Ēmítuó jīng yàojiě biànméngchāo 阿彌陀經要解便蒙鈔
The Yào-jiě (Essential Exegesis) on the Smaller Amitābha-sūtra, with the Biàn-méng (Convenient-for-the-Unenlightened) Sub-commentary by 智旭 (Ǒuyì Zhìxù, 要解) — for the Yàojiě — and 達默 (Hóngluó Dámò, 造鈔) and 達林 (Dálín, 參訂) for the Biànméngchāo
About the work
A three-juǎn composite text that combines the late-Míng Ēmítuó jīng yàojiě 阿彌陀經要解 of 智旭 Ǒuyì Zhìxù 蕅益智旭 (1599–1655) — the most influential single Pure Land commentary of the post-Zhūhóng era — with the mid-nineteenth-century sub-commentary Biànméngchāo 便蒙鈔 (“Sub-commentary Convenient for the Unenlightened”) by 達默 Hóngluó Dámò 紅螺達默, with collation assistance by 達林 Dálín. The Yàojiě was completed by Zhìxù in 順治 4 (1647) at Língfēngsì 靈峯寺; the Biànméngchāo dates to the mid-nineteenth century at Hóngluóshān 紅螺山, the Pure Land centre that was the immediate ancestor of Yìnguāng’s twentieth-century lineage.
Abstract
Zhìxù’s Yàojiě is the principal post-Zhūhóng Pure Land commentary on the Smaller Amitābhasūtra and was widely regarded — even by Yìnguāng — as the deepest single treatment of the sūtra in the entire Chinese tradition. Zhìxù’s preface frames the work as a deliberate compression of 袾宏 Yúnqī Zhūhóng’s massive four-juǎn Shūchāo KR6p0019 into a portable single-juǎn essential. The doctrinal frame is Zhìxù’s distinctive synthetic position: Pure Land devotion read through Tiāntái doctrine (the yīxīnsānguān), Chán contemplative method (niànfósānmèi 念佛三昧), and Yogācāra cognitive theory (wéishí 唯識) simultaneously — Zhìxù’s signature huìtōng 會通 (“comprehensive harmonisation”) method. The Yàojiě’s most quoted single passage is its famous five-fold gloss on the title Ēmítuó 阿彌陀: each character is read as a doctrinal cipher (the same hermeneutic move Zhìxù later applies to the Yìjīng in his Zhōu yì chánjiě 周易禪解). The Yàojiě circulates today in countless modern editions and remains the standard Pure Land sūtra commentary in Sinitic Buddhist circles.
The Biànméngchāo of Dámò is a mid-Qīng popularising sub-commentary on Zhìxù’s Yàojiě. It expands compressed passages, supplies canonical attestations, and rewrites Zhìxù’s notably terse prose into a more accessible idiom for lay practitioners. The dating bracket (c. 1850–1870) is by inference: Dámò is a contemporary of the Hóngluóshān Pure Land master Mèngdōng Chèwù 夢東徹悟 (1741–1810) generations on, and the Biànméngchāo circulated through the late-Qīng Hóngluóshān printing programme. The composite Yàojiě biànméngchāo circulates as the standard pairing in the Xùzàngjīng and forms the principal nineteenth-century recension of the Yàojiě.
Translations and research
- Hsu, Sung-peng. A Buddhist Leader in Ming China: The Life and Thought of Han-shan Te-ch’ing. Penn State Press, 1979 — for late-Míng Buddhist context.
- Shi Shengyan 釋聖嚴, Míng-mò Fójiào yán-jiū. Taipei, 1987 — for Ǒuyì Zhìxù’s biography and works.
- Yu Chün-fang. The Renewal of Buddhism in China. Columbia UP, 1981 — for the late-Míng synthesis context.
- Sharf, Robert. “On Pure Land Buddhism and Ch’an / Pure Land Syncretism in Medieval China.” T’oung Pao 88 (2002): 282–331.
Other points of interest
The Yàojiě itself was selected by Yìnguāng (1862–1940) as one of the three foundational texts of the modern Chinese Pure Land revival, and remains the most widely studied Pure Land commentary in contemporary Sinitic Buddhism. The pairing with Dámò’s Biànméngchāo is the principal nineteenth-century vehicle of its transmission, and the dating of the composite text in the Xùzàngjīng under Zhìxù’s dynasty (Míng) reflects the standard catalographical convention of dating composite works by the senior author.