Xù yīqiè jīng yīnyì 續一切經音義
A Continuation of the “Phonological and Semantic Glosses on the Whole Buddhist Canon” (the Xīlín yīnyì 希麟音義) by 希麟 (集)
About the work
A late-tenth-century ten-juan continuation of Huì-lín’s 慧琳 hundred-juan Yī-qiè jīng yīn-yì (KR6s0013, 783–807), compiled by Xī-lín 希麟, śramaṇa of Chóng-rén-sì 崇仁寺 in Yān-jīng 燕京 (the Liáo dynasty’s southern capital, modern Beijing). The work picks up where Huì-lín left off — at the close of the Kāi-yuán shì-jiào lù 開元釋教錄 (730) canonical roster — and supplies yīn-yì glosses for the 266 juan in 25 zhì of new translations and texts entered into the canon between Kāi-yuán-lù and Xī-lín’s own day. The work begins with the Dà-shèng lǐ-qù liù bō-luó-mì-duō jīng 大乘理趣六波羅蜜多經 and runs through ca. 110 added texts. Preserved in the Taishō canon at T54 no. 2129. Universally cited as the Xī-lín yīn-yì 希麟音義.
Prefaces
The text opens with Xīlín’s own auto-preface (under the heading line Xù yīqiè jīng yīnyì juàn dìyī (bìng xù); byline Yānjīng Chóngrénsì shāmén Xīlín jí). In paraphrase:
One has heard: when “remaining purity” was injured and dàodé grew thin, rén and yì gradually opened. When the knotted-cord was abandoned and the milfoil and the tortoise were established, writing-graphs were made — looking up to observe the dark phenomena, looking down to view the formed shapes, Cāngjié 蒼頡 first set the ancient script, and Shǐ Zhòu 史籀 compiled the great seal. Following one another through ages and eras, with changes following the time, zhuàn and gǔwén differ slightly. By Zhōu’s court the Bǎoshì 保氏 supervised the guózǐ studies, teaching them by means of the Six Categories of Script — xiàngxíng, zhǐshì, huìyì, xíngshēng, zhuǎnzhù, jiǎjiè. The six are the root of character-making.
[Xīlín then surveys the history of Chinese paleography from the Late-Zhōu through Hàn — the Lǐ Sī 李斯 small-seal reform under Qín, Chéng Miǎo’s 程邈 lìshū clerical script, Yáng Xióng’s 揚雄 Xùnzuǎn 訓纂 89 zhāng in Hàn, Bān Gù’s addition of 13 zhāng, Xǔ Shèn’s 許慎 Shuōwén 說文 540 sections — then turns to Buddhist textual transmission.]
[On the canon’s textual problems:] The doctrine of the Honored: the four Āgamas’ wonderful canons speak of the marked-form via the upāya-gate; the Eight-Division (aṣṭāṅga-mārga) true lineage manifests the unconditioned at the bhūta-koṭi. Real and conventional are doubled-raised; Táng and Sanskrit are both encompassed. Borrowing as the eight expressing element: name, mark, phrase, and text. The bodhi and nirvāṇa as what is verified.
Spreading from India, translating and circulating in Cīna — front and back, ancient and modern, copying upon copying. Discussing Sanskrit sound, there is the case of one text used for two; misplacing shǎng and qù among the twelve sound-classes; characters of the same form returning to one place — doubting tǐ and yè among the eight transformation-sounds. Examining the brushstroke-points: words like 棪 / 掞 are confused as between hand- and tree-radicals; 帳 / 悵 are mixed between heart- and cloth-radicals; 𢓎 / 低 between chì and rén-radicals; 裸 / 裸 between robe and shì-radicals; 謟 / 諂 not distinguished, 舀 / [刀/臼] from zhuàng / mǔ; 罔 / 牛 / 爿 confused; the shù and zāi characters wrong. Without the dot, the writing is awry. Of such kinds the errors are truly numerous. If not investigated in detail, they gradually depart from the great meaning.
Hence at the start of the Táng there was the śramaṇa Xuán-yìng 玄應, who, by his unique foresight independently arrived at, naturally born to know — clear in Táng-Sanskrit different speech, recognizing past-and-present strange characters — was first to raise this aspiration, with cutting precision in unfolding details. Beginning with the old Avataṃsaka and ending with the Nyāyānusāra-śāstra, he composed Jīng yīn-yì in 25 juan (KR6s0010). Next there was the śramaṇa Huì-yuàn 慧苑, who composed Xīn Huā-yán yīn-yì in 2 juan (KR6s0011/KR6s0012). Then there was the śramaṇa Yún-gōng 雲公, who composed Niè-pán yīn-yì in 2 juan. Then Master Jī 基法師 of Dà-cí’ēn-sì [Kuī-jī 窺基] composed Fǎ-huā yīn-xùn in 1 juan. Either they have not encompassed the Tripiṭaka, or they have been narrowly restricted to one sutra. The search and check is wanting; the editorial recording is out of order.
By the late Jiàn-zhōng of the Táng (= 783), there was the śramaṇa Huì-lín 慧琳, inwardly refined in the Esoteric, entering the gate of dhāraṇī; outwardly investigating the Mò current, refining the essence of writing. The wonder of Indian śabda-vidyā and the dark-mystery of Cīna phonology — already received as a vase-pour from the late master, also poured out as a fountain to the after-students. Stilling his heart for twenty years, he unrolled and read the entire canon and composed the yīn-yì totaling one hundred juan (KR6s0013). Following the Kāi-yuán shì-jiào lù, beginning with the Mahāprajñāpāramitā-sūtra and ending with the Hù-mìng fǎ — the various sutras he glossed total 5,048 juan in 480 zhì.
