Huáyánjīng gǎnyìng lüèjì 華嚴經感應略記
Brief Records of Efficacious Responses to the Avataṃsaka Sūtra
compiled by 袾宏 (Yúnqī Zhūhóng, 1535–1615, 輯錄)
About the work
A 1-juan late-Míng abbreviated anthology of Avataṃsaka-cult miracle-narratives, compiled by Yún-qī Zhū-hóng 雲棲袾宏 (1535–1615) at his abbey Yún-qī-sì 雲棲寺 on Wǔ-yún-shān 五雲山 immediately south-west of Hángzhōu. The work draws on KR6r0085 Dà-fāng-guǎng fó-huá-yán jīng gǎn-yìng zhuàn and on later Sòng-Yuán-Míng anthology and anecdote material to produce a streamlined “brief record” (lüè-jì 略記) suitable for distribution to lay devotees. Composition is bracketed by Zhū-hóng’s mature literary career at Yún-qī, c. 1580–1615.
Abstract
The text contains roughly 40 miracle-narratives in 1 juan, condensed and rewritten from the longer prior compilations: each story is reduced to its narrative essentials and stripped of the doctrinal framing prose that the Táng compilations carried. The selection emphasises miracles of recitation, copying, and devotional veneration of the Avataṃsaka — i.e., the lay-practice modes that Zhū-hóng was actively promoting through his Yún-qī teaching programme. As with KR6r0076 Wǎng-shēng jí, the editorial register is deliberately accessible to lay readers, and the work was distributed through the Yún-qī-sì 雲棲寺 lay-Buddhist print-network that Zhū-hóng built up.
The compendium is thematically parallel to Zhū-hóng’s other text-cult condensations — for the Lotus, the Vajracchedikā, the Sukhāvatī-vyūha-sūtra — that together constitute his lay-devotional handbook-corpus. The Avataṃsaka in late-Míng popular Buddhism was significantly less prominent than the Lotus or the Vajracchedikā, but its central role in the Huá-yán scholastic tradition gave it residual cultic prestige. Zhū-hóng’s Lüè-jì is the principal late-Míng popular-cult anthology for the Avataṃsaka.
The text is preserved in the Manji Xuzangjing (X77 no. 1532) on the basis of an early-Qīng print, included in Zhūhóng’s Yúnqī fǎhuì 雲棲法彙 collected works.
Translations and research
- Chün-fang Yü, The Renewal of Buddhism in China: Chu-hung and the Late Ming Synthesis (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981) — the standard Western-language monograph on Zhū-hóng; treats the text-cult anthologies as a coherent project.
- 鎌田茂雄, Chūgoku Kegon shisōshi no kenkyū (Tokyo, 1965).
Other points of interest
The work shows that Zhū-hóng’s lay-Buddhist programme was not exclusively Pure-Land: although he is best known as the architect of the late-Míng Pure-Land synthesis, his text-cult anthologies extend across the major Mahāyāna sūtras, including the Avataṃsaka — testifying to a more catholic understanding of devotional efficacy than is sometimes recognised in the secondary literature.
Links
- CBETA: X77n1532