御錄宗鏡大綱

Yùlù Zōngjìng dàgāng 御錄宗鏡大綱

Imperially Edited Abridgment of the Zōng-jìng-lù edited by 世宗皇帝 (錄), the Yōngzhèng 雍正 emperor

About the work

A twenty-juan imperially edited abridgment of Yǒngmíng Yánshòu’s 永明延壽 (904–975) monumental hundred-juan Zōngjìnglù 宗鏡錄 (T2016, completed 961), produced by the Qīng Yōngzhèng emperor 雍正帝 (Aisin-Gioro Yìnzhēn, 1678–1735, r. 1722–1735). The original Zōngjìnglù — Yánshòu’s vast synthesis of Chán, Tiāntái, Huáyán, and Wéishí thought into a unified “One-Mind” zōngjìng doctrinal framework — was the foundational synthetic-doctrinal work of late-Tang / Five-Dynasties Chinese Buddhism, but its hundred-juan extent made it impractical for routine use. Yōngzhèng’s twenty-juan abridgment extracts the essentials for monastic and lay-elite study. Preserved in the Qiánlóng-canon (Lóngzàng) at L164 no. 1668. The catalog meta gives the imperial author as 胤禎; the standard form is Aisin-Gioro Yìnzhēn 胤禛 (the emperor before his accession).

Prefaces

The text opens with the Yùlù Zōngjìng dàgāng xù 御錄宗鏡大綱序. In paraphrase:

The Zōngjìnglù is the work in which the Yǒngmíng Shòu Chánshī [Yánshòu] briefly raised the great-meaning of the Buddha-patriarchs and the round-explication of the jīng and lùn; pruning away the surplus text, alone marking the most essential. Causing the principle bestowed by the Awakened-King and the mind transmitted by the great-virtues — to the eyes clearly demonstrated, indicating in the palm — to be in this. Speaking of its small: it does not establish one character. Speaking of its many: it gathers and pervades Ganges-sand. There is no single dot or single stroke that is not the Buddha-mind; there is no single word or single phrase that is different from the Buddha-mouth. The non-dual round-penetration’s intent corresponds with the difficult-to-think teaching-sea, point by point — the great-chiliocosm’s upāya gates all without limit, the true-mind mutually-shining and reciprocal-exposing.

Raising One Mind to establish the lineage-essential — like the heavenly mother’s milk that the thousand children all draw on. Gathering the ten-thousand dharmas to return to the mirror within — like the pupil-of-the-eye seal-marking the come-objects. The five-thousand Hua-yan is the One Character — King not-decreasing not-increasing, no lack, no surplus. Future mahāsattvas, beneath the phrases, by themselves accord with the spiritual source. The broad-earth ordinary husbands, opening the volume, much-hear the wonderful Dharma — even those not yet attaining, not yet verifying, also do not depart from the right position…

[The preface continues with extensive imperial doctrinal-historical framing of the Zōngjìnglù tradition.]

Abstract

Authorship and date: imperially edited by the Yōngzhèng emperor during his reign. The work is closely connected to Yōngzhèng’s broader Buddhist program of the early 1730s (KR6s0068 Jiǎnmó biànyì lù, KR6s0069 Yùxuǎn yǔlù dated 1733, KR6s0009 Chóngdìng jiàoshèng fǎshù dated 1735). notBefore = 1730, notAfter = 1735 (Yōngzhèng’s death). Catalog dynasty 清.

The work is one of the principal imperial-canonical interventions in the ChánTiāntáiHuáyán synthetic doctrinal tradition. Yánshòu’s original Zōngjìnglù was the canonical synthesis of late-Tang Chinese Buddhism — combining the Chán mind-transmission principle with the doctrinal frameworks of Tiāntái (the yīniàn sānqiān 一念三千 cosmology), Huáyán (the yīzhēn fǎjiè 一真法界 dharma-realm), and Wéishí (the yīxīn liùshí 一心六識 consciousness-analysis) into a unified “One Mind” framework. Yōngzhèng’s abridgment extracts the essential statements while preserving Yánshòu’s structural framework.

The imperial endorsement of Yánshòu’s One-Mind synthesis — alongside Yōngzhèng’s parallel endorsement of the Mìyún Yuánwù line of LínjìYángqí Chán (KR6s0068, KR6s0069) — represents the Yōng-zhèng-era doctrinal-Buddhist program in its mature form: a synthetic Chán-Pure Land-Tathāgatagarbha framework, anchored in the Yánshòu canonical tradition, mediated through the orthodox Mìyún Línjì line.

Translations and research

• Albert Welter, Yongming Yanshou’s Conception of Chan in the Zongjing lu: A Special Transmission Within the Scriptures (Oxford, 2011) — the standard English-language treatment of Yán-shòu’s original Zōng-jìng-lù.
• Heng-ching Shih 釋恆清, The Syncretism of Ch’an and Pure Land Buddhism (P. Lang, 1992) — Yán-shòu’s syncretic doctrinal framework.
• Wáng Jūn-zhōng 王俊中, Yōng-zhèng huáng-dì yǔ Fó-jiào — the Sinophone treatment of Yōng-zhèng’s Buddhist program including this work.

Other points of interest

The Yōngzhèng abridgment is one of the principal pre-modern attempts to make the unwieldy 100-juan Zōngjìnglù practically accessible. The choice of a 20-juan format — substantial but readable — reflects an imperial editorial judgment about the appropriate compromise between fidelity to Yánshòu’s full apparatus and practical readability. The work’s incorporation into the Qiánlóng-canon (Lóngzàng) confirms its status as the imperial-orthodox abridgment of the canonical synthetic-doctrinal tradition.

Links

• DILA authority: (no preserved authority entry for the imperial author)
• CBETA: L164n1668
• Author: Yōngzhèng emperor Aisin-Gioro Yìnzhēn 愛新覺羅·胤禛 (1678–1735, r. 1722–1735)
• Source-text: Yǒngmíng Yánshòu 永明延壽 (904–975), Zōngjìnglù 宗鏡錄 (T2016, 100 juan, 961)
• Companion Yōngzhèng imperial Buddhist works: KR6s0068 Jiǎnmó biànyì lù, KR6s0069 Yùxuǎn yǔlù, KR6s0009 Chóngdìng jiàoshèng fǎshù