Fǎmén míngyì jí 法門名義集
A Collection of the Names and Senses of the Dharma-Gates by 李師政 (撰)
About the work
A short single-juan early-Táng Buddhist terminological glossary, compiled by the lay scholar Lǐ Shīzhèng 李師政, then serving as Dōnggōng xuéshì 東宮學士 (scholar of the Eastern Palace, attached to the Crown Prince’s establishment), in response to a teaching command from the Yángchénggōng 陽城公 — almost certainly Cén Wénběn 岑文本 (595–645), who held that ennoblement under Tàizōng. The byline reads Dōnggōng xuéshì Lǐ Shīzhèng fèng Yángchénggōng jiào zhuàn 東宮學士李師政奉陽城公教撰. The work is preserved as T54 no. 2124, drawn from the Taishō base.
Prefaces
The text opens with a brief preface by Lǐ Shīzhèng. In paraphrase:
If we consider the dharma-substance, it is profound and still, the true nature equal and even — name and mark are originally absent, words and language are cut off here. Yet the wisdom-power that verifies this evenness clearly takes hold of unalike conditions, while the substance-stillness conditions persons. So it is that one becomes the unobstructed dispute. If one shut the mouth and dispensed with words, by what would the sage hand down transformation? If one darkened the heart and abandoned teaching, by what would ordinary delusion be released into understanding? Therefore “no speech” does not obstruct delight in speaking, and we know that “no name” does not destroy borrowed name. Through name we reach the still — and so it is that the name that marks the dharma, the meaning that interprets the name, are the ford and road of principle. Should one not labor at it? But it is scattered through many texts and hard to grasp in summation. To collect and interpret it makes the viewing easy.
I now follow what I have seen and admit what I have not yet detailed. Arranging it by category, the total comes to seven pǐn: (1) Body and mind (shēnxīn pǐn 身心品), (2) Faults (guòhuàn pǐn 過患品), (3) Merits (gōngdé pǐn 功德品), (4) Principle and teaching (lǐjiāo pǐn 理教品), (5) Worthies and sages (xiánshèng pǐn 賢聖品), (6) Cause and effect (yīnguǒ pǐn 因果品), (7) Worldly fruits (shìguǒ pǐn 世果品). But the dharma-gates are immeasurable and base intelligence has its limits — like viewing the heavens through a tube, like measuring the sea with a beggar-bowl. Getting the shallow and missing the deep, of a thousand one does not know one. I respectfully await one of penetration to fill in the omissions.
Abstract
Authorship and provenance are clear from the byline: a single-juan terminological compilation produced for the Crown Prince’s reading by Lǐ Shīzhèng under commission from Cén Wénběn. Lǐ Shīzhèng (DILA A000516; Wikidata Q45497185; CBDB 0092907) was a native of Shàngdǎng 上黨 (modern Chángzhì 長治, Shānxī), originally a Confucian who later turned to Buddhism, becoming a disciple of Fǎlín 法琳 (572–640) at the Jìfǎsì 濟法寺 — the same Fǎlín who was the leading early-Táng polemicist on behalf of Buddhism against Daoist court attacks under Gāozǔ and Tàizōng. Lǐ Shīzhèng’s better-known contribution to the same defense literature is the Nèidé lùn 内德論 (preserved in Guǎng hóngmíng jí 廣弘明集, T2103, j. 14), an apologetic treatise structured against the Daoist Xiàodào lùn 笑道論.
Dating: Cén Wénběn was first ennobled Yángchéngxiànnán 陽城縣男 in Zhēnguān 1 (627) and was elevated to Yángchéngxiànzǐ 陽城縣子, then died in Zhēnguān 19 (645). The byline form Yángchénggōng 陽城公 — using the more honorific “gōng” as the form of address — places the commission within his lifetime, between 627 and 645. notBefore = 627, notAfter = 645. Catalog dynasty 唐.
The work itself is structured as a Buddhist míngshù 名數 lexicon — entries are short, citing canonical numerical sets (the four great elements 四大, the five aggregates 五蘊, the eighteen realms 十八界, the four classes of vinaya offence, the forty-two stages 四十二位 of the bodhisattva path, the bhūmi, etc.) with brief identifications and occasional canonical-source notes. It belongs to the same general genre as the much later Fānyì míngyì jí 翻譯名義集 of Fǎyún 法雲 (Sòng, 1143; T2131) but is far smaller and arranged thematically rather than alphabetically. As a court-commissioned synopsis written by a lay scholar for a Crown Prince, it stands as a primary witness to the level and form of Buddhist literacy expected of the early-Táng aristocratic literate class.
Translations and research
No substantial dedicated secondary literature in Western languages located. The text is occasionally cited in studies of early-Táng Buddhist–Confucian–Daoist polemic, in connection with Lǐ Shī-zhèng’s better-known Nèi-dé lùn:
- Stanley Weinstein, Buddhism Under the T’ang (Cambridge, 1987) — situates Lǐ Shī-zhèng among the Fǎ-lín circle of Buddhist apologists.
- Thomas H. C. Lee, ed., China and Europe: Images and Influences in Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries — peripheral mention.
- Tāng Yòng-tóng 湯用彤, Suí Táng fó-jiào shǐ-gǎo 隋唐佛教史稿 (Zhōng-huá, 1982 ed.) — discussion of Fǎ-lín circle and Lǐ Shī-zhèng’s role.
Other points of interest
The compilation is one of the earliest Chinese Buddhist míngshù glossaries to survive in canonical form and is unusual among Buddhist reference works of its kind for being authored by a layman rather than by a monk-exegete. The patronage by the Crown Prince’s establishment and by Cén Wénběn — a senior secretarial official under Tàizōng — illustrates the degree to which Buddhist study had been institutionalized within the early-Táng court literary class.
Links
- DILA authority: A000516 (李師政)
- CBDB: 0092907; Wikidata: Q45497185
- CBETA: T54n2124
- Author’s other major work: Nèidé lùn 內德論 in Guǎng hóngmíng jí (T2103 j. 14)
- Companion to: KR6s0002 Fǎyuàn zhūlín (an encyclopedia of similar terminological purpose, generations later)