Púsà jièběn zōngyào záwén jí 菩薩戒本宗要雜文集
Miscellaneous Essential Texts on the Bodhisattva-Precept Manual by 覺盛 (草)
About the work
A single-fascicle miscellaneous corpus on the Bodhisattva precepts, drafted by Kakujō 覺盛 (1194–1249) — the founder of the Tōshōdai-ji line of the Kamakura Vinaya revival — at the age of 36 on the 21st day of the 12th month of Antei 2 = 1228 CE. The title’s zōng-yào (essential outlines) refers to the Bodhisattva-precept Manual (菩薩戒本) of the Yogācāra-bhūmi, and the work is structured as a sequence of citations and commentaries on contested points of the Yogācāra bodhisattva-precept doctrine — drawing from Kuījī’s Yīn-míng shùjì, the Liǎo-yì dēng of Huìzhāo, the Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra, and the Bodhisattva-bhūmi itself.
Abstract
Authorship and dating: The terminal colophon is precise: “Draft says: Antei 2 (= 1228), wùzǐ, 12th month, 21st day, hour of the sheep (i.e. ca. 2 PM), composed for the elevation of Dharma and the benefit of beings. Kakujō, born age 36.” A subsequent copying note: “Also says: Kōchō 2 (= 1262), rénxū, 12th month, 21st day, copied. With single-mindedness, I take and hold the three-aggregate precepts; I have accomplished the cause of the four-fold great vow; and as for the karmic occasion of meeting the late master’s spirit, I have followed it through with serving him. Amanuensis Ninshō 忍證, age 25.”
Kakujō (1194–1249; DILA A001948) was a native of Hattori-gō 服部郷 in Yamato (the Nara region) who entered Kōfuku-ji at the age of eight. In Ninji 1 = 1240 he conferred the Bodhisattva precepts on the Shijō Emperor; in Kangen 1 = 1243 he was imperially commanded to take up residence at Tōshōdai-ji, where he lectured on the Vinaya School’s three great manuals and devoted himself to the temple’s revival — earning him the epithet “Jianzhen reborn” (鑑真再生). He is one of the four founders of the Kamakura Vinaya revival, alongside Eison 叡尊, Ninshō 忍性, and Eishun 慧珍.
The 1228 composition predates Kakujō’s celebrated self-vow ordination (jisei jukai 自誓受戒) at Tōshōdai-ji in 1236; the present work is therefore an early-career exposition of the doctrinal foundation that would later anchor that institutional reform. The recipient of the work is unclear from the surviving text. notBefore = 1228, notAfter = 1228 is exact.
Doctrinal content: the work is structured as a sequence of citations on key passages from the Bodhisattva-precept Manual of the Yogācāra-bhūmi. The opening sequence treats the doctrinal point “after a thousand years, the two schools first arose” (千歳之後二宗肇興) — referring to the Mahāyāna / Hīnayāna division of the period after the Buddha’s parinirvāṇa. Kakujō cites the 唯識本疏 (Kuījī’s Chéng wéishí lùn shùjì) on the chronology of the great Indian Yogācāra masters: “The Abhidharma-kośa preface says: 1100 years after the Buddha’s passing, the bodhisattva Vasubandhu was born and composed the śāstra. …Within the 900-year period of the Mahāyāna, Vasubandhu emerged and composed the root verses. Contemporaneous were Parīkṣaka and Sphuṭārtha-sthavira, two great commentary-masters who composed exegeses on these verses. 1100 years after, the remaining eight great commentary-masters composed their exegeses.”
The subsequent citation from the Yìdēng 義燈 (Huìzhāo’s Liǎo-yì dēng) refines the chronology: “1100 years after, the bodhisattva Dharmapāla 護法菩薩 first emerged and composed this exegesis and the Guǎng bǎi-lùn shì 廣百論釋. The bodhisattva Bhāviveka 清辨菩薩 also at the same time emerged and composed the Zhǎng-zhēn lùn 掌珍論. At this time the Mahāyāna first developed the dispute of emptiness-versus-existence.” The work proceeds through a sequence of similar citations, ending with the Yogācāra-bhūmi’s treatment of unintentional violation — exempting the case of overwhelming mental disturbance, severe physical suffering, or absence of prior ordination — citing fascicle 41 of the Yogācāra-bhūmi-śāstra.
Translations and research
- No complete Western-language translation located.
- Paul Groner, Saichō: The Establishment of the Japanese Tendai School and the modern Japanese Vinaya-school scholarship treat Kakujō’s Tōshōdai-ji reform extensively.
- Mochizuki, Bukkyō daijiten, s.v. Kakujō 覺盛 and Bosatsu kaihon shūyō zōmonshū 菩薩戒本宗要雜文集.
Other points of interest
The work is one of the principal pre-jisei-jukai doctrinal foundations for Kakujō’s later reform; together with his three other surviving Bodhisattva-precept works (KR6t0050, KR6t0051) it constitutes the doctrinal corpus on which the Tōshōdai-ji Vinaya revival was built.