昱 (Míngyù) extracting the discussion of 玄奘 (Xuánzàng)‘s famous Zhēnwéishí liàng 真唯識量 (“True Consciousness-Only Syllogism”) from 延壽 (Yánshòu, 904–975)‘s great Sòng-period encyclopedic Zōngjìng lù 宗鏡錄 KR6e0006. The work consists of the relevant Zōngjìng lù passages preserving Xuánzàng’s syllogism — said to have been propounded at the council of Kanyākubja in India to prove the Yogācāra thesis — together with Yánshòu’s exposition of it. As such it is a textbook excerpt rather than an original commentary; but it is the principal source for the late-Míng study of this most famous of all East Asian Buddhist syllogisms, and is paired with Zhìxù’s Zhēn wéishí liàng lüè jiě KR6o0036.
Structural Division
The Xuzangjing recension is not in CANWWW. The work is an excerpt from Yánshòu’s Zōngjìng lù.
Abstract
The colophon “唐三藏法師玄奘立 / 永明寺主延壽造 / 西蜀沙門明昱鈔” identifies the three layers of authorship: Xuánzàng, who originally propounded (立) the syllogism in India; Yánshòu, who composed (造) the exposition in his Zōngjìng lù; and Míngyù, who excerpted (鈔) the relevant passages for separate circulation. The opening passage narrates the standard story: Xuánzàng, while at Kanyākubja (中印土曲女城) under the patronage of King Harṣa (戒日王), participated in an eighteen-day “no-obstruction great assembly” 無遮大會 in which monks of all five Indian regions, brāhmaṇas, and proponents of the hīnayāna and non-Buddhist schools were assembled to debate; Xuánzàng “set up a single syllogism, written on a gold tablet” (立一比量，書在金牌), and “for eighteen days, not one person dared to refute it” (經十八日，無有一人敢破斥者). The syllogism itself, as Yánshòu records it, runs: 真故極成色，定不離於眼識；自許初三攝，眼所不攝故；猶如眼識 (“Conventionally agreed-upon physical form, in truth, is not separate from eye-consciousness; reason: it is grasped by [the first of] the [eye-consciousness’s] three forms of perception, but is not grasped by the eye itself; example: like eye-consciousness”). Composition (the excerpt-commentary) is by Míngyù, c. 1610–1620.
Translations and research
- See KR6o0036 for Zhìxù’s parallel commentary on the same syllogism.
- Frankenhauser, Uwe. Die Einführung der buddhistischen Logik in China. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1996.
- Cho Eun-su 趙恩秀. “Xuanzang’s True Consciousness-Only Syllogism.” Asian Philosophy 23.4 (2013): 311–328.