Ēmítuó jīng shūchāo yǎnyì 阿彌陀經疏鈔演義
Explanatory Amplification of the Shū-chāo on the Smaller Amitābha-sūtra by 古德法師 (Gǔdé fǎshī, 演義) and 慈航智願 (Cíháng Zhìyuàn, 定本)
About the work
A four-juǎn yǎnyì 演義 (“explanatory amplification”) of 袾宏 Yúnqī Zhūhóng’s Shūchāo KR6p0019 by the late-Wànlì monk 古德法師 Gǔdé fǎshī of Yúnqīsì, edited and finalised after his death by his disciple 慈航智願 Cíháng Zhìyuàn. The work is a sustained sub-commentary that proceeds through Zhūhóng’s Shūchāo paragraph by paragraph, expanding compressed argumentation, supplementing canonical citation, and addressing apparent ambiguities. It is the most extensive of the supplementary works on the Shūchāo — the Shìyì KR6p0020 is a glossary, the Wènbiàn KR6p0021 is a defensive Q-and-A, but the Yǎnyì is a full sub-commentary in the classical Chinese mode.
Abstract
The Yǎnyì preserves the doctrinal and pedagogical structure of the late-Wànlì Yúnqīsì circle’s reception of the Shūchāo — the immediate post-Zhūhóng generation working out the implications of his synthetic Pure Land position. The text engages closely with 傳燈 Chuándēng’s rival Tiāntái-school Yuánzhōngchāo KR6p0018 and with Tiāntái critiques of Zhūhóng’s yīxíng sìmén doctrine, defending the synthetic position with extensive doctrinal argument. The text adopts the standard format for the late-Míng sub-commentary: each main heading begins with a biāo 標 quoting the Shūchāo lemma, then a shì 釋 (gloss), then a zhèng 證 (canonical attestation), then optional biàn 辯 (defence against possible objections).
The dating bracket (c. 1615–1640) is by inference: Zhūhóng died in 1615, and the Yǎnyì presupposes both the Shūchāo and the Wènbiàn as canonical reference points. Cíháng Zhìyuàn’s editorial completion plausibly falls in the 1620s or 1630s; Wànlì → Tiānqǐ → Chóngzhēn covers the relevant period.
Translations and research
- Yu Chün-fang. The Renewal of Buddhism in China. Columbia UP, 1981.
- Eichman, Jennifer. A Late Sixteenth-Century Chinese Buddhist Fellowship. Brill, 2016 — for the immediate post-Zhūhóng pedagogical reception.