Xuánzàng sānzàng shīzī zhuàn cóngshū 玄奘三藏師資傳叢書
Collected Biographical Sources on the Tripiṭaka-Master Xuánzàng and His Disciples
compiled by 佐伯定胤 (Saeki Jōin, 1867–1952, 編) and 中野達慧 (Nakano Tatsue, 1871–1934, 編)
About the work
A two-juan modern Japanese-edited collection of biographical source material on 玄奘 (Xuánzàng) and his disciples, compiled in the early twentieth century by two of the leading Japanese Buddhist editors of the late Meiji and early Taishō periods, Saeki Jōin (Hossō 法相 master at Hōryū-ji 法隆寺) and Nakano Tatsue (the principal modern editor of the Manji Xuzangjing 卍續藏經). The collection is preserved in the Manji Xuzangjing (X88 no. 1651), of which Nakano was the chief editor.
Abstract
The work is a compilation rather than an original composition. It assembles biographical material from various Chinese and Japanese sources on Xuánzàng and his immediate disciples — 窺基 (Kuījī), 圓測 (Wŏnch’ǔk / Yuáncè), Pǔguāng 普光, Fǎbǎo 法寶, and others — drawing on the Cí’ēnsì zhuàn (KR6r0043), the Xù gāosēng zhuàn of 道宣 (KR6r0061), the Sòng gāosēng zhuàn (KR6r0061 / KR6r0064), and various Japanese Hossō hagiographic sources. The compilation reflects the Hossō school’s interest in preserving and re-presenting the Hossō patriarchal lineage at a moment of modern Buddhist scholarly revival.
The composition window is set by the active period of the two editors and the publication of the Manji Xuzangjing (1905–1912 for the original; the later supplement was completed by 1916). A date bracket of 1900–1916 is the standard.
The compilation has limited scholarly use beyond its convenience as a one-stop source for the Xuánzàng-disciple biographical material, but it is valuable as an early-modern Japanese editorial product and as a witness to the renewed Hossō engagement with its medieval patriarchs.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language secondary literature located. Studies on Saeki Jōin and the early-twentieth-century Hossō revival in Japan (e.g. James Mark Shields, Critical Buddhism: Engaging with Modern Japanese Buddhist Thought, 2011) provide context.
Links
- CBETA: X88n1651