續原教論

Xù yuán jiào lùn 續原教論

Continued Discussion of the Original Teaching

A two-juan early-Míng Buddhist apologetic treatise by the lay-Buddhist scholar-official Shěn Shìróng 沈士榮 (dates unrecorded; Míng Hóngwǔ-era hànlín yuàn dàizhào 翰林院待詔 “Academician-in-Waiting at the Hànlín Academy”) of Jiàn’ān 建安 (modern Jiànníng 建寧 in Fújiàn). Prefaced by the author at the start of the late-summer of Hóngwǔ yǐchǒu 洪武乙丑 = Hóngwǔ 18 = 1385. The work systematically answers the Confucian objections to Buddhism accumulated across the TángSòngYuán period.

About the work

A two-juan Buddhist apologetic treatise, J20 B090. Non-commentary; commentedTextid omitted. The text is structured as a sequence of 28 numbered pieces organised by rhetorical function:

• 3 lùn 論 (discussions / theses): Yuán jiào lùn 原教論 (On the Original Teaching), Sān jiào lùn 三教論 (On the Three Teachings), Zhū shī rénwù xióngwěi lùn 諸師人物雄偉論 (On the Heroic Character of the Masters).
• 5 jiě 解 (explications / defences): Guān xīn jiě 觀心解, Zhí jì jiě 執跡解, Zuò yòng shì xìng jiě 作用是性解, Míng rú hào fó jiě 名儒好佛解, Cuò shuō zhū jīng jiě 錯說諸經解.
• 6 biàn 辯 (disputations / refutations): Nèi jiào wài jiào biàn 內教外教辯, Rúzhě cān chán biàn 儒者參禪辯, Lùn chán jìn lǐ biàn 論禪近理辯, Zì sī biàn 自私辯, Zhuāng Lǎo yì tóng biàn 莊老異同辯, Jiào shì fēi dé shī biàn 較是非得失辯.
• 14 tōng 通 (resolutions of specific points): 14 briefer treatments.

The three-fold rhetorical classification — lùn for foundational arguments, jiě for defensive clarifications, biàn for pointed rebuttals — reflects the author’s methodological self-consciousness about Buddhist apologetic writing. As Shěn’s preface formulates it: “Tracing their similarities and differences, we call it ‘lùn’; explaining their difficulties and confusions, we call it ‘jiě’; clarifying what is right and what is wrong, we call it ‘biàn’.”

Abstract

Shěn Shìróng 沈士榮 (DILA A022492). Lay Buddhist and Míng civil official. Native of Jiàn’ān 建安 (modern Jiànníng 建寧 in Fújiàn). Lifedates unrecorded; active during the Hóngwǔ reign (1368–1398). Served as hànlín yuàn dàizhào 翰林院待詔 (“Hànlín Academy Academician-in-Waiting”) in the early Míng bureaucracy — a post that placed him within the scholar-official elite that shaped early Míng ideological culture.

Shěn’s preface explains the text’s motivation: he had observed the sustained Táng-Sòng-Yuán-era Confucian attacks on Buddhism accumulate into a “several hundred years” tradition of disparagement; “智者則默然而不為之辯” (“the wise have remained silent and not taken up the defence”), allowing misunderstandings to spread unchecked among the lay seekers of learning. Shěn therefore systematically collected the Confucian objections into quoted form (jù lù yú qián 具錄于前 “setting them out in full in advance”) and produced the 28 numbered responses (biàn jiě yú hòu 辯解于後 “supplying disputations and explanations afterward”). The treatise thus functions as both a compendium of the anti-Buddhist polemical-historical corpus and a systematic response to it.

The title Yuán jiào lùn 原教論 (“On the Original Teaching”) and the prefix Xù 續 (“continued”) acknowledge Qi-sōng 契嵩’s (1007–1072) famous Yuán jiào lùn 原教論 from the Northern Sòng; Shěn’s work extends and updates the earlier master’s apologetic project for the YuánMíng transitional context. The appearance of the work in 1385, just seventeen years after the founding of the Míng and at the height of the Hóngwǔ-era Confucian-Buddhist institutional negotiations, places it within a critical moment of the early-Míng state’s policy toward Buddhism.

Dating: notBefore / notAfter both 1385 (Shěn’s preface, Hóngwǔ yǐchǒu jì xià shàng xián Jiàn’ān Shěn Shìróng jǐn xù 洪武乙丑季夏上弦建安沈士榮謹序 = Hóngwǔ 18 / first crescent moon of the third month of summer = August 1385). The preservation in the Jiāxīng Canon establishes the text as a mid-Míng-recognised Buddhist apologetic.

Translations and research

• Chán Wing-tsit. Various studies on Neo-Confucian-Buddhist relations. The Xù yuán jiào lùn is a relevant primary source.
• Gregory, Peter N. and others. Scholarship on Sòng-Míng Neo-Confucian critiques of Buddhism provides context for Shěn’s apologetic project.
• Brook, Timothy. 1993. Praying for Power. Background on early-Míng Buddhist lay-gentry relations.
• No substantial monographic study located specifically on J20 B090.

Other points of interest

The Xù yuán jiào lùn is an unusually early and complete-in-itself example of the Míng lay-Buddhist apologetic genre. Its 1385 publication date — only seventeen years after the Míng founding and forty years before Zhū Dī’s re-establishment of the Yǒnglè capital — places it within the critical period when the new dynasty was still negotiating Buddhism’s institutional position. Shěn Shìróng’s Hànlín Academy position gave his apologetic an unusual insider-official dimension: it is not a monk writing to defend his institution but a state-servant arguing for Buddhism’s proper place within the Confucian-state order.

The text’s relationship to Qi-sōng’s Yuán jiào lùn is announced by the Xù 續 (“continued”) in the title: Shěn positions himself as continuing a Buddhist apologetic tradition stretching back to the Northern Sòng, with Qi-sōng as its canonical predecessor. This intellectual-historical self-awareness is itself a characteristic feature of late-Yuán / early-Míng Buddhist literary culture.

Links

• CBETA
• Qi-sōng’s Yuán jiào lùn (1061): the parent polemical work that Shěn continues. (Check Kanripo for Qi-sōng’s corpus.)
• 沈士榮 DILA
• Kanseki DB