Wǎngshēng jìngtǔ juéyí xíngyuàn èrmén 往生淨土決疑行願二門
Two Gates of Resolving Doubts and of Practice-and-Vow concerning Rebirth in the Pure Land by 遵式 (Cíyún Zūnshì, 撰)
About the work
A short single-juǎn doctrinal-cum-liturgical Pure Land manual by 遵式 Cíyún Zūnshì 慈雲遵式 (964–1032), the principal Northern-Sòng Tiāntái-Pure Land synthesiser at Tiānzhúsì 天竺寺 in Hangzhou. As the title indicates, the text divides into two principal “gates”: juéyí 決疑 (resolving doubts) and xíngyuàn 行願 (practice-and-vow). The first gate addresses the standard Pure Land doctrinal objections in compressed form; the second gate provides a practical-liturgical programme combining recitation, vow-making, and dedication of merit.
Abstract
The Èrmén is one of the smaller of Zūnshì’s hundred-plus liturgical works (whence his sobriquet Bǎiběn chànzhǔ 百本懺主, “Master of a Hundred Repentance Texts”), but is doctrinally significant as a representative document of his synthetic project: the integration of 知禮 Sìmíng Zhīlǐ’s Tiāntái-school doctrinal programme with the practical-devotional Pure Land tradition of 善導 Shàndǎo and the post-Shàn-dǎo Tang line. The text opens with a brief restatement of the Tiāntái Pure Land position — the Pure Land as the ānyǎng bǎoshā 安養寶剎 (“treasure-realm of peace and nourishment”) manifested through the Buddha’s vows — and proceeds through abbreviated treatment of the standard doubts (the historical witnesses, the conditions for rebirth, the typology of practitioners) before turning to the practical programme.
The xíngyuàn gate is the more original part of the work: Zūnshì sets out a daily liturgical programme combining the Lotus bùqīng practice (universal-respect-for-all-beings), the Pure Land niànfó recitation, and the Tiāntái zhǐguān contemplative discipline, with vow-making formulae and dedication-of-merit verses for each component. This integrated daily programme is the prototype for the standard later-Sòng and YuánMíng Pure Land devotional regime.
The Taishō text is collated with the Sòng zàng and several Northern-Sòng manuscript fragments. Dating: Zūnshì’s mature period at Tiānzhúsì, c. 1000–1032 (the year of his death).
Translations and research
- Stevenson, Daniel B. “T’ien-t’ai’s Mo-ho chih-kuan and Pure Land Devotionalism.” In Buddhism in the Sung, ed. Gregory and Getz. Hawai’i, 1999.
- Andō Toshio 安藤俊雄, Tendai shisōshi. Hōzōkan, 1959.
- Getz, Daniel A. “Siming Zhili and Tiantai Pure Land in the Song Dynasty.” In Buddhism in the Sung, 1999 — discusses Zūnshì alongside Zhīlǐ.