Dé yī shì xùwén yuánqǐ 得依釋序文緣起
Account of the Origins of the Preface to the Authorised Commentary
composed by 慧堅 (Ekken / Huìjiān, fl. Edo period, 撰), Japanese Shingon monk
About the work
A short Japanese-Buddhist documentary text in one juan, preserved in the Manji Xuzangjing (X88 no. 1655). It belongs to the genre of yuánqǐ 緣起 (“origin-account”) writings — short formal documents recounting the origin and editorial history of a particular doctrinal text or scholastic edition. The “dé yī shì” 得依釋 of the title refers to a particular commentarial work in the Japanese Shingon scholastic tradition; the present text gives the editorial history of that commentary’s preface.
Abstract
The author 慧堅 (Japanese reading: Ekken or Esuken; Sino-Japanese reading: Huìjiān) was a Japanese Buddhist monk, identified in the catalog meta as Edo-period Japanese (catalog dynasty: 日本). He was active in the Shingon 真言 school. The text is a brief, technical document explaining how a particular preface to a scholastic Shingon commentary came to be composed — its occasion, its sources, its editorial history. As such it is principally of interest to students of the Edo-period Japanese Shingon scholastic establishment and of the textual history of Shingon commentaries.
The composition window is set by general Edo-period dating: a bracket of roughly 1700–1850 is the safe range. The text was incorporated into the Manji Xuzangjing in the early twentieth century along with much other Japanese-Buddhist documentary material that the editors thought worthy of preservation.
The text is short and specialised; it is included in the present catalog because the underlying CBETA / Kanripo source-list registers it under the Shǐchuánbù division as a documentary-historical text.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language secondary literature located. The work is an Edo-period Japanese-Buddhist scholastic document of specialist interest, not a major historiographical text.
Links
- CBETA: X88n1655