Dàrì jīng zhǔ yìyì shì 大日經主異義事
On the Differing Positions on the Mahāvairocana-sūtra’s Teaching-Master by 宥快 (記)
About the work
A single-fascicle survey-treatise of the principal medieval Shingon positions on the Mahāvairocanasūtra teaching-master question, by Yūkai 宥快 (1345–1416) of Kōya-san Hōshō-in. The signature is explicit: “Yūkai’s private record” 宥快私記.
Abstract
Authorship. Yūkai.
Date. Within Yūkai’s mature career, late 14th to early 15th century.
Content. The work surveys the principal medieval Shingon positions on the Teaching-Master question, organized by scholastic-lineage tradition. The opening list:
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法性院并三藏院 — Hosshō-in and Sanzō-in: hold the “same Bhagavān-phrase as teaching-master” position. The Six-Element Dharma-Body is only the Principle-Buddha substance.
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正智院 — Shōchi-in: holds two positions. (a) The Bhagavān is the Six-Element Dharma-Body. (b) [Further position to be specified in body.]
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(Further lineages and their distinctive positions on the Teaching-Master question.)
The work proceeds to survey systematically the major Shingon scholastic-lineage traditions — Hosshō-in, Sanzō-in, Shōchi-in, and others — and their characteristic positions on the Mahāvairocanasūtra teaching-master question. For each, Yūkai provides:
- The doctrinal-positional statement of the lineage’s position.
- The scriptural foundation cited in support.
- The contrast with other lineages’ positions.
Yūkai’s own settled position emerges in the work’s conclusion: the Kogi-Shingon (Kōya-san) orthodox position that the Six-Element Dharma-Body is the svabhāvakāya Mahāvairocana himself, who is the Teaching-Master of the Mahāvairocanasūtra in his proper fundamental-ground (本地) mode.
Significance. The work is one of the most useful doxographic-survey treatises in the medieval Shingon corpus, providing a systematic survey of the principal scholastic-lineage positions on the Teaching-Master question. It is a key documentary source for the reconstruction of medieval Shingon scholastic-lineage diversification.
Translations and research
- No Western-language translation located.
- Ryūichi Abé, The Weaving of Mantra (Columbia, 1999).