Yùlù jīnghǎi yī dī 御錄經海一滴
Imperially Edited: A Single Drop from the Sūtra-Sea edited by 世宗皇帝 (錄), the Yōngzhèng 雍正 emperor
About the work
A twenty-juan imperially edited Buddhist canonical-extract anthology, produced by the Qīng Yōngzhèng emperor 雍正帝 (Aisin-Gioro Yìnzhēn, 1678–1735, r. 1722–1735). The work — whose title literally means “a single drop from the sūtra-sea” — extracts essential passages from across the Buddhist canon to provide a manageable representative selection of canonical content, complementing Yōngzhèng’s other Buddhist editorial projects (the Chán Yùxuǎn yǔlù KR6s0069, the Chán-doctrinal Zōngjìng dàgāng KR6s0070, and the fǎshù lexicon Chóngdìng jiàoshèng fǎshù KR6s0009). Preserved in the Qiánlóng-canon (Lóngzàng) at L164 no. 1669.
Prefaces
The text opens with the Yùlù jīnghǎi yī dī xù 御錄經海一滴序. In paraphrase:
Within the great wisdom-sea of Śākyamuni-Wén Buddha, the cause-arising bubble produced ferries-and-saves the various sentient beings, causing them to enter the non-residual nirvāṇa. Universally expounding the Three-Baskets and the Twelve Divisions of the writing — vast indeed. Yet of what the Buddha awakened, all the various dharmas not yet expounded — leaving aside the question. Of what is already expounded — coming from the Western Heaven to Cīna [China] — only one-hundredth or so. Yet of even what has come to Cīna — although within one sūtra one pǐn; within one pǐn one mén; within one mén one dharma; within one dharma one meaning; within one meaning one phrase — if one wished to weigh-and-measure-and-expound: even using the great-sea-quantity of ink and Sumeru-mountain accumulated brushes, writing it could not exhaust it.
Yet these Three Baskets and Twelve Divisions do not make a character-mark, do not make a phrase-mark, do not make a having-language-mark, do not make a no-language-mark. That is, even should the World-Honored further pass through Ganges-sand-numbered kalpas dwelling in the world turning the wheel and further expound a hundred-thousand-ten-million-times the Three Baskets and Twelve Divisions, in the end he could not say “I, the Tathāgata, have ever turned…”
[The preface continues with extensive doctrinal-philosophical framing.]
Abstract
Authorship and date: imperially edited by the Yōngzhèng emperor during his reign. The work is part of Yōngzhèng’s late-reign Buddhist editorial program. notBefore = 1730, notAfter = 1735. Catalog dynasty 清.
The work is one of the most ambitious imperial-canonical extract-anthology projects in pre-modern Chinese Buddhism — providing in 20 manageable juan a representative selection of the entire Buddhist canon’s doctrinal content. Its function is parallel to but distinct from the Yùlù Zōngjìng dàgāng KR6s0070: where the Zōngjìng abridgment focuses on the synthetic-doctrinal One-Mind framework, the Jīnghǎi yī dī extracts canonical-sutra passages directly. Together, the two works constitute a comprehensive imperial-canonical reading-program for monastic and lay-elite Buddhist study.
The preface’s deeply self-aware framing — emphasizing that even what came to China is only a fraction of what the Buddha taught, and even of that fraction one anthology can capture only “a single drop from the sūtra-sea” — reflects Yōngzhèng’s sophisticated personal engagement with the canonical tradition and his recognition of the inherent limits of any anthology-project.
Translations and research
No substantial dedicated Western-language secondary literature located. See KR6s0068 for general Yōng-zhèng-Buddhism references.
Other points of interest
The “single drop from the sūtra-sea” trope — drawing on the Avataṃsaka-sūtra’s recurring sea-and-drop imagery — became a standard pre-modern Chinese Buddhist self-description for canonical-extract works. Yōng-zhèng’s adaptation of this trope as the imperial-canonical extract-anthology’s title gave the metaphor a particularly authoritative reception in the late-imperial Chinese Buddhist tradition.
Links
- DILA authority: (no preserved authority entry for the imperial author)
- CBETA: L164n1669
- Author: Yōngzhèng emperor Aisin-Gioro Yìnzhēn 愛新覺羅·胤禛 (1678–1735, r. 1722–1735)
- Companion Yōngzhèng imperial Buddhist works: KR6s0009 Chóngdìng jiàoshèng fǎshù, KR6s0068 Jiǎnmó biànyì lù, KR6s0069 Yùxuǎn yǔlù, KR6s0070 Zōngjìng dàgāng