一切經音義

Yīqiè jīng yīnyì 一切經音義

Phonological and Semantic Glosses on the Whole Buddhist Canon (the Huìlín yīnyì 慧琳音義) by 慧琳 (撰)

About the work

The hundred-juan canon-wide phonological-semantic glossary of Huì-lín 慧琳 (737–820), resident śramaṇa of Xī-míng-sì 西明寺 in Cháng’ān and dharma-disciple of the Esoteric master Bù-kōng 不空 (Amoghavajra, 705–774). The work runs from the Mahāprajñāpāramitā through the entire Tripiṭaka of his time, treating each scripture in canonical order, gathering all earlier yīn-yì compilations (Xuán-yìng KR6s0010, Huì-yuàn KR6s0011/KR6s0012, Yún-gōng 雲公, Guō-shì-jiā 郭氏迦, others) into a single revised and supplemented apparatus. About 600,000 characters of dense philological commentary across 100 juàn — by orders of magnitude the largest pre-modern Chinese Buddhist reference work, and the canonical yīn-yì of the East Asian tradition. Composed across the Jiànzhōng 建中 4 (783) – Yuán-hé 元和 2 (807) period; presented for canonical inclusion in Dà-zhōng 大中 5 (851). Preserved in the Taishō canon at T54 no. 2128.

Prefaces

The text opens with two prefaces.

(1) Xīnshōu yīqièzàngjīng yīnyì xù 新收一切藏經音義序 (“Preface to the Newly-Received Yīnyì of the Whole Stored Canon”), by Gù Qízhī 顧齊之 (a chǔshì 處士, “retired scholar”), dated Kāichéng 5, 9th month, 10th day = 6 October 840. In paraphrase:

Huì-lín fǎ-shī, lay surname Péi, a man of Shū-lè-guó 疏勒國 (Kashgar). Early he stored the Confucian arts; in his weak-cap year he turned to the Buddhists, taking Bù-kōng tripiṭaka as his teacher. Of jīng and lùn he was especially refined in the zì-xué (lexicographical study). At the close of Jiàn-zhōng 建中 (= 783) he composed the Jīng yīn-yì in one hundred juan, of about six hundred thousand words — beginning with the Mahāprajñāpāramitā-sūtra and ending with the Hīnayāna notes-and-traditions.

Since the founding of the dynasty there have been the śramaṇa Xuán-yìng and the Tài-yuán Guō chǔ-shì, who both wrote phonological-glossaries — by precedent many of them are missing. There is Xuán-chàng shàng-rén 玄暢上人 of Xī-míng-sì, who could continue the previous accomplishment, never tiring of dim or bright. His will outstripped autumn frost in cleanness; his heart contained still water as mirror. Thereupon he sought what was lost, gathered and stored the various — burned them with sandalwood, ornamented them with brocade — surpassing the past and ending the future, alarming the eye and surprising the heart. Blessing has thereby arisen; broad benefit has multiplied.

I, Qí-zhī, untalented and wishing to peep at the canon, made inquiry of Master Chàng — and was shown the yīn-yì. Qí-zhī takes it that the having of “sound and meaning” for words is like one lost in direction obtaining a road, like a wisdom-lamp breaking darkness. Hidden indeed but submerged — silent and yet recognizing. So one examines its sound and discriminates its tone — there are throat, palate, gum, teeth, lip, mouth-edge, etc.; there are gōng, shāng, jué, zhǐ, yǔ, etc. tones. Resolving by light and heavy, distinguishing by clear and turbid, with the four tones alternately arising and the five sounds alternately used; among them the doubled-initial and overlapping-final, cycling forth and back, taking turns to be head and tail — without cross-difference and loss — and the rationale becomes manifest. Obtain the sound and the meaning is connected; the meaning is connected and the principle becomes round; the principle is round and the text has no obstruction; the text has no obstruction and a thousand sutras and ten-thousand śāstras are like things pointed to in the palm of one’s hand.

