Yùzhì quányuán gē 御製詮源歌
Imperially Composed: A Song on Discoursing the Source by 太宗趙炅 (撰)
About the work
A single-juan imperially composed Buddhist gē 歌 (song) by Sòng Tài-zōng 太宗 (Zhào Jiǒng, 939–997, r. 976–997). The work is a verse-meditation on the doctrinal pair quán 詮 (discoursing / expounding the teaching) and yuán 源 (source / origin / root) — investigating the relationship between linguistic-conceptual articulation and the underlying ontological-cosmological source it expounds. Each verse is followed by extensive interlinear-gloss commentary citing canonical sources. Preserved in the Zhōnghuá Tripiṭaka at C73 no. 1680. The sixth of Tài-zōng’s imperially-composed Buddhist works in the Kanripo.
Prefaces
The text opens with the title-introduction (interlinearly glossed):
“Quán-yuán gē” 詮源歌 — (Quán is to manifest-and-display the true marginal-limit, penetrate the Buddha-vehicle, evaluate the dark-subtle, measure the saintly nature. Yuán is the root-source of the ten-thousand things. What is meant by “yuán”? The ten-thousand spirits in their swarming-and-stirring all have their root; the ten-thousand things in their flourishing-and-multiplying each return to their root. There is none that has no root and yet has branches and tips. How much more so among the three powers [heaven-earth-man]: man is the most spiritual — and would he have no root and source? Therefore our Buddha manifests the true mark, opens the upāya gate, exhausts the self-mind source — fundamentally the Buddha. Truly because of one moment of contradiction-with-suchness afterward, the three realms falsely appear before us. How is this known? The Avataṃsaka-sūtra says: “O Buddha-children, there is not one sentient being who does not possess the Tathāgata’s wisdom — only because of false thought and grasping does he not verify-and-attain. If [he] leaves false thought, the all-knowing wisdom, the natural wisdom, the unobstructed wisdom — they immediately appear before him.” Again the sutra says: “At that time the Tathāgata, broadly observing the dharma-realm of all sentient beings, made this statement: ‘How wonderful! How wonderful! These various sentient beings — how is it that, possessing the Tathāgata’s wisdom, they are confused and do not see? I shall…’“)
Abstract
Authorship and date: imperially composed by Sòng Tàizōng during his reign. notBefore = 980, notAfter = 997. Catalog dynasty 宋.
The work is the sixth of Tài-zōng’s preserved imperially-composed Buddhist works (with KR6s0057–KR6s0061) and one of two preserved in the Zhōnghuá Tripiṭaka rather than the Korean canon (the other being KR6s0061). The doctrinal framework — investigating the quán (discursive expression) — yuán (source-root) relation — places the work within the Tathāgatagarbha tradition, with extensive citation of the Avataṃsaka-sūtra’s famous “all sentient beings possess the Tathāgata’s wisdom” passage as its foundational doctrinal-citation.
The gē (song) format — shorter and more popular than the fù of KR6s0061 or the elaborate verse-encomia of KR6s0057–KR6s0060 — makes this the most directly accessible of Tàizōng’s Buddhist works, suitable for monastic chanting or lay-devotional reading.
Translations and research
No substantial dedicated Western-language secondary literature located. See KR6s0057 for general references.
Other points of interest
The opening doctrinal argument — that all sentient beings possess Tathāgata-wisdom but are deluded into not seeing it (the famous Avataṃsaka “enlightenment-experience of the Buddha” passage from the Rúlái xìng-qǐ pǐn 如來性起品) — is one of the most important canonical citations for the Tathāgatagarbha / Buddha-nature doctrine in Chinese Buddhism. Its central placement in Tài-zōng’s gē makes the work a primary witness to the mainstream Northern-Sòng court doctrinal-Buddhist position on Buddha-nature.
Links
- DILA authority: (no preserved authority entry for the imperial author)
- CBETA: C073n1680
- Author: Sòng Tàizōng 太宗 (Zhào Jiǒng 趙炅, 939–997, r. 976–997)
- Companion imperially-composed works: KR6s0057–KR6s0061
- Foundational doctrinal source: Avataṃsaka-sūtra (Rúlái xìng-qǐ pǐn 如來性起品) — the “all sentient beings possess Tathāgata-wisdom” passage