Jièlǜ chuánlái jì 戒律傳來記
Records of the Transmission of the Vinaya by 豐安 (奉勅撰)
About the work
An imperially-commissioned Vinaya transmission history by Bun’an 豐安 (also Fuan / Hōan, c. 764–840), patriarch of the Japanese Ritsu 律 (Vinaya) school of his generation and Dharma-grandson of Jianzhen 鑑真 (Ganjin, 688–763) — the Tang Vinaya master who established the Vinaya school in Japan in the mid-8th century. The work was originally composed in three fascicles in Tenchō 7 = 830 as part of the imperial commission requiring the major schools to submit their shū-yō 宗要 (school essentials); only the upper fascicle survives, the middle and lower having been lost. The work signs the author as “Śramaṇa Daisōzu, Light-of-Transmission Daihōshi rank, Bun’an, by imperial commission composed” (沙門小僧都傳燈大法師位豐安奉勅撰).
Abstract
Authorship and dating: The 1904 (Meiji 37) colophon by Chikai 智海, Vinaya-elevating śramaṇa of the Ōryōbō sub-temple at Tōshōdai-ji 唐招提寺, makes the work’s history explicit: “This record was made by the Dharma-grandson of the Ocean-Crossing Master [= Jianzhen], Daitoku Bun’an, in Tenchō 7 (= 830) by imperial commission. At this time the schools were commanded each to submit their school’s essentials: the Hossō [school’s] Gomyō composed the Yán-shén zhāng in five fascicles (KR6t0005); the Sanron [school’s] Gen’ei 玄叡 prepared the Dà yì chāo in four fascicles; the Tendai [school’s] Gi’shin 義眞 made the Zōng-yì jí in one fascicle; the Kegon [school’s] Fuki 普機 produced the Yī-chéng kāi-xīn lùn in six fascicles (KR6t0022); the Shingon [school’s] Kūkai 空海 composed the Shí-zhù xīn lùn in ten fascicles together with the Mì-zàng bǎo-yuè in three fascicles; the Ritsu school then composed the present record. Each was respectfully presented.”
The 1904 colophon continues: “I sought after this book for a long while. By chance I obtained it at Gojō Town in Uchi District [Nara]. My delight was beyond comparison. The original was in three fascicles, but what now exists is only the upper fascicle, in a single copy. Deeply regrettable. Even so, this fascicle clearly records the main school’s transmission, the establishment of the ordination platform at the home temple, and the regulations for monastic and nun ordination — it is supreme treasure-classic; cannot but be esteemed. This year I have repaired it and presented it to the Tōshōdai-ji Treasure-Repository, with the prayer that it remain in latter ages as a turtle-and-mirror for the propagation of the Vinaya.”
Bun’an (DILA A001888; Wikidata Q11633382) was the Tōshōdai-ji Vinaya patriarch of the early 9th century — Dharma-grandson of Jianzhen and one of the principal figures in the early Heian Ritsu-school establishment. The composition is precisely dated to 830 and forms the Tenchō imperial commission set alongside KR6t0005 (Gomyō, Hossō) and KR6t0022 (Fuki, Kegon).
Doctrinal content (of the surviving upper fascicle): the text opens with a sweeping philosophical preface — the true principle is wordless, but it is by words that the unspoken doctrine is illumined; the dharmakāya is formless, but it is by forms that the formless body is recognised. Bun’an then frames the vinaya as the crossing-vessel (qīngzhōu 輕舟) of the sea of suffering, the ultimate vehicle (jué chéng 絶乘) to the other shore. The surviving fascicle treats the principal Vinaya transmission line — the Tang patriarchs through Jianzhen to his Japanese disciples — and the establishment of the Tōdaiji Kaidan-in 戒檀院 (ordination platform) and Tōshōdai-ji in Nara.
Translations and research
- Anna Andreeva, Assembling Shintō: Buddhist Approaches to Kami Worship in Medieval Japan (Harvard, 2017) — discusses the early Heian Ritsu school in context.
- John R. McRae and the standard Japanese kōsho literature treat Bun’an as the foundational Heian Vinaya-school patriarch.
- Mochizuki, Bukkyō daijiten, s.v. Bun’an 豐安 and Kairitsu denrai-ki 戒律傳來記.
Other points of interest
The work’s fragmentary survival — one fascicle out of an original three — combined with its rediscovery in 1904 by Chikai at Gojō and its return to Tōshōdai-ji confirms its status as one of the most narrowly-rescued texts in the entire Japanese Buddhist canon. The text is the principal medieval Japanese Vinaya-school history and the foundational document for understanding the early-Heian establishment of the Ritsu school under Jianzhen’s transmission line.