Morning ordinary, evening sage — what need to await the whole day! So without leaving “writing”, one obtains liberation; the master-less wisdom begins from the heart-source itself, splitting the doubt-stalled bosom, lighting the muddled-faint in a flash. Real principle and conventional truth are by this distinguished; Sanskrit and Táng-language from this become luminously clear. Also the sound is north and south but the meaning has no difference: the Qín people make the qùshēng like the shǎngshēng; the Wú people make the shǎngshēng like the qùshēng. Among them losses come from being too light-and-floaty, hurts from too heavy-and-turbid; rare is the distinguishing of the yú / lǔ error; many transmit the shǐ / hài mistake.

As for the forty-two letters and twelve sound-classes, born from the heart of Vairocana Buddha — they exceed what the bird-tracks and insect-script reach. Yet the source-currents have differences while the sound-and-meaning have no separation. Sifting sand and choosing gold, from the rational verifying the nature: when nature is obtained, words can be dispensed with; when words can be dispensed with, the writing also is forgotten. Returning together to the One Suchness, the quántí (fish-trap-rabbit-snare) is discarded.

The senior-seat Míngxiù 明秀, the temple-master Qìyuán 契元, and the dōu wéinà (chief overseer) Xuáncè 玄測 are all refined and sincere in the True Vehicle, protecting the holy canon — their literary brilliance illuminating, their jīnglùn broad-and-bountiful. Either their dao-feeling profound and far, individually obtaining the dark pearl; or their vinaya-conduct pure and high, alone marking the precept-moon. Above to satisfy the intent of sages and worthies; below to make manifest the diligent-sincere mind. Hence I have been commanded — untalented as I am — to respectfully make this preface.

(Time: Kāichéng 5, 9th month, 10th day.)

(2) Yī-qiè jīng yīn-yì xù 一切經音義序, by Jǐng Shěn 景審 (then shì Tài-cháng-sì fèng-lǐ-láng 試太常寺奉禮郎). Of similar period; gives a more extensive history of yīn-yì compilation in China, opening with Confucian and Daoist classical-philology background and surveying earlier Buddhist yīn-yì compilers (Xuán-yìng, Huì-yuàn) and the Sanskrit-grammar tradition (the 42 letters and 12 sound-classes) inherited from the Avataṃsaka and Mahāparinirvāṇa sutras. Detailed paraphrase omitted here; the preface explicitly endorses Huì-lín’s superseding role over earlier compilations.

Abstract

Authorship and date: composition began at the close of the Jiànzhōng 建中 era (= 783 CE) per Gù Qízhī’s preface, which gives that as the year of “composition” — likely meaning the start of the long compilation period. The work is conventionally placed as completed in Yuánhé 元和 2 = 807 CE, three juan per year on average. It was presented for inclusion in the imperial canon decades after Huìlín’s death, in Dàzhōng 5 = 851, by the senior officials Míngxiù, Qìyuán, and Xuáncè (collectively named in Gù’s 840 preface). notBefore = 783, notAfter = 807. Catalog dynasty 唐.

Huì-lín 慧琳 (DILA A001729; 737 – early 820 CE, age 84; lay surname Péi 裴; native of Shū-lè-guó 疏勒國 = Kashgar in the Western Regions; resident śramaṇa of Xī-míng-sì 西明寺 in Cháng’ān) was a dharma-disciple of the great Esoteric master Bù-kōng 不空 (Amoghavajra, 705–774). He combined Esoteric mì-zàng 密藏 transmission with deep Confucian and philological learning. Beyond the Yī-qiè jīng yīn-yì, he produced a one-juan Xīn-jí yù-xiàng yí-guǐ 新集浴像儀軌 (a ritual on bathing the buddha-image) and a one-juan Jiàn-lì màn-tú-luó jí jiǎn-zé dì-fǎ 建立曼荼羅及揀擇地法 (mandala-construction and site-selection ritual). He died at Xī-míng-sì in Yuán-hé 15 = 820 at age 84.

