Zhēnàyè ànlì cǎo 遮那業案立草
Vairocana-Discipline Draft of the Established Positions by 仁空 (撰)
About the work
A thirteen-fascicle doctrinal disputation-record of the medieval Tendai-esoteric (Taimitsu 台密) curriculum, composed by Ninkū 仁空 (1309–1388) of the Kurodani 黑谷 / Daijō-ji 大乘寺 lineage. The work documents a major public doctrinal-disputation held in Ōan 2 (應安二, 1369) under Ninkū’s chairmanship, on the principal doctrinal questions of the Tendai-esoteric (“Vairocana-discipline” — Shana-gō 遮那業) tradition.
Abstract
Authorship. The opening line is explicit: “Ōan 2 [1369] eighth month, the Hō’on-e [response-to-grace assembly] lecturer: Shinri 眞理. First questioner: Shōshō 正照. Second questioner: Sōzen 僧全. Third questioner: Dōchin 道珍.” Ninkū’s role as compiler of the disputation record is established by the catalog meta and by the work’s kuden-doctrinal idiom, which matches Ninkū’s other works.
Date. Documenting an event on 1369-8 (Ōan 2 = 1369 in the Northern Court reckoning) — placing the composition at or shortly after that date. This is one of the few medieval Tendai-esoteric works that can be dated to the year.
Content. The disputation proceeds question-by-question through the Yìshì 義釋 (Yixing’s Mahāvairocanasūtra commentary), beginning from the first scroll. The opening question:
“Question. The teaching of the mantra school: in the inner-realization realm of the Tathāgata, should the Three Mysteries be discussed as procedural-ritual matters?”
“Answer. Though the dark and profound is hard to fathom, in accordance with the lineage-master’s intent we may say…”
The work proceeds through the entire first volume of the Yìshì, treating in detail the central doctrinal questions of Tendai-esoteric kenmitsu harmonization, the Three Mysteries (sanmitsu 三密), the relationship between the Mahāvairocanasūtra li 理 (principle) and shi 事 (procedure) sides, and the sokushinjōbutsu doctrine.
Significance. As an Ōan-era (1368–1375) public-debate record, the Shana-gō an-ritsu sō is a precious documentary witness for the active doctrinal-disputational life of medieval Hiei-zan in the Nanboku-chō period. It is a key supplementary source to Ninkū’s better-known precept-discipline work (KR6t0080 Xīnxué púsà xíngyào chāo) and shows him in his role as a doctrinal-curricular authority on the Vairocana-discipline side of the Tendai kenmitsu program — not only the precept-revival side for which he is more conventionally remembered.
Translations and research
- No Western-language translation located.
- Misaki Ryōshū 三崎良周, Taimitsu no kenkyū (Sōbunsha, 1988).
- Asai Endō 浅井圓道, Jōko Nihon Tendai honmon shisō shi 上古日本天台本門思想史 (Heirakuji, 1976) — discusses 14th-century Tendai doctrinal disputation tradition.
Links
- CBETA: T77n2416
- Author’s precept-discipline work: KR6t0080 Xīnxué púsà xíngyào chāo.