Yùzhì yuánshí 御製緣識
Imperially Composed: On Causes and Consciousness by 太宗趙炅 (撰)
About the work
A five-juan imperially composed Buddhist verse-encomium collection by Sòng Tài-zōng 太宗. The work is structured around the doctrinal pair yuán 緣 (cause / dependent-arising) and shí 識 (consciousness / vijñāna) — the two central doctrinal categories of the late-Mahāyāna Yogācāra tradition. The verse-encomia explore the relation between karmic-cause-conditioning and consciousness-development, with reference to the Avataṃsaka, the Lotus Sūtra, and the bodhisattva-path stages. The fourth of four imperially-composed Buddhist works of Tài-zōng preserved in the Korean canon (KR6s0057, KR6s0058, KR6s0059, KR6s0060). Preserved at K1261.
Prefaces
The text opens with an auto-preface (verse-prose mixed):
I have heard: the dharma-gate is non-dual; without sage-and-worthy [distinction] there is none who can throughout pervade. Pure and natural; without wisdom there is none who can long endure. The text of the canon is the wonderful-awakening, with consciousness-seed deep in cause [yuán]. Reciting the Avataṃsaka and the nature-sea divides clearly; expounding bodhi and the true-cultivation real-conduct. Compassion, kindness, joy, and equanimity — the dharma-mark fully and rounded. Exhausting investigation, transformation-origin — cutting off its emptiness-and-falsehood. Even-and-flat, broad-without-stagnation-or-obstruction. Removing person-and-self [the I-mine attachment], according-with yīn-and-yáng.
Now the Buddha-principle: thinking, ultimately without bound. Far-translated, eastward-flowing teaching — intent and conduct as upāya governing-and-controlling. The people of the Western Regions are nowhere not still-and-quiet, deep-and-clear. Benefiting the true marginal-limit. Ganges-sand compared with thousand realms; the Other Shore mixed with one dharma. Broadly-discussed dark, wonderfully able [to do]…
Abstract
Authorship and date: imperially composed by Sòng Tàizōng during his reign. notBefore = 980, notAfter = 997. Catalog dynasty 宋.
The work’s choice of yuán-shí as its organizing pair places it within the Yogācāra doctrinal tradition that had been increasingly integrated with Huá-yán and Tiāntái thought during the late-Táng and Five-Dynasties periods. The verse-encomia treat doctrinal topics like karma, vijñapti, the bodhisattva path, and the integration of prajñā with vijñāna-analysis. As the shortest of Tài-zōng’s four works (5 juan), it is also the most concentrated.
Like the other Tàizōng works (KR6s0057–KR6s0059), the Yuánshí is one of the principal pre-modern Chinese examples of substantive imperially-composed Buddhist literature — produced by a working ruler at the height of his reign with full court-monastic editorial support, demonstrating the deep institutional integration of Northern-Sòng court Buddhism.
Translations and research
No substantial dedicated Western-language secondary literature located. See KR6s0057 for general references.
Other points of interest
The full Tài-zōng Buddhist corpus (KR6s0057 + KR6s0058 + KR6s0059 + KR6s0060 = 71 juan total, plus the prefatory matter of KR6s0061) constitutes one of the most substantial bodies of imperial-doctrinal Buddhist literature ever produced by a Chinese sovereign. Its preservation only via the Goryeo Tripiṭaka — and not via any extant Chinese canonical line — is itself a significant fact in the history of Sòng-Goryeo Buddhist relations and the transmission of the Northern-Sòng imperial Kāibǎo canon to the Korean peninsula.
Links
- DILA authority: (no preserved authority entry for the imperial author)
- CBETA: K35n1261
- Author: Sòng Tàizōng 太宗 (Zhào Jiǒng 趙炅, 939–997, r. 976–997)
- Companion imperially-composed works: KR6s0057 Liánhuá xīnlún, KR6s0058 Mìzàng quán, KR6s0059 Xiāoyáo yǒng, KR6s0061
- Doctrinal context: Yogācāra yuán (causal-dependent-arising) and shí (consciousness) framework