Dúshū èrshíèr zé 讀書二十二則
Twenty-Two Rules for Reading by 戒定 (撰)
About the work
A single-fascicle pedagogical-philological essay by 戒定 Kaijō (Edo period, dates unknown) — a set of twenty-two methodological rules for the proper reading and interpretation of the writings of Kūkai 弘法大師 (the Shingon-school founder, Henjō Kongō 遍照金剛). The work is one of the very few Edo-period Buddhist philology-method essays in the Japanese Shingon corpus.
Abstract
Opening: “In ancient times our school’s founder, the Henjō Kongō master, brilliant and wise, was able to comprehend the many arts and master the all-knowing-wisdom. At first he studied the classics and histories of the hundred schools; later he penetrated the doctrinal-principles of the exoteric-and-esoteric teachings in their countless variations. Whether in prose or verse, abundant with the floweriness of the High Táng; whether in doctrine or principle, fully exhausting the deep secrets of the exoteric and esoteric. He composed the Niki hōyaku, Jūjūshin etc., establishing our school’s learning. The writings: their literary-quality is well-balanced — never abandoning literary skill; the principles are dense and richly stated — never failing to make their point. The methods of chapter-section-clause-syllable are nowhere unmethodical. Therefore the writings of our founder’s exposition ( 筌兎 , “fish-trap and hare-snare”, i.e. the linguistic vehicle of meaning) have universal elegance, and cannot be approached as one approaches ordinary writing. If one does not understand the Chinese (Sanskrit-Chinese) language-method, if one does not know the Chinese literary diction, then one cannot grasp the fish-trap of the meaning…”
The twenty-two rules: a graded sequence of methodological principles for the proper interpretation of Kūkai’s kanbun writings — covering Sanskrit-Chinese vocabulary, Chinese literary-allusion identification, the bensei-yū / fù (賦) genre conventions of Táng prose, the piān and sàn (parallel-and-free) style alternation, and the philological-exegetical method appropriate to the founder’s Niki hōyaku 二教寶鑰 and Jūjūshin-ron 十住心論.
Significance: a rare Edo-period Japanese Buddhist contribution to literary-historical philology, applying the methods of the Chinese exegetical tradition to the works of Kūkai. The work documents the seriousness of the Edo-Buzan-Chizan scholastic tradition in approaching its founder’s writings as literary as well as doctrinal objects.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language secondary literature located.
- For Kūkai’s writings as objects of philological study: Abe Ryūichi, The Weaving of Mantra: Kūkai and the Construction of Esoteric Buddhist Discourse, New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.
Links
- CBETA: T79n2542