Sānbǎo gǎnyīng yàolüè lù 三寶感應要略錄
Essential Compendium of Sympathetic-Response Records on the Three Jewels
compiled by 非濁 (Fēizhuó / Chúnhuì dàshī 純慧大師, ?–1063, 集)
About the work
A 3-juan early-Liáo-dynasty Buddhist miracle-tale compilation by the Liáo 遼-state Buddhist master Fēizhuó 非濁 (字 Zhēnzhào 貞照, 賜號 Chúnhuì dàshī 純慧大師, ?–1063) — a major figure in Khitan-Liáo state Buddhism, native of Fànyáng 范陽 (today Zhuōzhōu region), secular surname Zhāng 張. Per the Liáo historical record, he received imperial purple in Zhòngxī 重熙 8 = 1040 from Liáo Xīngzōng 興宗 and was later honoured by Liáo Dàozōng 道宗 with the titles 崇祿大夫檢校太保 and (subsequently) 檢校太傅太尉 + 賜號 Chúnhuì dàshī. He died on the 4th lunar month of Qīngníng 9 = May / June 1063 at Zhúlínsì 竹林寺.
The work was therefore compiled in the period of his most active scholarly output — bracketed here by his receiving imperial purple in 1040 and his death in 1063. The dating bracket is 1040 – 1063. Transmitted in Taishō 51 as T2084.
Abstract
The work is one of the principal Liáo-state Buddhist miracle-tale collections. The compiler’s preface organises the material under the canonical “Three Jewels” rubric: stories of sympathetic response (感應 gǎnyīng) demonstrating the efficacy of (i) the Buddha (in his image-form, língxiàng 靈像), (ii) the Dharma (canonical scriptures, zūnjīng 尊經), and (iii) the Sangha (bodhisattvas, púsà 菩薩). The structural framing is the principle that “in the polluted age of the latter dharma, the gǎnyīng of the Three Jewels is the eye-and-foot (目足) of moral practice — the model on which sin is severed and goodness cultivated.”
The collection is excerpted (per the colophon’s own statement) from earlier collections plus oral transmissions, and is deliberately abbreviated (“yàolüè” 要略) — as a portable disciplinary handbook for Liáo-state monks. The Khitan-Liáo state Buddhism of which Fēizhuó was a leading figure was a major centre of canonical scholarship in the 11th c. (the Khitan canon 契丹藏 / 契丹大藏經 was completed in this same period), and Fēizhuó’s work belongs to that broader project of state-supported Buddhist textual organisation.
The compiler is also documented as the author of a now-lost 20-juan《往生集》 Wǎngshēng jí (a Pure-Land collection on rebirth in the Pure Land) — submitted to and approved by the Liáo emperor; a 3-juan《首楞嚴經玄贊科》 Shǒuléngyán jīng xuánzàn kē (also lost); and as compiler / continuator of the 22-juan《一切佛菩薩名集》 Yīqiè fópúsà míngjí preserved in the Fángshān Stone Inscriptions 房山石經 (cè 28).
The work is one of the principal documentary sources for Liáo-state Buddhist scholarship — a tradition that is otherwise documented mainly through the QuánLiáo wén 全遼文 and the Fángshān stone canon.
Translations and research
- 野上俊靜, 遼金の佛教 (Tōkyō, 1953) — the principal Japanese-language treatment of Liáo-Jīn Buddhism, with extended discussion of Fēi-zhuó.
- 陳述, 朱子方主編, 遼會要 (Liáo huì-yào) — preserves the principal Liáo administrative-historical materials on Fēi-zhuó.
- Robert Gimello, “Liao Buddhism and the Yan-tradition,” in various publications on Liáo-period Buddhism.
- 喻昧菴, 新續高僧傳四集, j. 3 — preserves Fēi-zhuó’s continuation-biography.
Other points of interest
The Khitan-Liáo state’s vigorous Buddhist scholarly culture, of which Fēi-zhuó is a leading representative, is one of the least-studied centres of 11th-century East-Asian Buddhism, in part because the principal Liáo Buddhist canon (the Khitan-zàng) was almost entirely lost when the Liáo state was conquered by the Jurchen-Jīn in 1125. The survival of the Sān-bǎo gǎn-yīng yào-lüè lù through its incorporation into the Korean Tripiṭaka transmission (whence the Taishō recension) is therefore a documentary survival of considerable importance.
Links
- CBETA: T51n2084