Ēmítuó jīng lüèjiě yuánzhōngchāo 阿彌陀經略解圓中鈔
The Lüè-jiě (Concise Exegesis) on the Smaller Amitābha-sūtra, with the Yuán-zhōng-chāo (Sub-commentary on the Perfect Middle) by 大佑 (Qú’ān Dàyòu, 述) and 傳燈 (Yōuxī Chuándēng, 鈔)
About the work
A two-juǎn composite text combining the early-Míng Ēmítuó jīng lüèjiě of 大佑 Qú’ān Dàyòu KR6p0017 with the substantially expanded sub-commentary Yuánzhōngchāo 圓中鈔 (“Notes on the Perfect Middle”) by the late-Míng Tiāntái master 傳燈 Yōuxī Chuándēng 幽溪傳燈 (1554–1628). Chuándēng’s preface (the Ēmítuó lüèjiě yuánzhōng chāo xù) is dated Tiānqǐ 5 (1625) but the body of the work was composed in 萬曆 33 (1605); the Xùzàngjīng recension reflects the 1625 cutting. The title 圓中 (“Perfect Middle”) refers to the Tiāntái doctrine of the zhōngdào 中道 (“middle way”) understood as the yuánróng 圓融 (“perfect interpenetration”) of the three truths.
Abstract
Chuándēng’s Yuánzhōngchāo is the most ambitious and doctrinally elaborated late-Míng sub-commentary on the Smaller Amitābhasūtra before 袾宏 Yúnqī Zhūhóng’s Shūchāo KR6p0019. Where Dàyòu’s Lüèjiě is brief and pedagogical, Chuándēng’s Chāo is sustained, doctrinally maximalist, and explicitly polemical: it defends the Tiāntái Pure Land synthesis of 知禮 Sìmíng Zhīlǐ against rival Chán-school and Huáyán-school readings, and against the lay-Buddhist jiàohé 教合 (“teaching-harmonisation”) tendencies of the late-Míng. The doctrinal frame is the Tiāntái sāndì yuánróng 三諦圓融 (“perfect interpenetration of the three truths”): each section of the sūtra is read through the simultaneous identity of kōng 空 (emptiness), jiǎ 假 (provisionality), and zhōng 中 (middle), and the practice of chēngmíng is grounded in this triple-truth metaphysics rather than in either pure devotion or pure contemplation.
Chuándēng wrote the work at his home temple of Yōuxī sì 幽溪寺 / Gāomíng sì 高明寺 on Mt. Tiāntái, where he led the late-Míng Tiāntái revival. The Yuánzhōngchāo circulated alongside Yúnqī Zhūhóng’s Shūchāo through the late Míng and Qīng, with the two texts representing the late-Míng Tiāntái-school and Chán/synthetic readings of the Smaller Amitābhasūtra respectively.
Translations and research
- Yu Chün-fang. The Renewal of Buddhism in China: Chu-hung and the Late Ming Synthesis. Columbia UP, 1981 — for the late-Míng synthesis context.
- Shi Shengyan 釋聖嚴, Míng-mò Fójiào yán-jiū. Taipei, 1987 — discusses Chuándēng and the late-Míng Tiāntái revival.
- Brook, Timothy. Praying for Power. Cambridge: Council on East Asian Studies, 1993 — for the patronage context.
Other points of interest
Chuándēng’s Yuánzhōngchāo is occasionally cited under the title Ēmítuó jīng yuánzhōngchāo (without 略解) as if an independent commentary; the Xùzàngjīng preserves the composite form, with Dàyòu’s Lüèjiě serving as the lemmatic base.