Shì mó hē yǎn lùn kē 釋摩訶衍論科
Topical Outline of the Shi Moheyan Lun by 普觀 (Pǔguān, 治定)
About the work
A one-juǎn topical outline (kē 科 — a structural diagram of the parent text) for the [[KR6o0084|Shì Móhēyǎn lùn 釋摩訶衍論]], compiled by the Sòng monk 普觀 (Pǔguān, also Pǔjì 普覺?) of Yuánzhèngguāngyán wújì dàshī 圓證光嚴無際大師 honorific. The work is preserved only in the Manji-zokuzōkyō 卍續藏經 (X46). A kē (科文) is the standard East Asian Buddhist genre of analytical structural outline — a hierarchical break-down of the parent text’s argumentative structure used for memorisation and pedagogical exposition. It is conceptually parallel to a Western scholastic summa outline.
Structural Division
The text is itself a structural outline; CANWWW does not record sub-divisions.
Abstract
The text opens “釋摩訶衍論科卷下 / 皇宋圓證光嚴無際大師普觀治定” and proceeds with a hierarchical outline using the standard Sòng-period typography (○, chū 初, èr 二, sān 三, etc.). The author Pǔguān is also the compiler of KR6o0089 (a longer prose record on the same parent text); the two works are paired (the kē is the structural outline, the jì is the running commentary). Both are preserved together in the Manji-zokuzōkyō. Pǔguān is otherwise poorly attested in standard biographical sources (Sòng gāosēng zhuàn 宋高僧傳); internal evidence places him loosely in the Northern or Southern Sòng period. His honorific Yuánzhèngguāngyán wújì dàshī suggests he was a Buddhist scholastic of some standing at one of the major Sòng monastic complexes.
Translations and research
- Plassen, Jörg. Recent works on the Shì Móhē-yǎn lùn commentarial tradition.
Other points of interest
This is one of two paired Sòng works by the same author on the Shì Móhēyǎn lùn (the other being KR6o0089). Together they constitute the principal Northern Sòng commentary on the parent treatise.