Huāyánzōng zhǒngxìng yì chāo 華嚴宗種性義抄
Kegon-School Compendium on the Doctrine of Gotra (Seed-Natures) by 親圓 (抄)
About the work
A single-fascicle Kegon-school doctrinal compendium on the zhǒng-xìng 種性 doctrine (gotra — the inherent seed-nature determining the soteriological capacity of beings), abridged and commented by Shin’en 親圓 at Tōdaiji on the seventh day of the second month of Kannin 3 = 1019 CE. The work treats the doctrine through the five-fold Kegon teaching-classification (wǔ jiào 五教), enumerating the distinct zhǒng-xìng positions of the five teachings: (1) Lesser Vehicle (xiǎo-shèng 小乘) — six gotras; (2) Beginning Mahāyāna (shǐ jiào 始教) — two gotras and five gotras; (3) Final Mahāyāna (zhōng jiào 終教) — the single zhēn-rú xìng 眞如性 (Suchness-nature); (4) Sudden Teaching (dùn jiào 頓教) — wéi-lǐ xìng 唯理性 (purely principial-nature); (5) Complete Teaching (yuán jiào 圓教 = Avataṃsaka itself) — yī-yīn yī-guǒ rú-rú xìng 一因一果如如性 (one-cause-one-fruit-suchness-nature).
Abstract
Authorship and dating: The colophon is unambiguously dated: “Kannin 3 (1019), 2nd month, 7th day, at the North Hall, West Second Subordinate-Officials Room of Tōdaiji, the Kegon-school monk Shaku Shin’en has, by reference to the explanations of several earlier masters and by collation against many chapters and commentaries, drawn out the essential meanings.” A second colophon records the next copy: “Kanji 4 (= 1090), 7th month, 25th day, at Takano Nyohō-bō, copied and finished by śramaṇa Jōgen 定源. The same year 8th month 17th day, the recopy was finished and the punctuation moved.”
Shin’en 親圓 (DILA A001823) is documented in the canon only through this single attribution. The dated colophon places him at Tōdaiji in 1019. notBefore = 1019, notAfter = 1019 is exact. The early-11th-century Tōdaiji Kegon school is otherwise known from Shōshō 聖詮’s biographical tradition and from Tōdaiji document-archives; Shin’en is the only one of its monks with a dated canonical work.
Doctrinal content: the work is a model Kegon-school doctrinal classification of the gotra doctrine, applying Fa-zang’s KR6a0011 Wǔ jiào zhāng 華嚴五教章 classification to the question of the inherent capacities of sentient beings. The treatment of the Lesser Vehicle’s six gotras — tuì fǎ zhǒng-xìng 退法 (regressive), sī fǎ 思法 (deliberative), hù fǎ 護法 (protective), zhù fǎ 住法 (abiding), kān fǎ 堪法 (capable, presumably), and bù-dòng fǎ (unwavering, the arhat-fruit) — follows the Abhidharma-kośa tradition. The treatment of the Beginning Mahāyāna’s two and five gotras integrates the Yogācāra doctrine of the wǔ-xìng gè-bié 五性各別 (the five distinct types, the controversial Hossō position) — citing Vasubandhu’s Cí’ēn tradition. The closing fascicle treats the Kumārajīva 鳩摩羅什 transmission as the founding moment of Chinese Mahāyāna gotra discourse, citing the Lotus’s “all sentient beings shall attain buddhahood” formula as the basis for the Avataṃsaka-Lotus yuán tradition’s rejection of the wǔ-xìng gè-bié.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language secondary literature located.
- Mochizuki, Bukkyō daijiten, s.v. Shin’en 親圓 and Kegon-shū shushō gi shō 華嚴宗種性義抄.
Other points of interest
The work is one of the few early-11th-century Japanese Kegon texts preserved in the Taishō canon, and its precisely-dated Tōdaiji provenance makes it a key witness to the institutional state of the school at the height of the Fujiwara regency under Michinaga. The text demonstrates a sustained Kegon-school polemic against Hossō Yogācāra’s wǔxìng gèbié doctrine — the most contested doctrinal issue between the two Nara schools.