Jìngtǔ wénlèi jùchāo 淨土文類聚鈔
Collected Notes from the Pure-Land Topical Anthology by 親鸞 Shinran (作)
About the work
A single-fascicle abbreviated version of 親鸞 Shinran’s Kyōgyōshinshō KR6t0352, by Shinran himself. The opening attribution gives his characteristic self-designation: Gutoku Shaku Shinran sa(ku) 愚禿釋親鸞作 — “composed by the foolish-shorn-monk, Śākya[muni’s] Shinran”. The work condenses the six-chapter doctrinal architecture of the Kyōgyōshinshō into a single fascicle, with shortened citations and abbreviated commentary, and was intended as a portable / pedagogical companion to the magnum opus for use among the eastern lay-disciples.
Abstract
The opening parallel-prose passage compresses the famous Kyōgyōshinshō preface into more concentrated form: “Verily: the unobstructed inconceivable luminous-radiance extinguishes suffering and witnesses joy; the ten-thousand practices, perfectly equipped, are the auspicious-name turning evil into virtue; the matchless wisdom is the diamond-faith — eliminating doubt, attaining the witness of true principle.” The body of the Jushō then proceeds through the six topics of the Kyōgyōshinshō — teaching, practice, faith, realization, true-Buddha-land, transformation-body-land — in compressed form, preserving the essential canonical citations (from the Larger Sukhāvatīvyūha, the Wǎngshēng lùn, Tánluán, Dàochuò, Shàndǎo, and Hōnen) and the central Shinran-distinctive doctrines (the Buddha-given shinjin, the Name-as-Buddha’s-self-naming, the immediate-realization-in-this-life).
The work is functionally an anti-himaki — a deliberately exoteric abbreviation of the Kyōgyōshinshō, designed for circulation among the lay disciples who would not have access to the secret-scroll original. It complements the simpler vernacular-Japanese vehicles (KR6t0356–KR6t0359 wasan, KR6t0367–KR6t0368 mon’i essays) by which Shinran transmitted his doctrine to the Hitachi peasant-evangelism audience.
Date. Composition contemporaneous with the Kyōgyōshinshō, i.e. 1224–1247. The work belongs to Shinran’s mature period, likely the Hitachi years.
Translations and research
English translation: Inagaki Hisao (trans.), Jōdo Monrui Jushō: Passages on the Pure Land Way (Numata Center, 2003 / BDK English Tripitaka 105-II); also in Hongwanji Translation Series, The Collected Works of Shinran, 2 vols. (Hongwanji-ha, 1997). Treated in James C. Dobbins, Jōdo Shinshū (Indiana UP, 1989); Alfred Bloom, Shinran’s Gospel of Pure Grace (1965); Japanese-language critical edition in Shinran Shōnin zenshū 親鸞聖人全集 (Hongan-ji, 1985).
Links
- CBETA online
- Parent work: KR6t0352 (Kyōgyōshinshō)
- Companion works: KR6t0354–KR6t0368