Fǎhuá zhuànjì 法華傳記
Records of the Biographies of the Lotus
compiled by 僧詳 (Sēngxiáng / Sēngxiáng, fl. early 8th c., 撰)
About the work
A 10-juan biographical-thaumaturgical compendium of the Saddharma-puṇḍarīka-sūtra (Lotus Sūtra) cult, the partner-text of KR6r0066 Hóng-zàn Fǎ-huá zhuàn. The two works share much of their material and methodology — both organise their biographies thematically by mode of devotion (translation, exposition, recitation, copying, image-making, self-immolation, miracle-receipt) — but the Fǎ-huá zhuàn-jì is somewhat later in date and broader in scope, including biographies of figures from the early eighth century absent from KR6r0066. The bracket 700–750 represents the most defensible composition window: the latest recorded events fall in the early Kǎi-yuán reign-period (713–741).
Abstract
The 10 juan are organised into twelve categorical sections (kē 科) that overlap substantially with KR6r0066: (1) Bùshǔ 部數 (Lotus-Sūtra recensions), (2) Yǐnshù 隱述 (Hidden Hints — Lotus prefigured in earlier sūtras), (3) Chuányì 傳譯 (Translation), (4) Túxiàng 圖像 (Image-Making), (5) Fānyì zhě 翻譯者 (Translators), (6) Jiǎngjiě 講解 (Exposition), (7) Bùzhì 不致 (Failures of Recitation — cautionary tales), (8) Sòngchí 諷誦 (Recitation), (9) Tīngwén 聽聞 (Hearing), (10) Shūxiě 書寫 (Copying), (11) Hùchí 護持 (Maintenance), (12) Yīngyàn 應驗 (Efficacious Responses). The Bùzhì (Failures) section is unique to this compendium — Sēngxiáng records cases where careless or insincere Lotus-recitation produced negative outcomes, in deliberate counterpoint to the predominantly positive miracle-narratives elsewhere.
The work’s source-base overlaps significantly with KR6r0066 — both compilers drew on the same body of SuíTáng Lotus-cult anecdote — but Sēngxiáng adds substantially from the post-660s record: lives of the early-eighth-century Tiāntāi sub-lineage, the Lotus-related miracles surrounding the WǔZhōu reign and the early Kǎiyuán court, and contemporary lay-devotional figures. Several of his biographies are the principal source for figures otherwise undocumented in the canonical gāosēng zhuàn. Sēngxiáng’s organisation is somewhat more analytic than 惠詳’s, with explicit prefatory remarks at the head of each kē explaining its rationale.
The work survives in the Taishō (T2068) on the basis of the standard Sòng-Yuán-Míng-Korean canon recensions. The Sòng print and the Korean Tripiṭaka witness slightly divergent juan-divisions, but the biographical content is essentially uniform across recensions.
Translations and research
- Daniel B. Stevenson, “Tales of the Lotus Sutra,” in The Lotus Sutra in Chinese Religion, ed. S. Teiser and J. Stone (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 79–102 — analyses both KR6r0066 and the present text together.
- 牧田諦亮 (Makita Tairyō), Chūgoku Bukkyō shi kenkyū 第一 (Tokyo: Daitō shuppansha, 1981), chapter on Táng Lotus-cult collections.
- 張伯偉, various articles on Táng Lotus-cult biographical literature.
- 田中祥彥 (Tanaka Yoshihiko), 〈法華傳記の編纂と源流〉, Bukkyō bunka kenkyū (various).
Other points of interest
The relationship between KR6r0066 and KR6r0067 has been a long-standing problem in the secondary literature. Modern scholarship (Makita, Stevenson) generally treats the two as independent compilations drawing on a partly common pool of Lotus-cult anecdote-material, with KR6r0067 being the slightly later and more ambitious of the two. The Bùzhì (Failures) section of KR6r0067 in particular — recording cautionary tales of Lotus-recitation gone wrong — is a feature with no parallel in KR6r0066 and reflects the distinctive editorial sensibility of Sēngxiáng.
Links
- CBETA: T51n2068