From after the Kāiyuán roster, successive translations and transmissions of jīng and lùn, plus supplemented vinaya and zhuàn, etc.: from the Dàshèng lǐqù liù bōluómìduō jīng 大乘理趣六波羅蜜多經 onwards, exhausting all reading of the Kāiyuán shìjiào lù, totaling 266 juan in 25 zhì — the previous yīnyì did not include them. The present continuation is for that.
I respectfully [observe that] the chāozhǔ (transcription-master) Wúài dàshī 無礙大師 [the work’s patron], heaven-born wisdom-clear, divinely-conferred fine intelligence, comprehensively lectures on the various sutras, broadly mixing chapter-and-extract; with transmission-of-the-lamp in his thoughts, with benefit of the world as his heart — saw that the yīnyì was not yet complete and worried that to investigate the text there were gaps. Therefore he gave a flowery letter and commanded my untalented self to face his daylight and lift the firefly-candle.
Yet there may be in solving characters broad-or-brief, in interpreting meaning shallow-or-deep, Táng-Sanskrit translation-correspondence and ancient-and-modern same-and-different. Although I have followed authorities, awaiting future excellence, may it be peered at again in detail — that there be no doubt.
Abstract
Authorship and content are unambiguously fixed by the byline (Yān-jīng Chóng-rén-sì shā-mén Xī-lín jí) and the auto-preface. Xī-lín 希麟 (DILA A000492) was a śramaṇa of Chóng-rén-sì in Yān-jīng 燕京 (modern Beijing, then the southern capital of the Liáo dynasty). Birth, death, and lay surname are not preserved. The work is a direct continuation of Huì-lín’s Yī-qiè jīng yīn-yì, supplying glosses for ca. 110 newly canon-included texts in 266 juan / 25 zhì, beginning with the Dà-shèng lǐ-qù liù bō-luó-mì-duō jīng (Prajñā’s translation of 788).
Dating: the preface is undated, but the work was undertaken at the request of “Wú-ài dà-shī” 無礙大師 — a Liáo-court Buddhist figure conventionally identified as the editor-organizer of the Liáo canonical project of the late-tenth century. The standard scholarly dating, on the basis of the work’s appearance in the Liáo Tripiṭaka and its incorporation into the Goryeo Tripiṭaka as part of the Liáo-canon stratum, places composition at ca. 987 CE (Liáo Tǒng-hé 5 / Sòng Yōng-xī 4). notBefore = 980, notAfter = 990 (defensible bracket). Catalog dynasty 宋 in the Kanripo meta — but DILA correctly assigns the work to Liáo 遼 (since Yān-jīng was Liáo territory in this period and Xī-lín was a Liáo śramaṇa). The catalog likely reflects the work’s conventional Sòng-canonical inclusion date rather than its compositional context. The frontmatter here follows DILA on the dynasty.
The 10 juan are organized scripture-by-scripture as a direct continuation of Huìlín, each entry giving the head-word + fǎnqiè + secular and Buddhist citations. Xīlín draws particularly heavily on the Qièyùn 切韻 / Guǎngyùn tradition, the Yùpiān 玉篇 of Gù Yěwáng, and the Shuōwén 說文 — and his work is therefore a primary witness to the Liáo-Sòng-transition state of the Qièyùn tradition (cf. the studies of Sakai Ken’ichi, Wāng Shòumíng, and Xú Shíyí). The Xīlín yīnyì is also a primary phonological source for late-Táng to early-Sòng northern Mandarin (the speech of the Yānjīng region), supplementing the Cháng’ān-area data of Huìlín.
Translations and research
A substantial Sinophone-Japanese phonological literature on Xī-lín; Western-language work is more limited:
- Ueda Tadashi 上田正, Kīrin hansetsu sōran 希麟反切総覧 (Kobe, 1986) — the standard concordance of Xī-lín’s fǎn-qiè spellings.
- Sakai Ken’ichi 坂井健一, “Kīrin Zoku Issaikyō ongi hansetsu kō” (1995) — phonological study.
- Xú Shí-yí 徐時儀, “Xī-lín yīn-yì yǐn Guǎng-yùn kǎo” (2002); “Xù yī-qiè jīng yīn-yì yǐn Qiè-yùn kǎo” (Wāng Shòu-míng, 2003).
- Chén Yuán 陳援庵, “Xī-lín Xù yī-qiè jīng yīn-yì”, in Zhōng-guó fó-jiào shǐ-jí gài-lùn 中國佛教史籍概論, j. 4 (1962).
- Huáng Rén-xuān 黃仁瑄, “Xī-lín yīn-xì de shēng-niǔ duì-yīn jí qí yǔ-yīn xì-tǒng” (2007) — phonological-system study.
- 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, 2008) — joint critical edition with Xuán-yìng and Huì-lín; standard reference.
Other points of interest
The Xī-lín yīn-yì is a primary witness to the Liáo Tripiṭaka editorial project (the Liáo-cáng 遼藏 / Khitan canon carved 1031–1064 at Yān-jīng’s various imperially sponsored sites) and to the late-tenth-century state of the Liáo monastic establishment in Yān-jīng. Through the Liáo canon’s transmission to Goryeo, the work entered the standard East Asian canonical tradition; through the Goryeo Tripiṭaka and the Korean canon, it entered the Taishō in T54 no. 2129.