Kāixīn chāo 開心抄
Mind-Opening Compendium by 杲寶 (撰)
About the work
A three-fascicle doctrinal-encyclopedic compendium by Gōhō 杲寶 (1306–1362) of Tō-ji 東寺 — one of the Three Treasures of Tō-ji — addressing eight principal doctrinal-disputational topics of medieval Shingon scholasticism in eight successive “gates.”
Abstract
Authorship. Gōhō.
Date. Within Gōhō’s mature career, mid-14th century.
Content. The work’s mokuroku lists the eight gates:
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禪密攝屬門 — The gate of Zen-Esoteric inclusion and subordination. Treats the doctrinal-classificatory question of how Zen 禪 (especially the medieval kanjō-influenced Tendai-Zen and the imported Sung Chan) is to be placed within the Jūjūshin-ron hierarchy.
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機教前後門 — The gate of the prior-and-posterior of capacity and teaching. Treats the relation between practitioner-capacity (ji 機) and teaching (kyō 教) in the medieval Shingon doctrinal architecture.
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達磨私建門 — The gate of Bodhidharma’s private establishment. Treats the relationship between the Bodhidharma-line Chan transmission and the Esoteric transmission.
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過失揀擇門 — The gate of selection-among-fault. Treats the doctrinal-disputational question of how the apparent-teaching schools’ doctrinal positions are to be evaluated.
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末世相應門 — The gate of the last-age suitability. Treats the question of which doctrinal-practical path is suited to the latter age (mappō 末法) — a major medieval Buddhist doctrinal-polemical topic.
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護國濟生門 — The gate of nation-protection and being-saving. Treats the institutional-social-ethical role of the Shingon school.
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證道唯密門 — The gate of the path-of-verification being only the Esoteric. Treats the doctrinal-disputational claim that only the Esoteric path leads to verified attainment.
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本分極不二門 — The gate of the fundamental-share ultimate non-duality. Treats the culminating doctrinal claim of fundamental Buddha-nature non-duality.
For each gate, Gōhō provides extensive Q&A treatment with citations from canonical and medieval scholastic sources. The eight-gate organization is systematic and comprehensive — covering the principal doctrinal-disputational topics of medieval Shingon as Gōhō encountered them.
Significance. The work is one of Gōhō’s principal doctrinal-systematic compositions, complementing his Tō-ji Three Treasures collaborative work on the Yǎnào chāo edition of the Mahāvairocanasūtra commentary. The work is studied throughout the medieval and Edo Tō-ji Shingon scholastic curriculum.
Translations and research
- No Western-language translation located.
- Ryūichi Abé, The Weaving of Mantra (Columbia, 1999).
- Standard Tō-ji scholarly sources.