唯識義私記

Wéishí yì sījì 唯識義私記

Private Records on the Doctrine of Consciousness-Only by 眞興 (撰)

About the work

A substantial twelve-fascicle Yogācāra exposition by the late-Heian Kōfuku-ji Hossō scholar Shinkō 真興 (935–1004). The work is structured as a shí mén 十門 (“ten-gate”) exposition of the doctrine of consciousness-only (wéishí 唯識), and is one of the longest medieval Japanese Hossō works preserved in the Taishō canon. Its ten gates are: (1) chūtǐ 出體 (presentation of the essence); (2) biànmíng 辨名 (clarification of name); (3) líhéhuìshì 離合會釋 (separating, combining, integrating, interpreting); (4) héshí wéiguān 何識爲觀 (which consciousness is the object of contemplation); (5) xiǎnlèi chābié 顯類差別 (manifesting the type-distinctions); (6) xiūzhèng wèicì 修證位次 (the stages of cultivation and realisation); (7) guānfǎ héxìng 觀法何性 (the nature of the contemplation-dharmas); (8) zhūdì yīqǐ 諸地依起 (the dependencies of the various stages); (9) duànzhūzhàng rǎn 斷諸障染 (the cutting of the various obscurations); (10) guīshè èrkōng 歸攝二空 (the integration of the two emptinesses). This decennary structure is Shinkō’s own design and represents one of the most systematic treatments of wéishí in early Japanese Buddhist literature.

Abstract

Authorship and dating: The colophon at the head of the work reads “Shì Zhēnxīng zhuàn” 釋眞興撰 — “Shinkō has composed this.” Shinkō (935–1004; DILA A000961) was a Heian-era Hossō monk of Kōfuku-ji whose scholarly output spans Yogācāra and Esoteric ritual exegesis — his other major works being the Vajra-realm ritual commentary KR6j0011 Liánhuá tāizàngjiè yíguǐ jiěshì (T61n2231) and the Vajra-realm sījì KR6j0040 Fànmǎrìluó dūshāng sījì (T61n2232). The composition of Wéishí yì sījì belongs to his mature scholarly career; the bracket notBefore = 970, notAfter = 1004 (his death) is conservative. No more precise date is recoverable.

Doctrinal content: the ten-gate structure organises the entire Yogācāra apparatus — beginning with the ontological question of what consciousness is (gate 1), through the linguistic / nominal question of what the term means (gate 2), to the soteriological questions of what contemplation cuts what obscurations (gates 4–9), ending with the integration into the doctrine of the two emptinesses (gate 10). Shinkō’s exposition is conspicuously synthetic: each gate draws on Kuījī’s KR6n0026 Shùjì, Huìzhāo’s KR6n0030 Liǎoyì dēng, Zhìzhōu’s Yǎnmì chāo, and the Korean Yogācāra of Wǒnch’ǔk and Shùnjǐng — but where Zenju had merely cited these, Shinkō engages them critically and harmonises them according to his own ten-gate framework. The work is therefore the principal late-Heian summa of Japanese Hossō scholarship, occupying the same canonical position relative to Zenju’s KR6t0013 Yìjìng that the Kuījī Shùjì occupies relative to its predecessor Yǎnmìjí tradition.

The CANWWW related-texts list correctly identifies the work as keyed to KR6n0029 Yìlín zhāng (T45N1861-3 = its 3rd section, Wéishí yì lín) and to KR6t0019 Shīzǐhǒu chāo — the standard Cī’ēn → Zenju → Shinkō → Kiben transmission chain.

Translations and research

• No complete Western-language translation located.
• Yūki Reimon 結城令聞, Yuishikigaku tenseki-shi 唯識学典籍志 — discusses the work as the most ambitious late-Heian Japanese Hossō summa.
• Mochizuki, Bukkyō daijiten, s.v. Shinkō 真興 and Yuishikigi shiki 唯識義私記.
• The text is treated in modern Japanese Yogācāra surveys including those of Yokoyama Kōitsu 横山紘一 and Funahashi Naoya 舟橋尚哉.

Other points of interest

The ten-gate organisational structure of Wéishí yì sījì is one of the most influential systematising frameworks in medieval Japanese Hossō scholarship — many subsequent Hossō treatises, including Ryōhen’s KR6t0008 and Kiben’s KR6t0012, are visibly indebted to it. The work also exemplifies the late-Heian HossōMikkyō synthesis that the same Shinkō pursued in his Esoteric works — making it a unique witness to the medieval Japanese tradition of Yogācāra scholars who were simultaneously Esoteric ritual specialists.

Links

• CBETA: T71n2319
• DILA authority: A000961 (眞興)
• Primary commentarial source: KR6t0013 Fǎyuàn yìjìng by 善珠; KR6n0029 Yìlín zhāng by 窺基.
• Companion works by the same author: KR6j0011 Liánhuá tāizàngjiè yíguǐ jiěshì; KR6j0040 Fànmǎrìluó dūshāng sījì.
• Sub-commentary on the same tradition: KR6t0019 Shīzǐhǒu chāo by 基辨.