Xīnyì Dàfāngguǎng fó Huáyán jīng yīnyì 新譯大方廣佛華嚴經音義
Phonological and Semantic Glosses on the New Translation of the Mahāvaipulya-buddhāvataṃsaka-sūtra by 慧苑 (述)
About the work
A two-juan early-eighth-century philological apparatus to the 80-juan “new translation” of the Avataṃsaka-sūtra 大方廣佛華嚴經 produced by Śikṣānanda 實叉難陀 between 695 and 699 CE under the patronage of Wǔ Zé-tiān 武則天. Compiled by Huì-yuàn 慧苑 (also written 慧宛 / 慧菀; 673–?), then resident śramaṇa of Jìng-fǎ-sì 靜法寺 in the metropolitan capital, and the senior dharma-disciple of the Huá-yán founding patriarch Fǎ-zàng 法藏 (643–712). Universally known as the Huì-yuàn yīn-yì 慧苑音義. Preserved in the Jīn-zàng (Jīn-cáng / 趙城金藏) tradition as A91 no. 1066.
Prefaces
The text opens with Huìyuàn’s own auto-preface (under the heading line Xīnyì Dàfāngguǎng fó Huáyán jīng yīnyì juànshàng (bìng xù); byline 京兆府靜法寺沙門 慧宛 述). In paraphrase:
Originally, the First Supreme Meaning is verily the dharma-nature that leaves words; the equal-flow true teaching is truly the rafter-and-boat of the sea-bearer. Hence with name-phrase, character-sound as the substantial root of distinguishing characteristics; color-fragrance, flavor-touch as the adhiṣṭhāna of sva-bhāva. Alas — the intent that surpasses speech and thought, and the realm of awakening that broadens seeing and hearing — they are nothing other than what the Dharma-King’s broad-creating upāya has the power to do.
The Mahāvaipulya-buddhāvataṃsaka-sūtra — truly it can be called the canon that pervades the dharma-dhātu, the speech that exhausts the realm of the Buddha. But where the textual word goes astray and is in error, the right meaning is hard to manifest, and the true seeing does not arise — searching the source one loses the road. Therefore one crosses the near to traverse the far, follows the shallow to reach the deep — past, future, present-honored — what does not come from this Way? And the function of yīn-yì (sound-and-meaning) is to peruse the bright mirror of clear and turbid, to interpret the destination of word-glosses, to set the standard for correcting wrongs and gaps, to open the lock-and-key of doubt-tubes.
[Citing examples of textual confusion in transmitted Avataṃsaka manuscripts]: when 彽徊 (dī-huái, hesitate) is in error written as 遲迴 (chí-huí, slow-returning); when 彷徨 (páng-huáng, wander) becomes 稽返; when 俾倪 (a wall-merlon) replaces 隦堄; when 軾環 turns into 女牆橋, these become matters of textual deformation, character-leans-then-leans-back, with the standing form preserved but the standing substance — trees and woods unevenly placed in interpolation. With this kind of crowd of disorders to shēng and yì, without adding inquiry and refutation, where would one indicate the south?
Without measuring my thinness, I have lightly played at this scripture — searching its hidden things, following the master — for nineteen years. Although the meaning-intent stretches afar, hard to follow with mind’s eye — yet for sound-instructions and Sanskrit-language I have lightly made commentary-statement. May it cause those who unroll the text and understand the meaning not have to wait for further consultation; may those of small text knowing the sound not labor with carrying-and-asking.
Yet a cricket-and-ant capacity manages its own hole and combs the dim — how can the resource of the thunder-clap, opening the hibernating door, reach far or near? May the brave-and-perceptive gentlemen not laugh.
