Shìshì tōngjiàn 釋氏通鑑
Comprehensive Mirror of the Śākyans
compiled by 本覺 (Běnjué, fl. 1270, 編集)
About the work
A late-Sòng Buddhist universal history in twelve juan, compiled by the monk 本覺 (Běnjué) and dated by his preface to 1270 (Sòng Xiánchún 咸淳 6) — within a year of 志磐’s presentation of KR6r0012. The title Shìshì tōngjiàn deliberately evokes the great Confucian universal history Zīzhì tōngjiàn 資治通鑑 of 司馬光 (Sīmǎ Guāng), making this the first explicit Buddhist historiographical analogue to that monumental work. Preserved in the Manji Xuzangjing (X76 no. 1516).
Abstract
本覺’s preface lays out the work’s plan: to compile a year-by-year annalistic chronicle of Buddhist history from the Hàn through the Southern Sòng, modelled on the Zīzhì tōngjiàn of 司馬光 but with the Buddhist sānbǎo 三寶 (“Three Jewels”) as its subject. Each year-entry follows the Tōngjiàn convention: imperial reign-year heading, brief secular annal, then Buddhist events for that year. Sources include earlier Buddhist universal histories (KR6r0011, KR6q0003 and other Chán lamp records, biographical compendia, and standard Buddhist sūtra catalogs), supplemented by the standard Confucian dynastic histories.
本覺 himself is otherwise obscure; the autobiographical preface gives little beyond the dated colophon. The dating of 1270 is secure from this preface. The work was preserved primarily in the Jiāxīng 嘉興 reprint of the late Míng (the Jiāxīng zàng) and from there entered the Manji Xuzangjing.
The Shìshì tōngjiàn differs from the contemporary KR6r0012 in its non-sectarian stance: where 志磐’s work is explicitly Tiāntái-centred, 本覺 presents a more even-handed treatment of Chán, Tiāntái, Vinaya, and doctrinal-school events. It is comparatively under-studied — overshadowed in modern scholarship by 志磐’s and 念常’s larger and more famous works — but is a useful comparative source for late-Sòng Buddhist historiography.
Translations and research
- Schmidt-Glintzer, Die Identität (Wiesbaden, 1982) — covers the Shìshì tōngjiàn as one of the late-Sòng universal histories.
- No complete Western-language translation located.
Links
- CBETA: X76n1516