Zhūjiā jiàoxiàng tóngyì jí 諸家教相同異集
Collection of the Concords and Discords of the Doctrinal-Classification Schemes of the Various Schools (alternate title: 甘露集 Gānlù jí, “Nectar Collection”) by 圓珍 (撰)
About the work
A single-fascicle comparative survey of doctrinal-classification (jiào-xiàng pàn-shì 教相判釋) schemes of ten major Chinese Buddhist schools, compiled by Enchin 圓珍 (Chishō Daishi, 814–891) of the Tendai Jimon 寺門 lineage. The work surveys, in compact form, the major doctrinal-classification systems of Indian-Chinese Buddhism: Jízàng (Sānlùn), Huìyuǎn (Jìngyǐng), Zhìyǐ (Tiantai), Fǎzàng (Huayan), Kuījī (Faxiang/Cien), and others, with a comparative analytical framework that orders them by their treatment of the Lotus. The text bears the alternate title Gān-lù jí 甘露集 (“Nectar Collection”) — the doctrinal amṛta gathered from the diverse traditions — and is also known as the Zhū-jiā jiào-xiàng tóng-yì lüè-jí (with 略, “abridged”), reflecting its character as a survey of “10 of 25 schools” of jiào-xiàng.
Abstract
Authorship. The head-line is unambiguous: “Compiled by the Chishō Daishi 智證大師” — i.e. Enchin, by his posthumous title.
Date. No internal date. The work’s full grasp of Enchin’s mature doctrinal framework places it after his return from Tang (858) and most plausibly during his abbacy at Onjō-ji (after 868). The bracket notBefore = 858, notAfter = 891 (Enchin’s death) is conservative.
The work opens with a programmatic statement on the function of doctrinal-classification: “The doctrinal-classification — this is the great gate by which one exits the burning house, the marvellous craft by which one opens the secret treasury. ‘Teaching’ is the speech of the sages received by us below; ‘classification’ has the meaning of discrimination. Principles have their reds and purples [their differentiated colours]; the teachings can express them. Things have their black and white; the teachings can transform them. In the merit of expression-and-discrimination, nothing surpasses the doctrinal-classification.”
Enchin then states the methodology: there exist 25 distinct schemes of doctrinal-classification; the present work treats 10 selected schemes as paradigmatic. The selected ten are:
(1) Jízàng 吉藏 of the Suí-era Jiā-xiáng Temple (Sānlùn school): his three Dharma-wheels — root (Avataṃsaka), branch (Āgama), and gathering-the-branches-back-to-root (Lotus) — and the two treasuries (śrāvaka and bodhisattva); detailed in his Fǎ-huá xuán-lùn.
(2) Huìyuǎn 慧遠 of the Jìngyǐngsì (Suí-era Dílùn school): the four schools and five teachings arrangement.
(3) Zhìyǐ 智顗 of Tiantai: the eight teachings (four “transformation methods” + four “transformation doctrines”), the five flavors, and the three teaching-method-categories.
(4) Fǎzàng 法藏 of Huayan: the five teachings — Hīnayāna, Initial-Mahāyāna, Final-Mahāyāna, Sudden, Round — and the ten schools.
(5) Kuījī 窺基 of Cí-ēn/Faxiang: the three and eight doctrinal-classifications drawn from the Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra’s three dharma-cakra model.
The remaining five include schemes drawn from Jingxī Zhànrán, the Mahāyāna-saṃgraha, and earlier Chinese masters. After surveying all ten, Enchin proceeds to a comparative analysis (研詳), exposing the doctrinal kinship and divergence among the schemes and arguing — characteristically for the Jimon lineage — for the Tendai four-teachings-five-flavors classification as the most adequate by virtue of its definitive treatment of the Lotus as the synthesis-text.
The text closes with a citation from the Yīpíng tiāntái jí 依憑天台集 (a Tendai-tradition catena cited frequently by Enchin) on the question of whether Nányuè Huìsī and Zhìyǐ were “personally present at Vulture Peak” hearing the Lotus’s revelation directly. Enchin affirms the tradition with a citation: “True so. This matter is fully shown in the Yīpíng tiāntái jí.*”
The work is one of the principal Japanese contributions to the comparative-jiao-xiang literature and remained influential through the Kamakura period.
Translations and research
- No complete Western-language translation located.
- Misaki Ryōshū 三崎良周, Taimitsu no kenkyū 台密の研究 (Tokyo: Sōbunsha, 1988), for Enchin’s mature doctrinal framework.
- Atone Jōshō 阿純章, Chishō daishi Enchin no kenkyū 智證大師圓珍の研究 (Hōzōkan, 1990).
- Kūkai’s Hizō hōyaku (829, in KR6q0049), for the parallel Shingon contribution to doctrinal-classification theorization in the same era.
Other points of interest
The work’s alternate title 甘露集 (Kanrō-shū, “Nectar Collection”) is a doctrinal allegory of the genre itself: each school’s jiào-xiàng is a single drop of doctrinal nectar; the collected ten are the amṛta-pātra (gathered nectar vessel) the practitioner uses to taste the full sapor of the Mahāyāna.