Qǐxìn lùn shū (xuǎn lù “kēwén”) 起信論疏（選錄「科文」）
Commentary on the Awakening of Faith [Excerpt: Outline] by 子璿 (Zǐxuán, 脩定)
About the work
A one-juǎn extract of the kēwén 科文 (the schematic outline-tree of the text’s structure) from Chángshuǐ Zǐxuán’s 長水子璿 commentary on the Awakening of Faith. The full work is the 20-juǎn Qǐxìn lùn shū bǐxuē jì 起信論疏筆削記 (KR6o0107, T44n1848), of which this is only the structural outline; the colophon describes 子璿 as 長水沙門子璿脩定 (“the monk Zǐxuán of Chángshuǐ, having revised and fixed [the outline]”). Reprinted in the Jiāxīng Canon as J07nA123.
Structural Division
CANWWW does not register a separate Jiāxīng entry for this extract. The full Bǐxuē jì corresponds to T44N1848 in CANWWW, which links to the parent text KR6o0078 (T32n1666) and to KR6o0106 (T44n1847, the Yìjì biéjì of 法藏 on which Zǐxuán’s work is in turn an exposition).
Abstract
子璿 Zǐxuán (965–1038), known as Chángshuǐ Dàshī 長水大師 from his dwelling at Chángshuǐ in the Suzhōu region, was the leading Huáyán scholar of the early Northern Sòng. He produced the most exhaustive extant commentary on the Awakening of Faith, the Qǐxìn lùn shū bǐxuē jì 起信論疏筆削記, an exposition built on Zōngmì’s 宗密 abridgement of 法藏 Fǎzàng’s Yìjì. The present extract preserves only the kēwén — the schematic outline of the shū in nested headings — useful for orientation in the larger work but doctrinally subordinate to it. The Jiāxīng reprint preserves the kēwén as a separate volume for instructional purposes, the standard form in which Sòng scholastic outlines circulated. The text dates from Zǐxuán’s mature commentarial period at Chángshuǐsì 長水寺, c. 1019–1038.
Translations and research
- Hamar, Imre, ed. Reflecting Mirrors: Perspectives on Huayan Buddhism. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2007. — Background on Huáyán kē-wén method.
- Wang, Yi-tung. “Cháng-shuǐ Zǐ-xuán and the Sòng Huáyán School.” Tang Studies (incidental references). — Biographical context.
- Gimello, Robert M. “Apophatic and Kataphatic Discourse in Mahayana.” Journal of Indian Philosophy 4 (1976): 117–148. — Frames Huáyán scholastic reading.
Other points of interest
The kē-wén genre — the structural outline-tree of a sūtra or śāstra — was the principal tool of Huáyán and Tiāntái commentators for displaying the doctrinal architecture of a text at a glance. Its preservation as a free-standing extract reflects Sòng-era pedagogical practice, where students would memorize the outline before reading the full commentary.