Zhūzōng jiàolǐ tóngyì shì 諸宗教理同異釋
Exegesis of the Doctrinal Similarities and Differences of the Various Schools by 頼瑜 (撰)
About the work
A single-fascicle comparative-doctrinal treatise by 頼瑜 Raiyu (1226–1304), founder of the Shingi-Shingon scholastic tradition. The work systematically compares the doctrinal positions (教理 kyōri) of the major Buddhist schools — Hossō, Sanron, Tendai, Kegon, and Shingon — under the headings of agreement (同) and difference (異), with the Shingon position as the implicit terminus and standard. The work circulated also outside the Taishō under the alternate canonical designation B0181.
Abstract
Preface: “I quietly consider: the heart-sea is fundamentally still — though it stills the waters of original-purity, yet a deluded-wind blows, and the moving waves arise. In vain do we revolve in the sea of arising-and-cessation; we have not returned to the citadel of the true-suchness. Were it not for the great-sage’s compass-pointer, how should we awaken from this beginningless deluded direction?… Therefore considering the capacities and faculties of the ten-thousand kinds (of beings), [the Buddha] displays his teaching-doctrine in a thousand variations. From Deer-Park, the turning of the four-noble-truths washes off the dust of self-existence; at Vulture-Peak, the proclamation of the one-real bestows the lotus of opening-and-revealing. Some abandon the dependent-other provisional-aspect and seek the perfectly-completed real-nature; some, without destroying the provisional-name of dharmas, manifest the true-principle of the dharma-nature. The one-mind triple-contemplation wisdom reaches Mahāvairocana’s body-land in a single moment of ordinary thought; the ten-mysteries-six-aspects principle realises Vairocana’s aspect-sea at the ten-faith stage…”
Method: comparative-doctrinal exposition through paired same-and-different (同·異) discussions. The classical school-by-school doctrinal taxonomy (Hossō dependent-other / perfectly-completed; Sanron non-arising / emptiness; Tendai one-mind triple-contemplation, three-thousand in one-moment-of-thought; Kegon ten-mysteries six-aspects; Shingon body-mystery, speech-mystery, mind-mystery / Mahāvairocana-Vajrasattva) is set out and analyzed for both convergence and divergence with the Shingon synthesis. The Shingi-Shingon school’s reformist position — distinguishing the active body (加持身) of preaching from the principle-body (本地身) of self-realisation — is the implicit doctrinal pivot of the work.
Significance: a key Kamakura-period scholastic statement of the Shingon school’s doctrinal position against the broader Buddhist field; one of the principal Raiyu Shingi-Shingon doctrinal works, central for understanding the medieval Japanese scholastic context. See also Raiyu’s parallel Dàrì jīng shū zhǐxīn chāo (KR6j0667).
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language translation located.
- For Raiyu’s Shingi-Shingon reformist position see standard Japanese scholarship: Kushida Ryōkō 櫛田良洪, Zoku Shingon Mikkyō seiritsu katei no kenkyū 續眞言密教成立過程の研究 (Tokyo: Sankibō Busshorin, 1979).