Shìjiàn jīgǔ lüè xùjí 釋鑑稽古略續集
Continuation to the Mirror of the Śākyans’ Brief Examination of Antiquity
compiled by 幻輪 (Huànlún, fl. 1576, 編)
About the work
A three-juan continuation of 覺岸’s Shìshì jīgǔ lüè (KR6r0014), compiled by the Míng monk 幻輪 (Huànlún) and dated by his preface to 1576 (Wànlì 萬曆 4). The work picks up the chronicle at the point where Juéàn had left off — the early Yuán — and continues year by year through the Yuán and Míng down to the early Wànlì period, supplying Buddhist events alongside the imperial annals in the same condensed format as the original.
Abstract
幻輪 is a relatively obscure Míng monk; he gives no extensive autobiographical information in the preface, but identifies himself as belonging to the Tiāntái lineage and active in southern monasteries. The juan division is by dynasty: juan 1 the Yuán, juan 2 the early to mid Míng, juan 3 the late Míng down to 1576. Within each year, the imperial annal is given (drawn from the standard Yuán-shǐ and the Míng veritable records), followed by Buddhist events: monastery construction, official ordinations, monk biographies, doctrinal disputes, imperial edicts on the saṃgha, etc.
The continuation completes the Shìshì jīgǔ tradition as a comprehensive Buddhist chronological handbook from antiquity to the late Míng — analogous to the way the Tōngjiàn xùbiān extends the Tōngjiàn into the post-Sòng period. It is a useful (if not always reliable) source for Buddhist events of the Yuán and especially the Míng, periods where the more famous earlier universal histories had nothing to say.
Translations and research
- No substantial secondary literature located. The text is occasionally cited in Míng-period Buddhist historiography (e.g. in Timothy Brook, The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China; Zhou Qi, surveys of Míng-Buddhist sangha policy) but has not been the subject of dedicated study.
Links
- CBETA: T49n2038