Zì mìshì 字祕釋
Secret Exegesis of the Syllable A by 覺鑁 (撰)
About the work
A single-fascicle Esoteric letter-mysticism treatise by 覺鑁 Kakuban (1095–1144) expounding the Sanskrit seed-syllable A 阿 — the foundational bīja of Mahāvairocana, signifying “originally-non-arisen” (ādyanutpāda, 本不生 honpushō) — through the doctrinal categories of negation-of-affect (遮情義 shajōgi) and expression-of-virtue (表徳義 hyōtokugi). The title-character is represented in the source by a Brahmī A (●梵字) glyph; the Sino-Japanese gloss reads A-ji hishaku (Jp.).
Abstract
Method: Kakuban opens by asking, “What is the meaning of the honpushō (originally-non-arisen) doctrine of the A -syllable?” and answers by distinguishing two senses. The negation-of-affect sense states that all saṃskṛta and sāsrava dharmas (the impure, ignorance-produced phenomena) are originally empty in their own-nature and ultimately non-arising. By extension all dualities — defiled/pure, virtue/defect, good/evil, long/short — are mutual-dependent and hence both non-arising. The expression-of-virtue sense, by contrast, is inexhaustible in import: Kakuban offers ten among innumerable points, beginning with yathābhūtam ātmacittajñāna 如實知自心 — “to know one’s own mind as it really is, which is the perfect wisdom of all-knowledge” (cf. Mahāvairocana-sūtra and Kūkai’s Sokushin jōbutsu gi).
The treatise carefully glosses the etymology: 本 = “originally / from the beginning / from its own-nature / from its essence / from its source / from its root”; 不 = “empty / non / not / abandonment / cutting-off”; 生 = “arising / production / coming-into-existence / being-present / abiding / the first of the four marks of conditioned existence.” It then expounds the honpushō doctrine as the central pivot of the Shingon esoteric exegesis of all phenomena.
Significance: with the companion Bonji-ji gi (KR6t0219 Zìyì), the Aji-hishaku is the standard Shingon scholastic exposition of the foundational bīja-syllable A and is a key witness to Kakuban’s letter-mysticism (ji-rin kanjō 字輪觀, aji-kan 阿字觀).
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language translation located.
- For Kakuban’s broader doctrinal framework see van der Veere, Henny, A Study into the Thought of Kōgyō Daishi Kakuban (2000).
- On the Shingon syllable-A and seed-mantra mysticism: Yamasaki, Taikō, Shingon: Japanese Esoteric Buddhism, Boston: Shambhala, 1988.
Links
- CBETA: T79n2512