Shàoxīng chóngdiāo dàzàng yīn 紹興重雕大藏音
Phonological Apparatus to the Canon, [as Attached to] the Shào-xīng-Era Recutting by 處觀 (著)
About the work
A three-juan Northern-Sòng phonological apparatus to the Buddhist canon, organized by radical rather than by scripture-text or canon-bundle, compiled by Chǔ-guān 處觀 of Jīng-yán-sì 精嚴寺. The text covers 174 sutras and is divided into upper (shàng), middle (zhōng), and lower (xià) juan. Composition spanned over twenty years: begun in Xī-níng 熙寧 3 (1070) and completed in Yuán-yòu 元祐 8, 10th month (November 1093). The work was subsequently incorporated into the Shào-xīng 紹興-era (1131–1162) recutting of the canon — hence the title preserved in transmission. Preserved in the Zhōng-huá Tripiṭaka at C59 no. 1169.
Prefaces
The text opens with a preface by Liǔ Yù 柳豫, then officially Yídéláng 宜德郎, xīnchā jiān zàijīng mùtànchǎng 新差監在京木炭場 (“newly-assigned overseer of the Capital Charcoal Yard”). Dated Yuányòu 元祐 9, 4th month, 5th day = 21 May 1094. In paraphrase:
Yù was awaiting his next-turn appointment, with hidden tracks in the village-quarter, and could roam freely in the monk’s lodging seeking out kāishì (bodhisattvas). There was the senior-seat Huìrán 惠然 of Jīngyánsì 精嚴寺 who came to visit me, saying:
“Chǔ-guān, having shaved the head and learned Buddhism, has not yet been able to clarify wisdom; he wishes to read through the great canonical teaching to ripen prajñā. But the juàn-zhóu are vast as smoke, the meaning-doctrine deep and recondite. Constantly he was troubled by character-strokes errored, by sound-glosses sparse and brief — exhausting days and accumulating months in seeking and weaving without leisure. Although diligent and earnest, he constantly feared not reaching them. Reflecting on us his fellows: of those with intent, none has not first regarded this as a trouble.
“In old times, the fǎshī Tāo 瑫法師 once made phonological-glosses appended to the bundle-end. But his text is not detailed and complete; the precedence is out of order — at the time of unrolling and viewing, one cannot avoid being stalled. Therefore Chǔguān, not measuring his shallowness, took up Jíyùn 集韻 and the two Táng and Sòng yùn [Tángyùn 唐韻 and Guǎngyùn 廣韻], Guōshìjiā’s 郭迻 Zhòngjīng yīn 眾經音, and likewise sought out other versions, searched out radicals, and made manifest meaning-examples — perusing nearly a dozen canon-stores and collating for over twenty years. Begun in Xīníng gēngxū (1070) and completed in Yuányòu guǐyǒu, mèngdōng month (November 1093). Totaling 174 bù (sutras), divided into upper, middle, and lower three juan, intended as the Jīngyánsì xīnjí Dàzàng yīn 精嚴新集大藏音 in title.
“Among them, words like 㯹 / [打-丁+鬼] are not distinguished as wood vs. tree; 怶 / [幙-旲+(梳-木)] not distinguished as cloth-or-small; 搏 / 搏, 惕 / 惕, 衣 / 示, 日 / 曰 — the brushstrokes interfere mutually and the textual rationale becomes confused. The yīng (jar/jug) divides into five kinds; lí has seven types. Such cases are extremely numerous, beyond exhaustive listing — all because the scribes-of-transmission writing in broken-form are many, while those who collate by reading and dispel-and-rectify are few. Now everything has been clarified character-by-character below it, so that the viewer can investigate and trust without the labor of investigation. This perhaps may be of supplement to our Way.
“Long has come the rumor that you, sir, have intent toward outer-protection. May I beg a preface to crown the head of the volume — please do not refuse.”
