Zhēnyán jiàozhǔ wèndá chāo 眞言教主問答抄
Question-and-Answer Compendium on the Teaching-Master of the Mantra Tradition by 經尋 (撰)
About the work
A single-fascicle doctrinal Q&A treatise on the contested medieval Shingon question of which Buddha-body teaches the Esoteric scriptures — by Kyōjin 經尋, the Hōjōbō. The work is one of several medieval Shingon treatises addressing the 教主 (“teaching-master”) question that runs through the school’s doctrinal-disputational tradition.
Abstract
Authorship. Kyōjin, of Hōjōbō (寶生房).
Date. Within Kyōjin’s career, conventionally late 12th to early 13th century.
Content. The work opens with the foundational doctrinal question:
“Question. The Mahāvairocanajiàowángjīng etc. — by what body is the speaking-teaching-master to be settled?”
“Answer. Scholars’ intent variously divides; ascertainments take many paths. The expounded words and the established meanings are not of a single standard. Some meaning says: the four kinds of dharma-body are all mantra teaching-masters. But…”
(大日教王經等。能説教主何身可定耶。 答。學者意趣區料簡多途。説文往往所立義非一准。或義云。四種法身皆眞言教主也。但)
The work proceeds to survey the principal positions of medieval Shingon authorities on the Teaching-Master question:
- The Four-Body Position — that all four kinds of dharma-body (cf. KR6t0142) are the Esoteric teaching-masters in their respective modes.
- The Svabhāvakāya Position — that only the svabhāvakāya Mahāvairocana directly discourses the Esoteric scriptures.
- The Saṃbhoga-kāya Position — that the saṃbhoga-kāya (self-enjoyment Mahāvairocana) is the proximate teaching-master.
- The Composite Position — that the svabhāva-kāya and saṃbhoga-kāya are non-dual in their Esoteric teaching activity.
Each position is given with its scriptural foundation in the Mahāvairocana-sūtra and Vajraśekhara-sūtra, its doctrinal-philosophical articulation, and the doubts and objections that arise. Kyōjin’s own settled position, in the typical medieval Shingon scholastic manner, is the composite position with priority of the svabhāva-kāya.
Significance. The work is a key documentary source for the medieval Shingon 教主 doctrinal-disputational tradition, alongside the major contributions of Dōhan (道範, KR6t0153 Zhēnyīng chāo), Gōhō (杲寶, KR6t0158 Dàrì jīng jiàozhǔ běndì jiāchí fēnbié), Yūkai (宥快, KR6t0161 Dàrì jīng zhǔ yìyì shì), and Donjaku (曇寂, KR6t0163 Dàrì jīng jiàozhǔ yì). The Teaching-Master question generates one of the most extensive cluster of related medieval Shingon treatises in the Taishō corpus, of which Kyōjin’s work is among the earliest substantial articulations.
Translations and research
- No Western-language translation located.
- Ryūichi Abé, The Weaving of Mantra (Columbia, 1999) — for the broader doctrinal context.