Abstract
Authorship and date are unambiguously fixed by the byline and the auto-preface’s “nineteen years of study under the master” language. Huì-yuàn 慧苑 (DILA A001713; born 673 CE; native of Jīng-zhào-fǔ 京兆府, the metropolitan-capital prefecture of Cháng’ān; resident successively at Jìng-fǎ-sì 靜法寺 in Cháng’ān and Fó-shòu-jì-sì 佛授記寺 in Luò-yáng) was the senior dharma-heir of Fǎ-zàng 法藏 (643–712), the third Huá-yán patriarch. Of Fǎ-zàng’s circle Huì-yuàn was conventionally counted shǒu-mén-rén 上首門人 (“foremost disciple”). His other principal scholarly legacy is the fifteen-juan Xù Huá-yán jīng luè-shū kān-dìng jì 續華嚴經略疏刊定記 — a continuation of Fǎ-zàng’s incomplete short commentary on the new-translation Avataṃsaka, in which Huì-yuàn departs significantly from his teacher’s exegetical line and proposes a four-vehicle (sì-jiào 四教) classification differing from Fǎ-zàng’s five-teaching system. This deviation became the principal point of contention between Huì-yuàn and the orthodox Huá-yán mainstream represented in the next generation by Chéng-guān 澄觀 (738–839), who explicitly criticized Huì-yuàn in his sub-commentaries.
Dating: the work treats the new translation completed in 699, was composed after a “nineteen-year” period of study with Fǎzàng (which would put the start of that study ca. 692/693 — corresponding to Huìyuàn’s age 19 / 20, plausible for early discipleship), and depends throughout on the new-translation textual state. notBefore = 700 (terminus post quem from the new translation’s completion); notAfter = 720 (defensible upper bound; the work is referenced as a finished work by Huìyuàn’s near-contemporaries within the Huáyán lineage, certainly before the kāiyuán 開元 era catalogs of the late 720s).
The two juan are organized scripture-juan-by-scripture-juan: each entry gives the head term as it appears in Śikṣānanda’s translation, followed by phonological reconstruction in fǎn-qiè, citation of Shuō-wén / Ěr-yǎ / Cāng-jié / etc., and exegetical gloss often clarifying Sanskrit etymology where the Chinese transliteration is opaque. The work supplements rather than supersedes the earlier Xuán-yìng yīn-yì (KR6s0010), which had treated the older 60-juan Avataṃsaka but not the new translation; together the two are the standard pre-Huì-lín yīn-yì apparatus for the Avataṃsaka.
Translations and research
- Mizukami Bunichi 水上雅晴 et al., extensive Japanese yīn-yì studies of Huì-yuàn.
- Xú Shí-yí 徐時儀 (ed.), Yī-qiè-jīng yīn-yì sān-zhǒng jiào-běn hé-kān 一切經音義三種校本合刊 (Shàng-hǎi Gǔ-jí Chū-bǎn-shè, 2008) — joint critical edition of Xuán-yìng, Huì-yuàn, and Huì-lín yīn-yì.
- Imre Hamar, A Religious Leader in the Tang: Chengguan’s Biography (Studia Philologica Buddhica, Tokyo, 2002), discusses Huì-yuàn’s place in the Huá-yán lineage and Chéng-guān’s later polemic against him.
- Robert M. Gimello’s scholarship on Huá-yán (various papers in the Studies in East Asian Buddhism series) treats Huì-yuàn’s doctrinal divergence from Fǎ-zàng.
Other points of interest
The Huì-yuàn yīn-yì is one of the principal early-eighth-century witnesses to the textual state of the Śikṣānanda Avataṃsaka immediately after its production (the new translation was finished in 699; this commentary follows within ~10–20 years). It is therefore a canonical-philological control on later Huá-yán manuscript traditions. The work was substantially incorporated into Huì-lín’s 慧琳 100-juan Yī-qiè jīng yīn-yì (T2128, 807); its independent transmission in the Jīn-cáng tradition preserves an earlier, less re-edited form than the Huì-lín-mediated text in the Taishō.
Links
- DILA authority: A001713 (慧苑)
- CBETA: A091n1066
- Predecessor yīn-yì: KR6s0010 Yī-qiè jīng yīn-yì of Xuán-yìng (mid-7th c., does not cover the new-translation Avataṃsaka)
- Author’s main exegetical work: Xù Huáyán jīng luèshū kāndìng jì 續華嚴經略疏刊定記 (15 juan)
- Teacher: Fǎzàng 法藏 (643–712), third Huáyán patriarch