Shì Móhēyǎn lùn zhǐshì 釋摩訶衍論指事
Pointing-Out of Matters in the Commentary on the Mahāyāna by 空海 (Kōnghái / Kūkai, 撰)
About the work
A two-fascicle topical exposition of KR6o0084 Shì mó-hē-yǎn lùn 釋摩訶衍論 (T1668) — the Awakening of Faith-related treatise attributed to Nāgārjuna 龍樹 and translated by 筏提摩多 — by the founder of the Japanese Shingon school 空海 (Kūkai, 774–835). Preserved in Taishō vol. 69 (no. 2284). The Japanese title is Shaku Makaen-ron shiji. The work is one of the earliest extant Japanese commentaries on the Shakuron and provided the doctrinal foundation for the entire subsequent Japanese Shingon Shakuron tradition. The signature reads “沙門空海撰” — “composed by the śramaṇa Kūkai”.
Prefaces
The work has no formal authorial preface. The text opens with the topical enumeration that would become a structural model for later Shingon Shakuron-commentary literature: “十種論名 / 一代種種論總十萬九千部。皆攝此十 / 又馬鳴所作論百部十種義論攝 / 五十一藏及十藏三藏攝。此通攝諸藏。別阿毘達磨攝 / 一代種種經百洛叉十二部經攝。此論通以此百洛叉經爲依 / 此論別依經百部各列名字 / 六種馬鳴出世之事…” — “(1) The ten names of the śāstra: of all 109,000 śāstras of an eon (kalpa), the present Shakuron is included in these ten. (2) Of the hundred śāstras composed by Aśvaghoṣa, the ten yìlùn compendia. (3) The 51 piṭakas, the 10 piṭakas, the 3 piṭakas — these piṭakas are inclusive; the Abhidharma-piṭaka in particular. (4) Of the 100 lakhs of sūtras, the twelve-fold canonical body; this śāstra in general relies on these 100 lakhs of sūtras. (5) The 100 separate sūtras on which this śāstra particularly depends, each by name. (6) The matter of the six Aśvaghoṣas appearing in the world.”
The Edo-period publication-colophon at the end records: “這釋論指事也者。我之大師遍照金剛所撰。而流衍于世希矣。所以人其知之亦鮮焉。先是前小池僧正亮汰大和尚。得雒西山栂尾寶庫古本對校以書之。余復轉寫韜祕者年已尚矣。今番應剞劂氏某之索。使繍梓而廣布諸 元祿甲戌冬 釋覺眼敬誌” — “This Shaku-ron shiji was composed by our Great Master Henjō Kongō (= Kūkai); but it has rarely circulated in the world, and consequently few know of it. Previously, my late master Sōjō Ryōta 亮汰 obtained an old manuscript from the Toganoo 栂尾 treasury at Mt. Kōzan-ji 高山寺 (Western Kyoto) and prepared a critical edition; I subsequently copied this in secret and held it for many years. Now in response to a publisher’s request, I have it printed and circulated. Winter of Genroku-kǎxū (1694), respectfully recorded by Kakugen 覺眼.”
Abstract
The Shaku-ron shiji is among the most important documents of early-Heian Japanese Esoteric scholarship and one of the earliest engagements with the Shì móhēyǎn lùn. The Shì móhēyǎn lùn is itself an East-Asian text — generally accepted as a sixth- or seventh-century Korean or Chinese composition rather than an actual translation of an Indian Nāgārjuna work — which presents an Esoteric reading of the Awakening of Faith’s one mind two gates doctrine. Kūkai treated it as the principal Esoteric expansion of the Awakening of Faith’s framework, and his Shiji is the foundational interpretation in the Shingon school.
The “pointing-out of matters” (zhǐ-shì 指事) genre identified by the title indicates a topical exposition that selects the key issues of the parent text rather than proceeding lemma-by-lemma. Kūkai’s 13 koto (the ten śāstra names, the six Aśvaghoṣas, the eight conditions of composition, the 33 dharma-gateways, and so on) cover the major structural-doctrinal topics of the Shakuron in a form intended for advanced students of the parent text.
The work suffered from low circulation in the medieval period — Kakugen’s 1694 colophon notes that it was effectively known only through copies in obscure temple repositories — but was restored to public circulation by the Edo-era Shingon revival.
Composition window: c. 810–835 (Kūkai’s mature scholarly career from his founding of the Shingon school to his death).
Translations and research
- Hakeda, Yoshito S. Kūkai: Major Works. New York: Columbia University Press, 1972. — The standard English-language treatment of Kūkai’s principal works; treats the Shaku-ron shiji within Kūkai’s Esoteric scholastic project.
- Kushida Ryōkō 櫛田良洪. Shingon mikkyō seiritsu katei no kenkyū 真言密教成立過程の研究. Tokyo: Sankibō, 1964.
Other points of interest
The Edo publication of 1694 by Kakugen represents the first wide circulation of the Shaku-ron shiji in over eight centuries; it transformed the work from an obscure manuscript-tradition document into the foundational reference work for the early-Edo Shingon scholarly revival. The Toganoo / Kōzan-ji provenance of the master-copy used by Ryōta is itself significant — Kōzan-ji’s twelfth-century library, founded by 明惠 (Myōe), was one of the principal medieval Japanese Buddhist book collections, and its preservation of an otherwise nearly-extinct Kūkai autograph attests both to the scholarly seriousness of the Myōe project and to the marginal status of the Shakuron tradition in the medieval Tendai-dominated Buddhist establishment.