Dàchéng zhèngguān lüè sījì 大乘正觀略私記
Brief Private Notes on the Right Contemplation of the Great Vehicle by 珍海 (Zhēnhǎi / Chinkai, 記)
About the work
A one-fascicle Sanron-school topical exposition of zhèng-guān (正觀, “right contemplation” / samyak-darśana) by the late-Insei period Tōdai-ji 東大寺 Sanron scholar 珍海 (Chinkai, 1092–1152), composed and dated in his own colophon Chōshō 3 (長承三年正月十五日) = 15 January 1134. Preserved in Taishō vol. 70 (no. 2298). The Japanese title is Daijō shōkan ryaku shiki.
Prefaces
The work opens with a brief prefatory paragraph stating the author’s intent and the work’s three-fold structure:
夫以。至道冲邃迷者彌多。專憑師宗粗示方隅。明識君子以自悉之。將啓宗旨略有三門。一正觀大意。二諸門分別。三總結宗歸
第一大意門
“Now: the supreme Path is profound and deep; those who go astray are ever more numerous. Relying solely upon the school of the master, I roughly indicate its general direction. May the intelligent gentleman himself attain it in full. To open the doctrinal essentials, in summary there are three gates: (1) the general meaning of right contemplation; (2) the differentiation among the various gates; (3) the comprehensive conclusion of the doctrinal return.”
The signature reads “沙門珍海記之” (“recorded by the śramaṇa Chinkai”). The colophon at the end of the work, written in Chinkai’s own hand, reads: “正觀大意一卷 長承三年正月十五日 沙門珍海私記” — “Right Contemplation General Meaning, one fascicle. Chōshō 3, 1st month, 15th day [15 January 1134], śramaṇa Chinkai, private notes.”
A later copy-colophon dated Tenbun 12 (天文十二年十月十三日, 13 October 1543) records the copying of the manuscript “at Kannon-in 觀音院 of Tōdai-ji 東大寺 in Nantō (南都, Nara)” by 求法沙門快盛 Kuhō Kaisei, “in the cause of forging kechi-en (結縁) with the Sanron tradition.”
Abstract
The Zhèngguān luè sī-jì is one of the two earliest dated works by 珍海 (Chinkai) and the principal documentary witness to his early Sanron-doctrinal formation. In Chōshō 3 Chinkai would have been 42 — relatively early in his recorded scholarly career, eight years after the work’s first major surviving production. The work treats the central Sanron-school topic of zhèng-guān, the contemplation of the middle way that resolves the four-cornered (catuṣkoṭi) extremes of being, non-being, both, and neither. Chinkai’s exposition follows the threefold programme stated in the preface: (1) the general meaning, expounding samyak-darśana as the resolution of the polarity between no-attainment (無所得) contemplation and dharma-discrimination contemplation; (2) the differentiation, treating the technical sub-distinctions; (3) the comprehensive conclusion, returning to the unity of the doctrine.
The opening citation of 淨名玄論 Jìngmíng xuán lùn (Jí-zàng’s commentary on the Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa) — “二種人。一者學無所得觀意。乃虛玄方言不足。二者但分別法相。失顯道正宗” — locates the work in the standard Sanron polemical context, identifying the two contrasting errors (Madhyamaka xū-xuán 虛玄 dialectical-emptiness and Yogācāra fēnbiè fǎ-xiàng 分別法相 dharma-analysis) that the proper zhèng-guān must transcend.
Date: 15 January 1134 (Chōshō 3.1.15), explicitly recorded in Chinkai’s authorial colophon.
Translations and research
- Sueki Fumihiko 末木文美士. Heian shoki bukkyō shisō no kenkyū 平安初期佛教思想の研究. Tokyo: Shunjūsha, 1995. — Treats Chinkai in his late-Heian Sanron context.
- Robinson, Richard H. Early Mādhyamika in India and China. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1967. — Background on the zhèng-guān doctrine in the Sanron tradition.
Other points of interest
The 1134 dated authorial colophon is one of the few firmly dated works in Chinkai’s substantial corpus and is consequently of considerable importance for the chronology of his scholarly development. Chinkai produced his major Sānlùn xuánshū wényì yào KR6m0027 and Dàchéng xuán wèndá KR6m0032 subsequently to this; the Zhèngguān luè sījì documents the doctrinal stance from which those later large compendia developed. The 1543 Kannon-in copy-colophon documents the persistence of the work at Tōdai-ji throughout the medieval period and its continued use within the Nantō Sanron tradition.
Links
- CBETA
- DILA Person Authority (Chinkai): A000858