Zōngyào Bǎiyuán ànlì 宗要柏原案立
Doctrinal Essentials in the Kashiwabara Lineage’s Established Positions by 貞舜 (撰)
About the work
A six-fascicle systematic compendium of disputed doctrinal points (ànlì 案立, “established positions”) of the Japanese Tendai school, compiled by Teishun 貞舜 (also read Jōshun, c. 1334–1422) within the Kashiwabara 柏原 (Kashiwabara) lineage of Hiei-zan Sammon-school Tendai. The work is structured as a series of numbered doctrinal disputes (“ànlì” — established positions in scholastic debate), organized by topic: the Buddha-Body, the trikāya, the Lotus’s “revelation-of-the-prior” (顯本), the yuánjiào doctrines, and the esoteric-exoteric synthesis.
Abstract
Authorship. The catalog meta identifies the author as 貞舜 (Teishun); CANWWW gives the alternate orthography 禎舜 with the furigana ていしゅん — these refer to the same Tendai master.
Date. The first fascicle bears a colophon dated Shōhō 2, intercalary 5th month, propitious day = July 1645 CE — but this is the Edo-period recutting date, not the composition date. The work is the doctrinal anthology of the Kashiwabara lineage of Hiei-zan Tendai, compiled by Teishun in the late 14th to early 15th century. notBefore = 1350, notAfter = 1422 is conservative.
The first fascicle is the Buddha-section (佛部), opening with the disputed question: “Two Buddhas appearing together” (二佛並出): “Question. In the Great and Small Vehicles, is it permissible that within one world two Buddhas appear together? Answer: Not permissible — this is the answer to give.” The text then unfolds the opponent’s argument: that the Avataṃsaka describes within a single dust-particle dust-numbers of Buddhas each abiding in their own bodhisattva-assemblies; that the Lotus’s Treasure-Stūpa chapter shows Śākyamuni and Prabhūta-ratna (“Many-Treasures”) seated together in the same stūpa; that the Mahāvairocana-sūtra’s Vairocana and Śākyamuni are two Buddhas in one world. The text then unfolds the canonical Tendai response: the Mahāprajñā-pāramitā-śāstra’s “In one world there are not two Buddhas appearing together” rule applies to the historical-manifestation Buddha — the nirmāṇa-kāya — but does not preclude the simultaneous abiding of the sambhoga-kāya and dharma-kāya; the Prabhūta-ratna stūpa is a past-Buddha phenomenon, not a coterminous historical figure.
The remaining headings of fascicle 1 cover: (2) the prior-and-subsequent self-reception (前後自受) — the temporal order of the svasaṃbhoga-kāya’s self-reception of the dharma; (3) the eight aspects of the response-body (應身八相); (4) the self-reception wisdom (自受用智); (5) the triple-body dharma-realm (三身法界); (6) the Tongjiao Teaching-Lord (通教教主) — the Buddha-presented in the Common Teaching of the four-teachings classification; (7) the Two-Holy-Ones’ initial aspiration (二聖發心) — the temporal priority of Mahāsthāmaprāpta and Avalokiteśvara; (8) the appearance-in-the-world of three Buddhas (三佛出世); (9) the self-reception’s place of abiding (自受所居); (10) the Hieizan Śākya (葉上釋迦) — the Hiei-zan tradition’s identification of Śākyamuni with the Sannō Jūzenji deity; (11) the fresh-completion of the manifest-original (新成顯本) — the Lotus’s revelation that the Buddha attained Buddhahood in the inconceivable past.
The full six fascicles unfold further such disputes across the trikāya, bodhisattva-stages, kuden tradition, taimitsu esoteric doctrine, and the yuánmì synthesis. The work is one of the most comprehensive scholastic-debate compendia of the medieval Tendai tradition and gives unusually detailed access to the Kashiwabara lineage’s doctrinal positions.
The work was extensively used in Edo-period Tendai scholastic training and was re-cut in 1645 by the Tendai authority of the day for school use.
Translations and research
- No complete Western-language translation located.
- Hazama Jikō 硲慈弘, Nihon bukkyō no tenkai to sono kichō (Sanseidō, 1948), discusses the medieval Tendai àn-lì tradition.
- Tamura Yoshirō 田村芳朗, Hongaku shisō no kenkyū 本覺思想の研究 (Tokyo: Daitō shuppansha, 1965).
- Asai Endō 淺井圓道, Jōko Nihon Tendai honmon shisō shi 上古日本天台本門思想史 (Heirakuji shoten, 1973).
Other points of interest
The work is the canonical text of the Kashiwabara lineage of Hiei-zan Tendai — one of the principal Hiei-zan branches of the Sammon school, alongside the Sugiu, Mudō-ji, and others. The 11-heading scheme of the Buddha-section represents the maturest medieval-Tendai catechesis on the Buddha-body question; the integration of the Sannō Jūzenji = Hiei-zan Śākya identification in heading 10 documents the full medieval Tendai honji-suijaku synthesis on this point.