法苑義鏡

Fǎyuàn yìjìng 法苑義鏡

Doctrinal Mirror of the Dharma-Grove by 善珠 (述)

About the work

A six-fascicle Yogācāra sub-commentary on Kuījī’s 窺基 monumental Dàchéng fǎyuàn yìlín zhāng 大乘法苑義林章 (T1861 = KR6n0029), composed by Zenju 善珠 (724–797), the late-Nara / early-Heian patriarch of Japanese Hossō 法相. Fǎyuàn yìjìng — “the Mirror of the Doctrinal Grove’s meaning” — is the principal early-Japanese sub-commentary on Kuījī’s encyclopedic Yogācāra category-treatise, and the first surviving substantial Japanese Hossō work after the school’s institutional consolidation under Genbō 玄昉.

Abstract

Authorship and dating: The colophon at the head of each fascicle reads “Shànzhū shù” 善珠述 (“Zenju has expounded”), confirming Zenju as author. Zenju (724–797; DILA A001337; Wikidata Q11418958) was Sōjō of Akishino-dera 秋篠寺 and the leading Yuima-e 維摩會 lecturer of his generation. The composition of Fǎyuàn yìjìng falls within his mature scholarly life, presumably after his return to Nara from his initial training years; the date bracket notBefore = 770, notAfter = 797 (his death) reflects this. No more precise composition date survives.

Doctrinal content: the work follows the topical structure of Kuījī’s Yì-lín zhāng fascicle by fascicle, beginning with the wǔ-xīn-yì 五心義 (the doctrine of the five mental states of cognition: shuài-ěr 率爾 [sudden encounter], xún-qiú 尋求 [seeking], jué-dìng 決定 [determining], rǎn-jìng 染淨 [polluting/purifying], and děng-liú 等流 [equal-flowing]). Zenju’s treatment of these five mental states is the most authoritative early-Japanese exposition — and is itself the subject of further glosses by Seihan 清範 in KR6t0014 Wǔ-xīn yì lüè-jì. Zenju draws extensively on the Indian and Chinese sources cited by Kuījī — the Yogācārabhūmi, the Vijñaptimātratā-siddhi, the Tang Cí’ēn-school masters Kuījī, Huìzhāo, Zhì-zhōu — and adds to them the Korean Yogācāra tradition including Wǒnch’ǔk 圓測, Wén-guǐ 文軌, and Shùn-jǐng 順憬 (Korean: Sungyŏng), making the work a synthesis of Tang Chinese and Silla Korean Hossō scholarship rather than a derivative restatement.

The work treats numerous additional sections of Kuījī’s Yìlín zhāng: the zōngbié (specific principles) of each Buddhist concept, the zhūjièzhāng (chapters on the realms), the zhūyúnzhāng (chapters on dependent origination), and concludes with extended treatment of the vinaya / ordination procedures (kēfǎ 羯磨 / karman) — a section that demonstrates Zenju’s command of the jīnglǜ 經律 (sūtra-and-vinaya) literature beyond pure Yogācāra.

The work is closely related — by direct authorial connection — to two other works in the present batch: Zenju’s own KR6t0017 Wéishí fēnliàng jué 唯識分量決 (a parallel Yogācāra sub-commentary on the four divisions of consciousness and the inference-doctrine); and Shinkō 真興’s KR6t0015 Wéishí yì sījì 唯識義私記 (which builds on the Zenju tradition). The CANWWW related-texts list correctly links Fǎyuàn yìjìng to its primary source KR6n0029 Yìlín zhāng (T45n1861-11 = its 11th section) and to Kiben 基辨’s late-Edo Yìlín zhāng shīzǐhǒu chāo KR6t0019 — the three-way relationship constituting the principal Sino-Japanese transmission of Kuījī’s Yogācāra encyclopedia.

Translations and research

• Yūki Reimon 結城令聞, Yuishikigaku tenseki-shi 唯識学典籍志 — the standard Japanese reference treats Zenju’s Yì-jìng as the foundational early-Heian sub-commentary on Kuījī’s Yì-lín zhāng.
• No complete Western-language translation located.
• The text is discussed in Mochizuki, Bukkyō daijiten, s.v. Zenju 善珠 and Hōen gikyō 法苑義鏡.
• Hatani Ryōtai 羽溪了諦 and the modern Japanese yuishiki literature.

Other points of interest

Fǎyuàn yìjìng is one of the earliest extant Japanese Buddhist canonical works — earlier than Gomyō’s KR6t0005 Yánshén zhāng — and as such represents the first substantive Japanese contribution to Yogācāra scholarship. The work’s incorporation of Silla Korean Hossō (Wǒnch’ǔk, Shùnjǐng) alongside Tang Chinese (Kuījī, Huìzhāo, Zhìzhōu) is the principal witness to the Korean-Japanese Yogācāra transmission line of the 8th century — a current that the Genbō-Zenju lineage carried forward into Japanese Hossō scholastic identity.

Links

• CBETA: T71n2317
• DILA authority: A001337 (善珠)
• Wikidata: Q11418958
• Primary commentarial target: KR6n0029 Dàchéng fǎyuàn yìlín zhāng by 窺基 (T45n1861).
• Related sub-commentaries: KR6t0014 Wǔxīn yì lüèjì by 清範; KR6t0015 Wéishí yì sījì by 眞興; KR6t0019 Dàchéng fǎyuàn yìlín zhāng shīzǐhǒu chāo by 基辨.
• Author’s companion work: KR6t0017 Wéishí fēnliàng jué.