Yù respectfully heard, and said: “Yes.” [Yù in autobiographical terms recounts that he had in his early years rested his heart at the empty-gate, indulged in chányuè (Chán joy); had once aspired to read through the inner [Buddhist] canon — but in between, work-affairs intervened on him, with worries and concerns alternating, not knowing that old age was approaching. He had not been able to so much as glance at one or two — let alone freely cross and pierce the realm of the wonderful Way. Without screening one’s tracks and stilling conditions, focusing the heart and toiling in thought, accumulated through years and months, how could he have followed his preferences? Hence in roaming the canonical store he made obeisance and respect; in viewing recitation he rejoiced and praised. How much more so when of diligent painful expedients to benefit and delight the learner there is one like our master — dare I not detail it, to take the trust of after-people, and also to complete my own intent?
Yuányòu 9, 4th month, 5th day. Prefaced.]
Abstract
Authorship and date are unambiguously fixed by Liǔ Yù’s preface. Chǔguān 處觀 (DILA A001143; lifedates not preserved) was a Northern-Sòng monk of Jīngyánsì 精嚴寺 (location not specified in extant sources, but the name is associated with several Liǎngzhè monasteries, most plausibly the Jiāxīng / Húzhōu region). The original title intended by Chǔguān himself was Jīngyán xīnjí Dàzàng yīn 精嚴新集大藏音 — but the work was subsequently incorporated into the Sòng Shàoxīng 紹興-era (1131–1162) recutting of the canon (the Sīxī Yuánjuésì project at the Húzhōu Sīxī district), and the modern title reflects that canonical context.
Composition: begun Xīníng 3 (1070), completed Yuányòu 8, mèngdōng = November 1093. notBefore = 1070, notAfter = 1093. Catalog dynasty 宋.
The work is organized by Chinese radical (人, 心, 巾, 手, 肉, 足, 走, 車, 刀, 革, 玉, 女, 目, 貝, 酉, 雨, 歹, 髟, 毛, 力, 弓, 舟, 大, 齒, 風, 衷, 羽, …) — a remarkable structural choice that anticipates the modern Chinese-dictionary radical-system organization. Within each radical-section, characters appearing as difficult or miscopied in the canonical sutras are listed with their fǎnqiè phonological reconstructions and concise glosses. This radical-organization makes the work the first surviving Chinese Buddhist yīnyì with a dictionary-style index rather than a scripture-by-scripture or bundle-by-bundle layout.
Chǔguān’s principal philological sources, named in Liǔ Yù’s preface, are the Jíyùn 集韻 (1039), the Tángyùn 唐韻 of Sūn Miǎn 孫愐 (732), the Guǎngyùn 廣韻 (1008), and the Zhòngjīng yīn 眾經音 of Guō Yí 郭迻 (a now-lost early-Sòng yīnyì compendium known mainly through Chǔguān’s citations). The work is therefore a primary witness to the Northern-Sòng Jíyùn / Guǎngyùn tradition as actually applied to Buddhist canonical philology, and a major preservation site for the lost Guō Yí Zhòngjīng yīn.
The preface’s reference to “fǎshī Tāo 瑫法師” — whose phonological glosses had earlier been “appended to the bundle-end” — is most likely to Yīngzhī Yǔtāo 應之雲瑫 or another mid-Sòng yīnyì compiler whose Dàzàng yīn tradition Chǔguān is here explicitly superseding.
Translations and research
No substantial dedicated Western-language secondary literature located. Sinophone references:
- Hán Xiǎo-jīng 韓小荊 and the Sì-chuān-University yīn-yì working group’s broader scholarship on Sòng-period Buddhist yīn-yì.
- Xú Shí-yí 徐時儀, the Shàng-hǎi yīn-yì working group studies.
- Wāng Shòu-míng 汪壽明 various papers on Sòng-period canonical philology.
Other points of interest
The radical-organization principle is the work’s most significant structural innovation. By organizing entries by Chinese radical rather than by scripture-by-scripture (the Xuányìng / Huìlín / Xīlín principle) or by canon-bundle (the Kěhóng principle), Chǔguān effectively created the first dictionary-style Chinese Buddhist phonological reference — anticipating by several decades the radical-organization principle that would later become standard in Chinese lexicography. The work is also the principal preservation site for fragments of the lost early-Sòng Zhòngjīng yīn of Guō Yí.