MóhēĒmítuó jīng zhōnglùn 摩訶阿彌陀經衷論
Doctrinal Treatise on the Mahā-Amitābha Sūtra by 王耕心 (Wáng Gēngxīn, 衷論)
About the work
A six-chapter doctrinal commentary in one juǎn by the late-Qīng lay-Buddhist 王耕心 Wáng Gēngxīn, written as a direct supplement to 魏源 Wèi Yuán’s Wúliángshòu jīng huìyì KR6p0001 — which Wáng Gēngxīn renames MóhēĒmítuó jīng 摩訶阿彌陀經 (the Greater Amitābhasūtra) to bring out its parity with the Smaller Amitābhasūtra (i.e. the standard 阿彌陀經). The author’s preface, dated 同治 6 (1867), identifies his uncle Wáng Méishū 王梅叔 as the original collator of Wèi Yuán’s text, and frames the Zhōnglùn as the doctrinal completion of what Wèi Yuán had only begun textually. The six chapters survey the late-Míng / Qīng Pure Land tradition from 袾宏 Yúnqī Zhūhóng forward, the doctrinal status of the MóhēĒmítuó jīng recension, the practice of niànfó 念佛 across “essential” and “phenomenal” registers (理念 / 事念), the nature of Amitābha’s vows, the meaning of yīxīn bù luàn 一心不亂, and lay-Buddhist devotional method.
Abstract
The Zhōnglùn is one of the principal late-Qīng lay-Buddhist works that consolidate the line beginning with 彭際清 Péng Jìqīng’s Wúliángshòu jīng qǐxìn lùn KR6p0003 (1780s) and continuing through Wèi Yuán’s Huìyì (1854). Wáng Gēngxīn writes self-consciously as a third-generation member of this tradition: his uncle had been a collator of Wèi’s text, his own task is to provide for Wèi’s recension the systematic doctrinal apparatus that Péng had supplied for the CáoWèi Wúliángshòu jīng. The work circulated in Húnán and Jiāngsū lay-Buddhist circles in the 1870s and was incorporated into the Xùzàngjīng in the early Republican period. The dating bracket adopted here (1867–1880) reflects the author’s preface to the early printed circulation; precise terminus ad quem is uncertain because Wáng Gēngxīn’s own lifedates are not preserved, but the work was clearly in circulation by the time of the Xùzàngjīng compilation in 1905–1912.
The Zhōnglùn is doctrinally significant for two reasons. First, it provides a sustained late-Qīng defence of the huìyì method (the conflation of multiple Chinese translations into a single critical recension) against orthodox objections — Wáng argues that Wèi Yuán’s procedure is not “a new translation” but a huìtōng 會通 (“comprehensive harmonisation”) rooted in the methodology of the Tiāntái and Huáyán scholastic traditions. Second, it stands as a direct precedent for the better-known recension by Xià Liánjū 夏蓮居 in the 1930s–1940s (the Foshuō dàshèng wúliángshòu zhuāngyán qīngjìng píngděng jué jīng 佛說大乘無量壽莊嚴清淨平等覺經), which Xià modelled in part on Wèi Yuán via Wáng Gēngxīn.
Translations and research
- Goossaert, Vincent. “Late Qing Buddhist Lay Movements.” In Modern Chinese Religion II: 1850–2015. Brill, 2016 — for the late-Qīng lay-Buddhist context.
- Ritzinger, Justin. Anarchy in the Pure Land. Oxford UP, 2017 — for the huì-yì line from Wèi Yuán via Wáng Gēngxīn to Xià Liánjū.
No substantial monographic study located.