Dàchéng yīqiè fǎxiāng xuánlùn 大乘一切法相玄論
The Mysterious Treatise on All the Phenomenal Categories of the Mahāyāna by 基辨 (撰)
About the work
A two-fascicle Edo-period Hossō meta-treatise by Kiben 基辨 (1718–1791), the leading Yakushi-ji 藥師寺 systematiser of the late-Tokugawa Hossō revival. Where his much larger Yīnmíng dàshū róngguàn chāo KR6o0011 addresses Hetuvidyā and his Dàchéng fǎyuàn yìlín zhāng shīzǐhǒu chāo KR6t0019 is an exhaustive sub-commentary on Kuījī’s KR6n0028 Yìlín zhāng, the Dàchéng yīqiè fǎxiāng xuánlùn is Kiben’s own first-person, programmatic essay on the philosophical structure of Yogācāra as a whole — the closest thing in the Edo Hossō canon to a personal philosophical manifesto.
Abstract
Authorship and dating: The opening preface — first-person and explicitly autobiographical — opens: “When I was young, I heard the Yuishikiron sho lectured at Heian[-jō, = Kyōto]. In my heart I already savoured it. But returning home, I worried that, although the lectures treated ‘consciousness-only’, they were not really ‘consciousness-only’.” Kiben then describes how, having taken up residence in the Southern Capital (Nara), he consulted the Akishino-dera 秋篠 (= Zenju’s Fǎyuàn yìjìng KR6t0013 tradition), the Kasagi yōketsu 笠置要決 (= Jōkei’s Xīnyào chāo KR6t0007 tradition), and the Shō-gan yō-roku 勝願要録 — and only by integrating all three did he begin to “set his foot upon the Middle Way.” The first-person preface frames the work as the philosophical synthesis of this lifetime of study.
Kiben (1718–1791; DILA A001020) was a śramaṇa of Yakushi-ji 藥師寺 at the Western Capital (Saikyō, 西京) of Nara, holder of the formula “南都西京藥師寺留學傳法相大乘宗沙門” — “student-instructor of the Hossō-Mahāyāna school.” His mature work as a Hossō philosopher places the present treatise plausibly in the second half of the 18th century: notBefore = 1750, notAfter = 1791 (his death).
Doctrinal content: the work is structurally a “xuánlùn” — a mysterious-treatise, i.e. a high-level meta-doctrinal essay — modelled on Jízàng’s Sānlùn xuánlùn 三論玄論 and Dàchéng xuánlùn 大乘玄論. Where those Mādhyamika works are organised by ontological topic, Kiben’s Yogācāra xuánlùn is organised around the identification of a YogācāraMādhyamika synthesis. The author’s stated aim is to “indicate the Middle Way teaching’s correct path” through the Yogācāra apparatus, drawing on the standard Cí’ēn commentaries (Shùjì KR6n0026, Shùyào KR6n0028, Liǎoyì dēng KR6n0030) but reading them against the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā and Jízàng’s xuányì corpus to demonstrate the deeper unity of the two schools. The work is thus a programmatic counterpart to the Edo-period Sanron-Hossō rapprochement texts like Monshō’s KR6t0011 Lüèshù fǎxiāng yì and KR6m0030 Sānlùn xuányì yòuméng.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language secondary literature located.
- Yūki Reimon 結城令聞, Yuishikigaku tenseki-shi 唯識学典籍志 — discusses Kiben’s contribution to the Edo Hossō tradition.
- Mochizuki, Bukkyō daijiten, s.v. Kiben 基辨 and Daijō issai hossō genron 大乘一切法相玄論.
Other points of interest
The text is a unique witness to the late-Tokugawa Hossō philosophical revival centred on Yakushi-ji at the Western Capital of Nara, and to the HossōMādhyamika synthesis that the late Edo Buddhist establishment was attempting. As Kiben’s personal philosophical manifesto, it is also the most autobiographical Hossō text in the Taishō canon — its preface is a rare first-person account of how a Tokugawa scholar-monk found his way through the competing Hossō sub-traditions.