Shízhùxīn yìlín 十住心義林
A Grove of Meanings on the Ten Levels of Mind by 宥快 (撰)
About the work
A two-fascicle systematic doctrinal compendium on Kūkai’s Jūjūshin-ron (KR6t0125), by Yūkai 宥快 (1345–1416) of Mt. Kōya’s Hōshō-in. The work is the canonical Kogi-Shingon (Kōya-san) scholastic position on the ten-mind-stage doctrinal architecture, and is studied throughout the medieval and modern Shingon scholastic curriculum.
Abstract
Authorship. Yūkai. Explicitly attributed in the Taishō header: “Yūkai” 宥快.
Date. Within Yūkai’s mature career, late 14th to early 15th century.
Content. The work opens with the foundational question:
“Question. The Shingon school establishes its teaching — how?”
“Answer. It establishes the ten levels of mind, judging-and-including the apparent and esoteric teaching-dharmas.”
“Question. On what sūtras and śāstras, transmitted from which masters, did the Daishi establish the ten levels of mind?”
(問。眞言宗立教云何答。立十住心判攝顯密教法也／問。大師依何經論。相承誰師立十住心)
The work proceeds through the principal doctrinal-disputational questions arising in the study of the Jūjūshin-ron:
- The scriptural foundation of the ten-level architecture — citations from the Mahāvairocana-sūtra, Bodhicitta-śāstra, and Kūkai’s lineage.
- The horizontal-vertical organization of the ten stages.
- The placement of each apparent-teaching school (Hossō, Sanron, Tendai, Kegon) at its proper stage.
- The transition from stage 9 (Kegon) to stage 10 (Shingon) — the kemmitsu transition.
- The Kogi-Shingon (Kōya-san) settled position on each contested question, with citations from Saisen, Chōyo (重譽), and earlier Kōya-san masters.
The work is doctrinally definitive and orthodox — Yūkai’s project being precisely the systematic preservation of the Kōya-san orthodox transmissions in deliberate contradistinction to the Shingi-Shingon (Negoro-ji) reformist position.
Significance. Yūkai’s Shízhùxīn yìlín is one of the principal Kogi-Shingon scholastic compendia on the Jūjūshin-ron and the canonical Kōya-san reference text for medieval and early-modern Shingon study. Together with Chōyo’s earlier Shízhùxīn lùn chāo (KR6t0148) and the Q&A compendia (KR6t0143, KR6t0149–KR6t0150), it constitutes the canonical Shingon scholastic apparatus for Jūjūshin-ron study.
Translations and research
- No Western-language translation located.
- Ryūichi Abé, The Weaving of Mantra (Columbia, 1999).
- Standard Kōya-san scholarly sources on Yūkai’s corpus.
Links
- CBETA: T77n2454
- Parent text: KR6t0125 Mìmì màntúluó shízhùxīn lùn of 空海.
- Companion Teaching-Master treatise by same author: KR6t0161 Dàrì jīng zhǔ yìyì shì.
- Predecessor sub-commentaries: KR6t0148 of 重譽, KR6t0149, KR6t0150.
- Author’s magnum opus on the Mahāvairocanasūtra commentary: KR6j0668 Dàrì jīng shū chāo.