Qǐxìn lùn tóngyì jí 起信論同異集
Compendium of Agreements and Disagreements [Between] the Awakening of Faith [and the Vijñaptimātratāsiddhi] by 見登 (Jiàndēng / Gyeondeungji, 集)
About the work
A two-juǎn topical compendium juxtaposing the Dàshèng qǐxìn lùn 大乘起信論 (KR6o0078) and the Cheng-wei-shi lun 成唯識論 (KR6o0064) on a series of doctrinal points where the Tathāgatagarbha and Yogācāra traditions appear to converge or diverge, by the Silla monk 見登 (Jiàndēng / Gyeondeungji). The full title in the colophon is Dàshèng qǐxìn lùn tóngyì lüè jí běn 大乘起信論同異略集本 with the parenthetical gloss quán shù qǐxìn wéishí èr lùn tóngyì ěr 全述起信唯識二論同異耳 (“entirely an exposition of the agreements and disagreements between the Qǐxìn and the Wéishí treatises”).
Structural Division
CANWWW does not register Xùzàngjīng entries; the parent text is KR6o0078 (T32n1666) and the comparative target is KR6o0064 (T31n1585, the Cheng-wei-shi lun).
Abstract
The text is signed 青丘沙門見登之補 (“supplemented by Jiàndēngzhī, monk of the Blue Hills”). The opening preface unfolds in classical biàntǐ wén with cosmological ornament: “When the dragon emerged from the river, the eight trigrams revealed their images; when the unicorn was wounded in the marsh, the ten wings exhibited their function. The seasons pass through the three antiquities, the work supports the nine territories. How much more so is the perfect voice of the Tathāgata, which shakes the ten directions, refuting the wide questions of the hundred and eight; the bodhisattva’s wonderful wisdom, which illumines the five Indias, develops the city of the two gates from its fifteen profundities.” The author then introduces his autobiographical motivation: “I was fortunate to be born in the eastern corner [of the Sino-Asian world]; only barely did I encounter the leftover Dharma. The root treatise was thrown into the Bell-Mountain (鐘山) by the patriarch when he was eleven; at seventeen I myself just barely entered the order…” — establishing his attachment to the Qǐxìn lùn from his earliest training.
The body of the work proceeds topically: doctrinal positions where the Qǐxìn lùn and the Cheng-wei-shi lun agree are listed under one heading, points where they diverge under another. This format makes Jiàndēng a distinctive figure within the Silla Qǐxìn commentarial tradition: rather than expounding the text in its own terms (as Wǒnhyo did), or reading it through a Yogācāra lens (as 太賢), he undertakes a structured comparative exercise. The composition window is broad; on the basis of citations within the text and the doctrinal vocabulary, the work probably postdates 太賢 and is bracketed by 750–850.
Translations and research
- Buswell, Robert E., Jr. Cultivating Original Enlightenment. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2007. — Background on Korean Yogācāra-Tathāgatagarbha intersections.
- Kim, Young-tae 김영태. Han’guk pulgyo yŏn’gu 韓國佛敎研究. Seoul, 1985.
- Charles Muller, A. (entries on 견등 / 見登 in the Digital Dictionary of Buddhism).
- No further substantial Western-language secondary literature located.
Other points of interest
The text is significant for the history of the Silla / Tang YogācāraHuáyán dialogue, which the bare doxographic frameworks of the early commentaries had not made fully explicit. Jiàndēng’s comparative method anticipates by several centuries the analogous Tibetan and Chinese doxographic-comparative exercises of the late-medieval period.
Links
- CBETA
- DILA Authority (Jiàndēng): A000544