Ēmítuó jīng jùjiě 阿彌陀經句解
Sentence-by-Sentence Exegesis of the Smaller Amitābha-sūtra by 性澄 (Yuèxī / Zhàntáng Xìngchéng, 句解)
About the work
A single-juǎn commentary on the Smaller Amitābhasūtra 阿彌陀經 (the Smaller Sukhāvatīvyūha) by the Yuán Tiāntái master 性澄 Yuèxī Xìngchéng 越溪性澄 (1265–1342). Following the standard Yuán pedagogical method of jùjiě 句解 (“sentence-by-sentence exegesis”), the commentary moves through Kumārajīva’s translation phrase by phrase, providing a brief gloss on each. The framework is consistently that of the Sìmíng 知禮 Tiāntái Pure Land school: each phrase is read through yīxīnsānguān 一心三觀 (“three contemplations in one mind”) and the sūtra’s progressive unfolding tracks the Tiāntái doctrine of liù jí 六即 (“six identities”).
Abstract
The Jùjiě is one of the two principal Yuán Pure Land commentaries on the Smaller Sukhāvatīvyūha, alongside Wúxìn Tiānrú Wéizé’s Jìngtǔ huòwèn 淨土或問 KR6p0053 (Tiānrú was Xìngchéng’s pupil). It marks the transition from the Sòng Tiāntái Pure Land of Sìmíng Zhīlǐ — sustained, doctrinally maximalist, polemical — to the more abbreviated and pedagogically oriented format that would dominate the Míng period. Xìngchéng’s treatment is more compact than Zhīlǐ’s Miàozōngchāo KR6p0007 but doctrinally consistent with it. The work served as a standard teaching text in the Yuán Tiāntái school.
The dating bracket (c. 1310–1342) covers Xìngchéng’s mature period. The Míng monk 傳燈 Chuándēng’s Yuánzhōngchāo preface to KR6p0018 cites Xìngchéng’s Jùjiě as the inspiration for 大佑 Dàyòu’s Lüèjiě KR6p0017, placing the Jùjiě slightly earlier in the lineage. The Xùzàngjīng recension is based on the Jiāxīng 嘉興 cutting.
Translations and research
- Getz, Daniel A. “T’ien-t’ai Pure Land Societies and the Creation of the Pure Land Patriarchate.” In Buddhism in the Sung. University of Hawai’i Press, 1999 — for the Sòng-Yuán Tiāntái Pure Land continuum.
- Yu Chün-fang. The Renewal of Buddhism in China. Columbia UP, 1981 — for the late-Yuán / Míng synthesis.
No dedicated monograph on the Jù-jiě located.