Shì móhēyǎnlùn dìshí guǎng duǎncè 釋摩訶衍論第十廣短册
Short Booklet on the Expanded [Discussion of] Chapter Ten of the Exegesis of the Mahāyāna Commentary by 順繼 (撰)
About the work
A single-fascicle scholastic question-and-answer treatise by 順繼 Junkei — a Late-Kamakura or Nanbokuchō Japanese Shingon scholar — on the tenth chapter of the apocryphal Mohe-yan-lun 釋摩訶衍論 (the Treatise on the Mahāyāna Commentary, a pseudo-Nāgārjuna work attributed to Vajrabodhi-Vajrasattva and a foundational scholastic text of the Heian-Kamakura Tendai-Shingon hermeneutic tradition).
Abstract
Subject: the work treats specifically the 十勸劣向勝不退門 kanjō-retsu-kōshō-futai-mon (Gate of Encouraging the Inferior toward the Superior, Non-Retrogression) — Chapter Ten of the Mohe-yan-lun — and the four-faith principle-contemplation (四信理觀) doctrine. The chapter is one of the foundational doctrinal sections of the Mohe-yan-lun, treating the anāgāmin (non-returning) bodhisattva-stages and the contemplative realization of the suchness dharma-body.
Method: a sequential question-and-answer scholastic dispute. Representative opening: “Q: The treatise says: ‘If one contemplates that Buddha’s true-suchness dharma-body…’ What is the intent of this passage? A: To praise the self-utterance, the treatise quotes the sūtra-passage, saying ‘contemplating that Buddha’s true-suchness dharma-body’ — that is the meaning. Q: That being so, this contemplation-gate is the practice of the four-mind lower-grade person? A: On this matter scholars’ opinions diverge and are not unified. But adopting one position: this is the four-mind lower-grade contemplation-gate. Q: Your reply is not clear; in general, signless-principle contemplation belongs to the deeper positions…” The text proceeds through a series of such question-and-answer exchanges, treating successive scholastic problems within the chapter.
Significance: a documentary witness to the late-Kamakura / Nanbokuchō Shingon-Tendai scholastic tradition surrounding the Mohe-yan-lun. The work is a tanzaku (短册 — short booklet) genre piece, typical of the scholastic kuden literature of the period.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language secondary literature located.
- For the Mohe-yan-lun in the East Asian Buddhist scholastic tradition see Vorenkamp, Dirck, An English Translation of Fa-tsang’s Commentary on the Awakening of Faith, Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2004; the Mohe-yan-lun itself remains untranslated in Western languages.
Links
- CBETA: T79n2537