Lüèlùn ānlè jìngtǔ yì 略論安樂淨土義
A Brief Treatise on the Meaning of the Pure Land of Sukhāvatī by 曇鸞 (Tánluán, 撰)
About the work
A short single-juǎn doctrinal treatise on the Pure Land of Amitābha by 曇鸞 Tán-luán (476–542), the patriarch of the Northern Wèi Pure Land tradition. Cast in the form of a Q-and-A — the same format Tán-luán uses in his major Wǎngshēng lùn zhù 往生論註 KR6f0101 (T1819) — the Lüè-lùn answers a series of foundational doctrinal questions about Sukhāvatī: how it relates to the three realms (sān-jiè 三界) of saṃsāra, the conditions for rebirth there, the typology of practitioners destined for it, the soteriological significance of Dharmākara’s vow, and the relation between Pure Land devotion and the bodhisattva path. The treatise is brief but doctrinally precise, and is the principal companion text to Tán-luán’s Wǎngshēng lùn zhù.
Abstract
The Lüè-lùn is the briefest of Tán-luán’s three principal Pure Land works (alongside the Wǎngshēng lùn zhù and the Zàn ē-mí-tuó fó jié 讚阿彌陀佛偈, T1978). The doctrinal content centres on the famous opening claim, drawn from the Dà zhì-dù lùn 大智度論, that Sukhāvatī “is not encompassed within the three realms” of saṃsāra — neither the realm of desire (because it is free of desire), nor the realm of form (because it is grounded in earth), nor the formless realm (because it has visible form). Pure Land cosmology is therefore sui generis, requiring its own doctrinal framework. The text then sets out the famous èr lì 二力 doctrine — the distinction between zì-lì 自力 (“own-power”) and tā-lì 他力 (“other-power”), the two routes to liberation, with Pure Land devotion belonging firmly to the latter. This is the locus classicus for the doctrine that would become foundational to all subsequent East Asian Pure Land thought, including Hōnen’s and Shinran’s Japanese articulations.
The text is preserved in three principal recensions: the Taishō text (collated against Korean canon, Sòng, Yuán, Míng editions, plus a Dunhuang manuscript and an early Japanese woodblock); the late-Tang Dunhuang manuscripts (Pelliot 2871 and others); and the Korean canon. The dating bracket (c. 530–542) covers Tánluán’s mature period after his definitive turn to Pure Land doctrine. The work was probably composed in the last decade of his life at the Xuánzhōngsì 玄中寺 in Shānxī.
Translations and research
- Corless, Roger J. T’an-luan’s Commentary on the Pure Land Discourse. PhD diss., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1973 — fundamental treatment of Tán-luán’s doctrinal corpus.
- Tanaka, Kenneth K. The Dawn of Chinese Pure Land Buddhist Doctrine: Ching-ying Hui-yüan’s Commentary on the Visualization Sutra. Albany: SUNY Press, 1990 — for the broader context.
- Bloom, Alfred. The Life of Shinran Shōnin: The Journey to Self-Acceptance. Numata Center for Buddhist Translation, 1968/1994 — for the Pure Land èr lì doctrine.
- Inagaki Hisao, Tan-luan’s Commentary on Vasubandhu’s Discourse on the Pure Land. Kyoto: Nagata Bunshōdō, 1998.
Other points of interest
The Dunhuang manuscript Pelliot Chinois 2871 of the Lüèlùn preserves a textually slightly variant recension; the Taishō apparatus marks divergent readings. Inagaki’s translation tracks both lines.
Links
- CBETA
- Dazangthings date evidence (560): [ Odera 2022 ] Odera Yūken 尾寺遊賢. “Donran Jōdokyō no seiritsu haikei shōkō” 曇鸞浄土教の成立背景小考. Ryūkoku daigaku daigakuin bungaku kenkyūka kiyō 龍谷大学大学院文学研究科紀要 44 (2022): 53–68. https://dazangthings.nz/cbc/source/650/