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悉曇集記

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Text ID
KR6t0416
Date
932–953
Dynasty
日本

Xītán jíjì 悉曇集記

Collected Notes on Siddham by 淳祐 Junnyū (集)

About the work

A three-fascicle Siddham anthology-compendium by Junnyū 淳祐 淳祐 (890–953), a Shingon-line scholar of the early Heian period and gegyō (outer-line) successor of Kūkai through Kangen 觀賢 (854–925). The Shittan shū-ki — “Collected Notes on Siddham” — is a Shingon-school anthology of the principal Siddham scholarly material descending from Kūkai, supplemented with Junnyū’s own annotations and corrections. The work is the principal Shingon-line counterpart to Annen’s Tendai-line Shittan-zō KR6t0413 and provides the Shingon-distinctive reading of the Siddham tradition.

Abstract

The three fascicles cover, with attention to the Shingon-doctrinal interpretation: (1) the fifty Siddham letters with their bīja meanings as articulated in the Kūkai tradition; (2) the mantric and dhāraṇī corpus of the Shingon canon, with phonological and grammatical apparatus; (3) the devotional and ritual applications of Siddham — bonji calligraphy, sotōba talismans, votive paintings, etc.

The work is distinctive in its careful preservation of the Kūkai-line oral teachings on Siddham — Junnyū had received these through his master Kangen, who had received them from his master Shōbō 聖寶 (832–909), who had received them from Shinga 真雅 (801–879), Kūkai’s nephew and direct disciple. The Shittan shū-ki therefore preserves the Kōya-san / Daigo-ji Siddham oral tradition in textual form, in contrast to Annen’s Tendai-line Shittan-zō which preserves the Mt. Hiei tradition.

The Shingon-distinctive doctrinal apparatus, particularly the Mahāvairocana-sūtra bīja correspondences and the Vajraśekhara maṇḍala correspondences, are more elaborate in Junnyū than in Annen, reflecting the different scholastic priorities of the two esoteric lines.

Date. Composition in Junnyū’s mature career, c. 932–953.

Structural Division

The CANWWW entry (div25.xml, T84N2705) records the work as a 3-fascicle treatise by Junnyū with no internal toc sub-list and no related-text cross-references tabulated.

Translations and research

Critical edition: Taishō vol. 84. No English translation. Major studies: R. H. van Gulik, Siddham (1956); Yamanaka Yukio, Nihon shittan-gaku no kenkyū (Hōzōkan, 1981); Chiba R. B. K., Shingon mikkyō shittan-gaku no kenkyū (Hyakkaen, 1984).

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