Dàshèng qǐxìn lùn guǎngshì juǎn dì sān, sì, wǔ 大乘起信論廣釋卷第三．四．五
Extended Exposition of the Mahāyāna Awakening of Faith, Fascicles 3, 4, and 5 by 曇曠 (Tánkuàng, 撰)
About the work
The surviving fascicles 3, 4, and 5 of 曇曠 Tánkuàng’s lost full Guǎngshì 廣釋 commentary on the Awakening of Faith — recovered from the Dūnhuáng cache and printed in Taishō Vol. 85. Fascicles 1, 2, 6, and the rest of the original work are missing; the surviving three are paginated as a single canonical entry.
Structural Division
CANWWW does not register entries in Taishō Vol. 85 in canonical form; the work cross-references with KR6o0079 (T32n1667), the Śikṣānanda recension of the parent text.
Abstract
The text is signed 京西明道場沙門曇曠撰 (“composed by the monk Tánkuàng of the Xīmíng dàochǎng of the capital”), the same monk who composed the briefer Lüèshù KR6o0121. The Guǎngshì (extended exposition) is the longer and fuller of Tánkuàng’s two commentaries on the Qǐxìn lùn, originally probably 6 to 10 juǎn in length; the surviving three give us only its central portion, dealing with the doctrines of jué / bùjué 覺不覺 (awakening and non-awakening), the four xiàng 四相 (the four marks of arising-and-perishing), and the xīnyuán 心源 (mind-source) doctrine.
The opening surviving text — fascicle 3 — picks up at the discussion of the jiūjìng jué 究竟覺 (ultimate awakening). Tánkuàng’s interpretation distinguishes three senses of xīnyuán 心源: the Tathāgatagarbha / zhēnrú as the source of impure mind; the yèxiāng xìniàn 業相細念 (the subtle thought of karmic-marks) as the source of all impure minds; and the kuàng shí wàngxīn 曠識妄心 (the deluded mind of broad consciousness) as the source of all objective realms. This three-fold analysis is characteristic of his Yogācāra-school approach. The composition is bracketed by Tánkuàng’s career, c. 770–800.
The Taishō establishes the text from the Dūnhuáng manuscript witnesses.
Translations and research
- Ueyama Daishun 上山大峻. Tonkō bukkyō no kenkyū 敦煌佛教の研究. Kyoto: Hōzōkan, 1990. — Standard study; treats both Tán-kuàng commentaries in detail.
- Ueyama Daishun. “Donkō no kenkyū” 曇曠の研究. Tōhō gakuhō 35 (1964): 141–214; 36 (1964): 191–262.
- No further substantial Western-language secondary literature located on this specific text.
Other points of interest
The fragmentary survival of the Guǎngshì — three of an unknown number of original fascicles — is characteristic of the Dūnhuáng manuscript cache, where partial transmission of long Buddhist commentaries is the norm rather than the exception. Reading the Lüèshù KR6o0121 and the surviving Guǎngshì together gives the most complete reconstruction of Tánkuàng’s Qǐxìn lùn exegesis that is now possible.
Links
- CBETA
- DILA Authority (Tánkuàng): A001803