Guānwúliángshòu fó jīng yuēlùn 觀無量壽佛經約論
Concise Treatise on the Sūtra on the Contemplation of Amitāyus by 彭際清 (Péng Jìqīng, 述)
About the work
A short single-juǎn doctrinal essay by the late-Qīng lay-Buddhist 彭際清 Péng Jìqīng (1740–1796) on the Guānwúliángshòu fó jīng. The work is the second of Péng’s three-part Pure Land yuēlùn trilogy, after the Wúliángshòu jīng qǐxìn lùn KR6p0003 on the larger sūtra and before the Ēmítuó jīng yuēlùn KR6p0028 on the smaller. Where the Qǐxìn lùn is a sustained doctrinal treatise in three juǎn, the Yuēlùn on the Guānjīng is a much briefer overview — about a dozen sections — addressing the core doctrinal questions raised by the sixteen contemplations.
Abstract
Péng’s distinctive contribution to the Guānjīng commentary tradition is to read the sixteen contemplations through a Huáyán-Pure Land synthetic frame. Where Sìmíng 知禮 Zhīlǐ’s Miàozōngchāo KR6p0007 reads them through Tiāntái yīxīnsānguān, and 續法 Bǎitíng Xùfǎ’s Zhízhǐshū KR6p0012 reads them through Huáyán sì fǎjiè, Péng reads them through the doctrine of xìn 信 (faith) developed in his Qǐxìn lùn. Each contemplation is treated as a graduated progression in the activation of bèzhú jué 本覺 (“originally enlightened mind”). The work is intended as the contemplation-sūtra component of Péng’s lay-Buddhist project to provide a doctrinal commentary on each of the three principal Pure Land sūtras together with the Pǔxián xíngyuàn pǐn — the four scriptures Wèi Yuán would later collect as the Jìngtǔ sì jīng KR6p0001. The dating bracket adopted (c. 1781–1796) follows the Qǐxìn lùn but covers the rest of Péng’s life; the Yuēlùn may date to as late as the early 1790s.
Translations and research
- Yu Chün-fang. The Renewal of Buddhism in China. Columbia UP, 1981.
- Wáng Lěi 王雷, Péng Jì-qīng jū-shì-fó-jiào sī-xiǎng yán-jiū. Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, 2017.
- Goossaert and Kiely (eds.), Modern Chinese Religion II: 1850–2015. Brill, 2016.