Huāyán wǔjiào zhāng míngmù 華嚴五教章名目
Names and Categories of Fa-zang’s Avataṃsaka Five-Teachings Treatise by 喜海 (撰)
About the work
A three-fascicle scholastic reference manual on the doctrinal categories established in Fa-zang’s Wǔ jiào zhāng 華嚴五教章 KR6a0011, compiled by Kikai 喜海 (also Girinbō 義林房, 1178–1250), the principal disciple of Myōe Kōben (高辨) at Kōzan-ji 高山寺. The work is organised as a ten-gate (shí mén 十門) systematic enumeration of the doctrinal categories of Fa-zang’s treatise: (1) jiànlì chéng 建立乘 (establishment of the vehicles); (2) jiàoyì shèyì 教義攝益 (the inclusion-and-benefit of teaching and meaning); (3) xù gǔ jīn lì jiào 叙古今立教 (recounting the past and present establishment of teachings); (4) fēn jiào kāi zōng 分教開宗 (dividing the teaching and opening the school); (5) chéng jiào kāi hé 乘教開合 (the opening and combining of vehicles and teachings); (6) jiào qǐ qián hòu 教起前後 (the prior-and-after of the teaching’s arising); (7) juézé qí yì 決擇其意 (the decisive selection of its meaning); (8) shīshè yìxiāng 施設異相 (the manifestation of distinct characteristics) — these together comprising the upper volume; (9) yìlǐ fēnjì 義理分齊 (the proportions of doctrinal principle) — the middle volume; (10) suǒquán chābié 所詮差別 (the distinctions of what is conveyed) — the lower volume.
Abstract
Authorship and dating: The catalog meta gives Kikai 喜海 as the author. A copying colophon in the Taishō text dates the manuscript transmission to “Shōō 5 (= 1292), 6th month 12th day, copied at the Bodaiin 菩提院 South Hall by Senpen 宣遍” — implying that the work was completed sometime before this 1292 transcription. Kikai (1178–1250; DILA A001182; Wikidata Q11419213) was the principal disciple and biographer of Myōe at Kōzan-ji, the central Kegon-revival monastery of Kamakura Japan. His other surviving works are the Avataṃsaka phonetic-glossary commentaries KR6e0014 Xīnyì Huáyán jīng yīnyì (compiled 1227) and KR6e0042 Zhēnyuán Huáyán jīng yīnyì. The Wǔ jiào zhāng míng-mù falls within his mature scholarly career: notBefore = 1200, notAfter = 1250 (his death).
Doctrinal content: the work is organised topic-by-topic following Fa-zang’s structure. Gate 1 jiànlì chéng opens with the standard Kegon doctrine of “one-vehicle teaching-meaning, opened into two gates: (a) the special teaching (bié jiào 別教) — different from the three vehicles; (b) the common teaching (tóng jiào 同教) — identical with the three vehicles and others.” Within the bié jiào there are further two gates: “(i) the nature-ocean fruit-portion (xìnghǎi guǒfēn 性海果分), which is the meaning of the ineffable, i.e. the ten-buddha’s own realm; (ii) the dependent-arising cause-portion (yuánqǐ yīnfēn 緣起因分), which is the speakable portion, i.e. the realm of Samantabhadra.” The Samantabhadra-gate then opens into two further gates: fēnxiāng mén 分相門 (gate of divided characteristics) and gāishè mén 該攝門 (gate of comprehensive inclusion). This recursive bifurcation-structure is the Kegon-school’s distinctive doctrinal-cataloguing apparatus — and Kikai’s work is its most compact medieval Japanese codification.
The CANWWW related-texts apparatus correctly identifies the work as keyed to KR6a0011 Wǔ jiào zhāng (T45N1866) and to KR6t0035 Wǔjiào zhāng tōnglù jì by 凝然 — confirming the canonical placement of the work as part of the Tōdaiji-Kōzan-ji Wǔjiào zhāng commentarial apparatus.
Translations and research
- No complete Western-language translation located.
- Mochizuki, Bukkyō daijiten, s.v. Kikai 喜海 and Kegon gokyōshō myōmoku 華嚴五教章名目.
- The work is treated in modern Japanese Kōzan-ji studies and in the Myōe-Kikai biographical literature.
Other points of interest
Kikai’s status as Myōe’s principal Kōzan-ji disciple (the compiler of the Myōeshōnin gyōjō and a Huayan philologist) makes this Kegon doctrinal-catalogue manual a unique witness to the doctrinal curriculum at Kōzan-ji in the second generation after Myōe’s death. The work would have served as the standard introductory survey for new students at the monastery.
Links
- CBETA: T72n2338
- DILA authority: A001182 (喜海)
- Wikidata: Q11419213
- Primary commentarial target: KR6a0011 Wǔ jiào zhāng 華嚴五教章 by 法藏.
- Companion works by the same author: KR6e0014 Xīnyì Huáyán jīng yīnyì; KR6e0042 Zhēnyuán Huáyán jīng yīnyì.
- Companion Wǔjiào zhāng sub-commentaries: KR6t0033 (Juryō); KR6t0035 (Gyōnen); KR6t0036 (Shinjō).