Zìyì 字義
The Meaning of the Syllable Vaṃ 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 Vaṃ 鑁 (Brahmī ●梵字 in the source) through sixteen exegetical “gates” (門). The syllable Vaṃ is the bīja of Mahāvairocana in the Vajradhātu maṇḍala (the Diamond-Realm maṇḍala), corresponding doctrinally to water-element (水輪) and to the union of cosmic principle (理) and wisdom (智). The Japanese title is Banji-gi; on the dust-jacket-syllable the author punningly remarks that the Brahmī character is the wondrous body of the Dharma-Mahāvairocana, the secret speech of the universally-illuminating innate-Buddha, the king-emperor of the secret-teaching mantras, and the noble lord of profound principle and true wisdom.
Abstract
Structure: the work is organized into sixteen exegetical gates (門), each itself subdivided into ten sub-points (已上十六門各具十門 — “the above sixteen gates each have ten sub-gates”):
- Removing-words 字離言説義 — the trans-conceptual signification
- Water-wheel 水輪 — the elemental correspondence
- Stūpa-tope 塔婆 — the architectural correspondence
- Great-compassion 大悲
- Vajra 金剛
- Wisdom-body 智身
- Abhiṣeka-consecration 灌頂
- Surpassing-eminence 殊勝
- Universal-pervasion 周遍
- Realisation of the fruit 證果
- Mind 心
- Realm 界
- Secret 密
- Maṇḍala 曼
- Buddha 佛
- Great 大
Each gate opens with the negation-of-affect sense (遮情, removing dual constructions) and develops into the expression-of-virtue sense (表徳, the inexhaustible positive significations). The author notes in his prologue that the whole has twenty-eight gates and is divided into ten fascicles (總有二八門。分爲一十卷), suggesting that the present single-fascicle survival is a digest of a much larger lost original.
Significance: the Banji-gi is — alongside the Aji-hishaku (KR6t0218) — the foundational Kakuban treatment of the Shingon Vajradhātu bīja-syllable and a principal source for medieval Shingon water-wheel symbolism (the lower of the five elemental “wheels” of the gorin doctrine, see also KR6t0220).
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language translation located.
- van der Veere, Henny, A Study into the Thought of Kōgyō Daishi Kakuban (2000), discusses Kakuban’s letter-mysticism.
Links
- CBETA: T79n2513