Qīzǔ fǎbǎo jì xià juǎn 七祖法寶記下卷
Record of the Dharma-Treasures of the Seven Patriarchs, Lower Fascicle anonymous Northern-school Chán compiler; critical edition by 華方田 (整理)
About the work
The lower fascicle of an early-Chán anthology in two parts: (1) a long sūtra-excerpt florilegium from the Fózàng jīng 佛藏經, Niànsòng jīng hùfǎ pǔtōng zhū bù 念誦經護法普通諸部, Xīn jīng 心經, Dà bōrě jīng 大般若經, Jīngāng jīng 金剛經, Jīngāng sānmèi jīng 金剛三昧經, Wénshūshīlì suǒshuō bōrě bōluómì jīng 文殊師利所說般若波羅蜜經, Fó shuō juédìng pínǐ jīng 佛說決定毗尼經, Rúlái zhuāngyán zhìhuì guāngmíng 如來莊嚴智慧光明 jīng, Fǎhuá 法華, Wéimó 維摩, Sīyì 思益 — together accounting for c. 80% of the surviving lower fascicle; and (2) a Zhū jīng dàshèng yàochāo 諸經大乘要抄, a shorter florilegium privileging the Lèngqié jīng 楞伽經 alongside Sīyì, Fódǐng 佛頂, Wéimó, Jīngāng sānmèi, Fǎjù, Fózàng, Yàoshī, Juédìng pínǐ, Jīngāng, Zhuǎn nǚshēn, and Dà fódǐng. The seven-patriarch designation in the title remains unidentified.
Abstract
The work is unrecorded in any Buddhist catalogue and unknown to canonical editions. It survives in two Beijing Library Dūnhuáng manuscripts: Běiyīn 38 (head and tail damaged) and Běixīn 1272 (head damaged, tail intact, with the unique attestation of the title “Qīzǔ fǎbǎo jì xià juǎn”). On paper, hand, and structural analysis Huá Fāngtián 華方田 demonstrates that the two manuscripts are pieces of the same original scroll, separated by a now-lost middle portion. The doctrinal orientation of the florilegium — the prominence of the Lèngqié and the conjoint use of Wéimó, Sīyì, and Fózàng jīng — places the compiler in the Northern-school tradition, plausibly a disciple of Shénxiù 神秀 such as Pǔjì 普寂 or Yìfú 義福. Composition is therefore early-to-mid eighth century. The “seven patriarchs” of the title presumably refers to the standard Northern-school seven-patriarch lineage (Bodhidharma → Huìkě → Sēngcàn → Dàoxìn → Hóngrěn → Shénxiù → ?).
Translations and research
- McRae, John R., The Northern School and the Formation of Early Ch’an Buddhism (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1986) — the standard study of Northern-school Chán to which this manuscript provides important new evidence.
- Tanaka Ryōshō 田中良昭, Tonkō Zenshū bunken no kenkyū 敦煌禪宗文獻の研究 (Tōkyō: Daitō shuppansha, 1983) — comprehensive bibliographic survey of Dūnhuáng Chán manuscripts, predates the present identification.
- Huá Fāngtián 華方田, “Qīzǔ fǎbǎo jì xià juǎn 整理本前言,” in Zàngwài fójiào wénxiàn vol. 2 (Beijing: Zōngjiào wénhuà, 1996).
Other points of interest
The text’s florilegium structure — sustained sūtra-excerpts framed by minimal exegetical apparatus — is characteristic of yùlù 語錄 -predecessors in early Chán: the genre is closer to a meditator’s vade mecum than to either commentary or platform-sermon. The unidentified seventh patriarch problem is a textual-historical puzzle of substantial interest for the history of the Northern-school lineage.