Púsà zàng dùnjiào yīshèng hǎi yìjué 菩薩藏頓教一乘海義決
Decisions on the Doctrine of the Bodhisattva-Store, Sudden-Teaching, One-Vehicle Ocean by 顯意 Ken’i (述)
About the work
A single-fascicle doctrinal treatise by 顯意 Ken’i (1239–1304), the principal scholar of the Seizan-Fukakusa branch of Jōdoshū. The opening signature gives Ken’i’s title and the doctrinal-classificatory thesis of the work: that Pure-Land doctrine is the bodhisattva-store (菩薩藏 — the Mahāyāna canon), the sudden teaching (頓教 — the eka-yāna full revelation), the one-vehicle (一乘 — the Buddha-vehicle without subdivision), and the doctrinal ocean (義海 — the comprehensive doctrinal totality) of the Buddha’s teaching. This classification, programmatically asserted in the title and developed in the body, codifies Ken’i’s signature doctrine of Ichijō Shinshū 一乘眞宗 (“the One-Vehicle True School”) — the thesis that tariki (other-power) Pure-Land doctrine is the foundational matrix of the entire Mahāyāna and not merely one sectarian tradition among many.
Abstract
The text is structured as a sequence of question-and-answer articles (問曰 / 答曰) addressing the canonical-doctrinal questions raised by the two-store classification:
- Authority for the two-store division: Ken’i cites the Bodhisattvabhūmi 地持論 of Asaṅga as the canonical authority for the Hearer-store / Bodhisattva-store division;
- Definitions of the two stores: the Hearer-store = the Hīnayāna canon (sūtras, vinaya, abhidharma); the Bodhisattva-store = the Mahāyāna twelve-branch canon;
- Apparent overlap: the objection that Hīnayāna sūtras also describe bodhisattva-practice and Mahāyāna sūtras also describe Hearer-attainment — addressed by distinguishing primary import from secondary mention; 4.–N. Sudden vs. gradual teaching: the sudden teaching classification of Pure-Land doctrine; the one-vehicle (eka-yāna) reading; the doctrinal-ocean totality.
The text closes with a doxological coda in mixed Sino-Japanese: “ah! the people, each have their portion, they should appropriately receive [this teaching]; ultimately all attain the dharma-realm to its exhaustive limit; rare indeed, those who hear the dharma — what person would not rejoice? Even if there are those who slander it, let me pray: together may we be born before the Buddha. At this time, the present-reign of our court, Bun’ei 5 / 戊辰 / mid-third-month [= 1268 spring].” (味。人人皆有分 … 于時本朝今上文永五年戊辰三月中旬也). This fixes the composition-date precisely: mid-third-month of Bun’ei 5 = early-April 1268, Ken’i then age 29.
The work is one of the earliest dated works of Ken’i and provides the doctrinal-foundational scheme on which his later imperial-commission writings (the Sentō sanjin-gi mondō-ki of 1296, the Kazan-in-ke shijūhachi mondō, and the magnum opus Kaijōki 楷定記) build.
Translations and research
No Western-language translation has been located. Ken’i and the Ichijō Shinshū doctrine are treated in: Fujimoto Kiyohiko 藤本淨彦, Seizan jōdokyō no kenkyū (Hōzōkan, 1988); Inada Hiroen 稲田廣演 (ed.), Ken’i Shōnin zenshū 顯意上人全集 (Jōdo-shū Seizan Fukakusa-ha Shūmu-sho, 2003) — the standard modern edition; Itō Yuishin 伊藤唯眞, Jōdo-shū no seiritsu to tenkai (Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 1981).
Links
- CBETA online
- Companion works by same author: KR6t0338–KR6t0341
- Author’s Kangyō commentary: KR6f0078 Jōdo gitan and KR6f0080