The 100 juan are organized scripture-by-scripture in canonical order, with each entry giving the head term, its phonological reconstruction in fǎnqiè, secular and Buddhist canonical citations, and Sanskrit-grammar background where pertinent. Huìlín’s principal lexicographical sources are the Zìlín 字林 of Lǚ Chěn 呂忱, the Zìtǒng 字統, the Shēnglèi 聲類 of Lǐ Dēng 李登, the Sāncāng 三蒼, the Qièyùn 切韻 of Lù Fǎyán 陸法言, the Yùpiān 玉篇 of Gù Yěwáng 顧野王, the Shuōwén 說文, and many minor lost philological works whose fragments survive only here. The work substantially incorporates and re-edits the earlier yīnyì of Xuányìng (KR6s0010, 25 juan), Huìyuàn (KR6s0011/KR6s0012, 2 juan), as well as the lost yīnyì compilations of Yúngōng 雲公 (the Nièpánjīng yīnyì 涅槃經音義) and Guōshìjiā 郭氏 (or Guō Tàiyuán 郭太原) — preserving these earlier works, in many cases, only through Huìlín’s incorporation.

The Huìlín yīnyì is universally regarded as the single most important Chinese Buddhist philological work ever produced and the indispensable canonical-philological reference for Middle Chinese phonology. As Karlgren noted (1957), it preserves more fǎnqiè data on early-Táng to mid-Táng Mandarin than any other single source.

Translations and research

A massive scholarly literature; selected major works:

• Karlgren, Bernhard, Grammata Serica Recensa (Stockholm, 1957); Études sur la phonologie chinoise (Stockholm, 1915–1926) — extensive use of Huì-lín’s reconstructions for Middle Chinese.
• Edwin G. Pulleyblank, Middle Chinese: A Study in Historical Phonology (UBC, 1984); Lexicon of Reconstructed Pronunciation (UBC, 1991) — Huì-lín as primary source.
• W. South Coblin, A Handbook of ‘Phags-pa Chinese (Hawai’i, 2007); Studies in Old Northwest Chinese (Berkeley, 1991); various papers — Huì-lín for medieval northwest Mandarin.
• Záo Lù 周祖謨 (ed.), Yī-qiè jīng yīn-yì yǐn-shū kǎo 一切經音義引書考 (Zhōng-huá Shū-jú, 1957) — the standard concordance.
• 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, 4 vols. (Shàng-hǎi Gǔ-jí, 2008) — the standard joint critical edition of Xuán-yìng + Huì-yuàn + Huì-lín.
• Mizukami Bunichi 水上雅晴 et al., Saiiki shutsudo bungaku no goroku and successor projects — Japanese yīn-yì studies.
• Wáng Yún-lù 王雲路, Hàn-yǔ yīn-yì shū-zhì 漢語音義書志 (Bā Shǔ Shū-shè, 2010) — comprehensive bibliographical study.

Other points of interest

The Huìlín yīnyì is the principal canonical-Buddhist source for Middle Chinese phonology and one of the two major sources (alongside the Qièyùn 切韻 / Guǎngyùn 廣韻 tradition) for the historical phonology of Tang Mandarin. The work is unusual in canonical Buddhist literature for its central reliance on secular philological works (Shuōwén, Yùpiān, Qièyùn) — making it as much a primary monument of Tang lexicographical scholarship as a Buddhist reference. It also preserves substantial Sanskrit-grammar material (the 42 letters and 12 sound-classes drawn from Esoteric tradition through Huìlín’s master Bùkōng). The 851 imperial-canonical inclusion under Xuānzōng 宣宗 is part of the late-Táng restoration of Buddhist institutions following the Huìchāng 會昌 persecution (845).

Links

• DILA authority: A001729 (慧琳)
• CBETA: T54n2128
• Earlier yīnyì incorporated/superseded: KR6s0010 Xuányìng yīnyì, KR6s0011/KR6s0012 Huìyuàn yīnyì
• Teacher: Bù-kōng 不空 (Amoghavajra, 705–774), Esoteric tripiṭaka master
• Author’s other works: Xīnjí yùxiàng yíguǐ, Jiànlì màntúluó jí jiǎnzé dìfǎ
• Dazangthings date evidence (645, 810): [ Demiéville 1953 ] Demiéville, Paul. “Les sources chinoises.” In L’Inde classique: Manuel des études indiennes, Tome II, by Louis Renou and Jean Filliozat, 398-463. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale/Hanoi: École Française d’Extrême-Orient, 1953. 457 https://dazangthings.nz/cbc/source/191/