Xīfāng yàojué shìyí tōngguī 西方要決釋疑通規
The Essential Decisions of the Western [Pure Land], Resolving Doubts and Setting Out General Norms by 窺基 (Kuījī, 撰)
About the work
A short single-juǎn doctrinal manual on Pure Land devotion attributed to 窺基 Kuījī (632–682), the founding systematiser of the Chinese Faxiang 法相 school and principal Chinese disciple of 玄奘 Xuánzàng. The text presents itself as a Yogācāra-school engagement with Pure Land doctrine, addressing fourteen “doubts” raised by Pure Land sceptics and providing systematic responses. The author’s preface frames the work in characteristically Faxiang terms: Shìjiā qǐ yùn 釋迦啟運 (“Śākyamuni opened the dispensation”), and the practical question is how the Buddhist devotional path can be made accessible to the fúbáo yīnshū 福薄因疏 (“those of slender merit and sparse causal conditions”) — i.e. ordinary beings of the mòfǎ 末法 age.
Abstract
The fourteen doubts canvassed are doctrinally similar to those addressed in the cognate Tang Pure Land Q-and-A literature (KR6p0040 Shí-yí lùn, KR6p0039 Qún-yí lùn) but distinctively shorter and more accessible. The doctrinal frame is straightforward Faxiang-school: each doubt is resolved by a brief application of vijñaptimātratā (consciousness-only) reasoning, with cross-reference to the standard Faxiang authorities (Yúqié shī-dì lùn, Chéng wéi-shí lùn).
The attribution to Kuījī is sometimes questioned — the doctrinal style is broadly Faxiang but does not display Kuījī’s characteristic technical sophistication, and the work’s modest scale stands in contrast to his usual expansive commentarial mode. Some modern scholars treat it as a derivative work by a member of the Faxiang school (perhaps one of Kuījī’s pupils) ascribed to him for canonical authority. The text is, however, consistent with the late-seventh-century Faxiang engagement with Pure Land that produced 懷感 Huáigǎn’s much larger Qúnyí lùn KR6p0039. Dating bracket (c. 660–682) covers Kuījī’s mature period.
The Taishō text is collated against the Korean canon and one Sòng-period palace edition. The text is brief enough that scholarly attention to it is largely subordinate to the parallel and longer Faxiang-Pure Land texts.
Translations and research
- Mochizuki Shinkō, Chūgoku jōdo kyōrishi. Kyoto, 1942/1964.
- Lin, Pin-feng. “Hùai-gǎn’s Shih ching-t’u ch’ün-i lun.” PhD diss., University of Arizona, 1992 — for the broader Faxiang-Pure Land context.
No dedicated monograph located.