Zhēnxīn yàojué 眞心要決
The Essential Determination on the True Mind by 良遍 (撰)
About the work
A three-fascicle doctrinal-meditation manual by Ryōhen 良遍 (1194–1252), constituting the central panel of his Hossō trilogy (alongside KR6t0008 Guānxīn juémèng chāo and KR6t0010 Èrjuàn chāo). Where the Guānxīn juémèng chāo is organised topic-by-topic, the Zhēnxīn yàojué is organised around the unifying central category of the two-by-three doctrine — the three natures (sānxìng 三性) seen alongside the three non-natures (sān wúxìng 三無性) — and proceeds to derive the entire Yogācāra apparatus from this single integrated category. The author’s opening declaration — “the Middle-Way Mahāyāna’s doctrinal mode is rounded and complete; from the Ganges-sands of doctrines and the dust-numbered practical fruits, there is no single dharma that is not contained within it” — captures the work’s totalising ambition.
Abstract
Authorship and dating: The work is the only one of Ryōhen’s three Yogācāra summae that carries an explicit attribution to him in its preface, and the doctrinal vocabulary, citational density, and Chéng wéishí lùn apparatus match his other two works exactly. Ryōhen (DILA A000541; Wikidata Q11614433) was born 1194 and died 1252. notBefore = 1230, notAfter = 1252.
Doctrinal content: the work is structured around the explication of the sānxìng / sān wúxìng (three natures / three non-natures) pair as the master-category of Yogācāra. Ryōhen presents the doctrine as “two but not two, one but not one”: the biànjì suǒzhí xìng 遍計所執性 (imagined-and-grasped nature) is “entirely non-existent yet appears as if existent” — hence its xìng (nature, = first-nature) and its wúxìng (non-nature) are both posited; the yītā qǐ xìng 依他起性 (dependent-arising nature) is “essentially non-existent yet conventionally existent” — hence its xìng (second-nature) and its wúxìng (second non-nature); the yuánchéng shí xìng 圓成實性 (consummate-nature) is “without characteristics yet truly real” — hence its xìng (third-nature) and its wúxìng (third non-nature). This is the standard Cí’ēn Yogācāra apparatus, but Ryōhen integrates it with the kong doctrine in an unusually compact and pedagogically clear formulation.
The closing post-script of the text contains an obscure reference to a teacher who “spent six years in Tang, learned the unity of mind, gathered inner and outer learning, traversed Greater and Lesser Vehicle… the master’s master is now the imperial preceptor, the abiding-mountain elder, peerless among the [Línjì] Rinzai masters.” This reference is to a Chinese Rinzai Chan master in the Southern Song — most plausibly Lánxī Dàolóng 蘭溪道隆 (1213–1278, who arrived in Japan 1246) — and suggests that Ryōhen, despite his Hossō affiliation, had absorbed Rinzai influences. The post-script’s mention of “Tang” rather than “Sung” reflects the standard medieval Japanese archaism. The author ends with self-deprecation: “I, having only words and no substance, am one ashamed and grieving; sick in body, unable to maintain meditation posture; … I am no fit vessel for the Way. May I take this karmic occasion as a seed for the next life.”
The work is the most contemplative of Ryōhen’s three Hossō summae and the closest to a guānxīn (mind-contemplation) practice manual. It is thematically continuous with Jōkei’s KR6t0007 Xīnyào chāo and represents the continuation of the Kamakura contemplative-Yogācāra current first set out by Jōkei.
Translations and research
- No complete Western-language translation located.
- Yūki Reimon 結城令聞, Yuishikigaku tenseki-shi 唯識学典籍志 — standard reference.
- Mochizuki, Bukkyō daijiten, s.v. Ryōhen 良遍 and Shinjin yōketsu 眞心要決.
Other points of interest
The closing post-script — with its reference to a Chinese Rinzai master — is one of the few medieval Japanese Hossō texts to record explicit awareness of, and indirect contact with, the early Japanese Rinzai-Sung Chan transmission. This makes Zhēnxīn yàojué a unique witness to the Yogācāra-Chan rapprochement that the Kamakura Buddhist landscape made possible.