Qǐxìn lùn shū bǐxuē jì 起信論疏筆削記
Record of Brushing-In and Cutting-Out on the Commentary on the Awakening of Faith by 子璿 (Zǐxuán / Chángshuǐ, 錄)
About the work
The principal Sòng commentary on the Awakening of Faith, in 20 juǎn, by 子璿 Chángshuǐ Zǐxuán 長水子璿 (965–1038). It is a sub-commentary on 法藏’s Yìjì KR6o0105 / KR6o0103, not directly on the parent text: Zǐxuán builds on Shíbì 石壁 (his Tang-Sòng predecessor) and on 宗密 Zōngmì’s recension, refining the wording where it is too verbose (“削以去之”, “cut and remove”) and adding what is missing (“筆而存之”, “brush and preserve”) — hence the title Bǐxuē “Brushing-In and Cutting-Out”.
Structural Division
CANWWW (T44N1848) lists no internal sub-divisions for this 20-juǎn sub-commentary, but registers two related-text pointers: to the parent text KR6o0078 (T32n1666) and to 法藏’s Yìjì biéjì KR6o0106 (T44n1847), which is the immediate target of much of Zǐxuán’s editorial work.
Abstract
The opening editorial preface — “this composition originates from Shíbì 石壁; Shíbì was overgenerously vine-like in his branchings (慈甚蔓於章句); whenever expounding a single sense, he would always (1) raise a question, (2) cite the shū [of Fǎzàng] in answer, and (3) only then work through the gloss” — explains the bǐxuē method: Zǐxuán is performing a critical edition on Shíbì’s expository tradition, condensing where Shíbì was prolix and adding where he was thin.
The text is signed 長水沙門子璿錄 (“Recorded by the monk Zǐ-xuán of Cháng-shuǐ”). It opens with an account of the Indian background of the Qǐ-xìn lùn: “In the central Indian region there was Aṣvaghoṣa (噳羅尾儞 / 馬鳴), who within the six hundred years following the Buddha’s Nirvāṇa shattered the banner of false views and erected the jewel of the True Dharma” — anchoring the treatise to its claimed historical context, irrespective of the modern question of whether it was actually composed in China.
Zǐxuán’s Bǐxuē jì became the standard scholastic key to the Awakening of Faith in late-imperial Chinese Buddhism, surviving into the Ming and Qing periods as the principal teaching commentary. The associated kēwén (extracted as KR6o0102 in the Jiāxīng Canon) was used as a structural map. Composition is bracketed by Zǐxuán’s mature commentarial period at Chángshuǐyuàn 長水院, c. 1019–1038. The Taishō uses 高麗 as base, collated against 甲 (the Kōyasan / Daigo manuscript witness).
Translations and research
- Hamar, Imre, ed. Reflecting Mirrors: Perspectives on Huayan Buddhism. Wiesbaden, 2007. — Background on Zǐ-xuán’s Sòng Huáyán scholasticism.
- Gregory, Peter N. Tsung-mi and the Sinification of Buddhism. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1991. — Treats the Tang background that Zǐ-xuán inherits.
- Mochizuki Shinkō 望月信亨. Daijō kishin-ron no kenkyū 大乘起信論之研究. Tōkyō, 1922.
Other points of interest
The Bǐxuē jì is the longest single commentary on the Awakening of Faith in the Buddhist canon (20 juǎn), and its method — sub-commentary upon Tang commentary, with critical editorial intervention — is characteristic of the Sòng scholastic recovery of the Tang exegetical tradition. Without Zǐxuán’s work, much of the textual reception of 法藏’s Yìjì would have been lost; conversely, Zǐxuán’s text is unintelligible without simultaneous reference to Fǎzàng’s commentary.
Links
- CBETA
- DILA Authority (Zǐxuán): A000085
- DILA Authority (Fǎzàng): A001435