勝語集

Shèngyǔ jí 勝語集

Collection of Surpassing Sayings by 惠什 (記)

About the work

A two-fascicle Shingon oral-teachings transcript compiled by Eshū 惠什 (also read Ejū), recording the oral instructions he heard at the Shōjōbō 勝定房 (Shōjō Chamber) of Anyō Valley 安養谷. The opening line dates the work exactly: “Hōen 1 (1135), 12th month, 11th day. Heard and recorded the same day at the Shōjōbō of Anyō Valley.” (保延元年十二月十一日於安養谷勝定房隨聞記。即日). The work is therefore precisely datable: notBefore = notAfter = 1135.

Abstract

Authorship and dating: although the catalog meta is silent on the author, CANWWW attributes the compilation to Eshū 惠什 (AUT01115), confirmed by the internal zuibun-ki (隨聞記 = “heard and recorded”) format and the date of 1135. Two later copyist’s colophons date subsequent transmissions to An’ei 4 (1775), 6th month, 29th day, copied and collated by Sonken 尊賢, and Kansei 6 (1794), 6th month, 2nd day, by Saigō 濟豪, who further collated against Sonken’s manuscript.

Doctrinal content: the work is a date-stamped diary of Shingon kuden received over several successive days at the Shōjōbō. The opening day’s session (11th month, 11th day) covers:

• The Bhaiṣajya-guru method (藥師): seed-syllable bhaḥ, three-equality-form, the five-pronged vajra attribute. The compiler notes the doctrinal correlation problem: “According to Annen’s [ Hokke ekyō shiyō ] and the Niwa Sōzu Chin’s record, this method is performed in the manner of the Akṣobhya method.” (依安然録仁珍和尚意。此法依阿閦法修云云). The compiler offers his own correction: “Hence one uses the seed-syllable and three-equality-form of that Buddha [Akṣobhya] — but this is decidedly incorrect.”
• A reference to the two separate Buddha-listings in the Annotated Sūrāṅgama (Zhù-dà-fó-dǐng 注大佛頂) Nanchū-ki: “Akṣobhya is for subjugation; Bhaiṣajya-guru is for sickness-removal — therefore the same procedure cannot be used.”
• The Auspicious Seal (吉祥印): an abhaya-mudrā with thumb and ring-finger touching.

Subsequent days cover the Buddha-eye seed-syllable and three-equality-form (citing the Kōmyō kan 光明鬘 according to Chōkeikō’s 長慶公 homa sequence), the Maitreya / Cintāmaṇi praise homology, the five-Buddha samaya-forms of the Garbha Realm (with a jōkan-ji-style transmission attributed to Kōbō Daishi), the small mantra-and-seal (in Kakukū ācārya’s Hiei-zan tradition), and many further entries.

The work is a vivid record of mid-1130s late-Heian Shingon scholarly practice, capturing the working-debate texture of the kuden tradition at its most active. It is one of the few extant zuibun-ki of the period.

Translations and research

• No substantial Western-language secondary literature located.
• The zuibun-ki (heard-and-recorded) genre of medieval Japanese Buddhist literature is treated in Nakamura Hajime, Bukkyō daijiten, and in Japanese studies of the kuden tradition.

Links

• CBETA: T78n2479