Zhùxīn juéyí chāo 住心決疑抄
Compendium of Decisions on Doubts Concerning the Stages-of-Mind
(anonymous, medieval Japanese Shingon)
About the work
A single-fascicle anonymous Q&A treatise addressing the principal doctrinal-interpretive doubts arising from study of Kūkai’s Jūjūshin-ron (KR6t0125). The work is part of the rich medieval Shingon scholastic literature on the ten-stage hierarchy.
Abstract
Authorship. Anonymous. The catalog meta and Taishō edition record no author. The work belongs to the broader medieval Shingon Q&A genre, with multiple known authors having produced similar texts.
Date. Conventionally medieval Japanese, late Heian to Kamakura period, c. 1100–1300 CE.
Content. The work opens with the foundational question on the hierarchical / lateral organization of the ten stages:
“Someone asks: The Jūjūshin-ron composed by Kōbō Daishi — does it depend on the various schools’ graduated-progression (次第淺深)?”
“Answer: There are two meanings, horizontal and vertical. Within these, depending on the vertical distinction, there is a graduated progression.”
“Question: Within them, yīdào wúwéi [stage 8] and jí wúzìxìng [stage 9] — which schools do they refer to?”
“Answer: We assign the Tendai school to yīdào wúwéi…”
The work proceeds through approximately fifty principal doctrinal questions:
- The horizontal / vertical organization of the ten stages (横竪).
- The specific school-to-stage assignments — particularly the contested questions of which schools correspond to which stages.
- The relationship of the Jūjūshin-ron to the Hizō hōyaku — the longer and shorter versions.
- The kemmitsu distinction — when does the transition from apparent to esoteric occur in the ten-stage progression?
- The Tendai stage (8) vs. Kegon stage (9) question — the contested medieval Shingon-Tendai polemical question of whether Tendai or Kegon is the highest apparent school.
The work is doctrinally definite in its positions (the jué 決 of the title) and represents the settled medieval Shingon scholastic consensus on these questions.
Significance. As a Q&A compendium addressing the standard doctrinal doubts arising from Jūjūshin-ron study, the work served as a study-aid for the Shingon scholastic curriculum — accompanying the major sub-commentaries of Saisen, Chōyo (重譽, KR6t0148), and Yūkai (宥快, KR6t0160) and providing a more accessible question-and-answer format for less specialised readers.
Translations and research
- No Western-language translation located.
- Ryūichi Abé, The Weaving of Mantra (Columbia, 1999) — for the broader doctrinal context of medieval Shingon Jūjūshin-ron scholasticism.