Dàshèng qǐshì lùn 大乘起世論
Mahāyāna Treatise on the Origin of the World anonymous Southern-school Chán composition; critical edition by 方廣錩 (整理)
About the work
A short Chán treatise in one fascicle, comprising a preface, a question-and-answer body, and a closing jiéjì 結偈 (concluding verse). Doctrinally markedly Nánzōng 南宗 (Southern-school) — explicitly endorsing Huìnéng 慧能-line propositions: the gate of zhēndì 真諦 is so esoteric that even the saints can scarcely know it; the practitioner must directly verify it for himself; he must “first settle his mind” (xiān xū ān xīn 先須安心) and “be skilled at finding and drawing close to a good teacher” (shàn yú fāxiàn yǔ qīnjìn shànzhīshí 善於發現與親近善知識). At the same time the work warns against quietistic kūchán 枯禪 (“dead Chán” without engagement) and prescribes meditation in xíngzhùzuòwò 行住坐臥 (“walking, standing, sitting, lying”). The closing jīfēng 機鋒 (Chán paradox) section warns against attachment to literary expression.
Abstract
The work is unrecorded in any Chinese Buddhist catalogue and unknown to canonical editions. The unique surviving witness is on the verso of P. 2039 (BnF) — the same scroll that, on its recto, bears the Tiānzhúguó Pútídámó chánshī lùn (= KR6v0024). The verso companion-scroll texts include Wǔxīn jīng 五辛經 and other Chán pieces (compare the description of KR6v0030). Manuscript date is approximately the first half of the ninth century, well within the Tibetan-period Dūnhuáng. The head-title reads “Dàshèng jì shì lùn” 大乘寄世論 (with jì 寄 for qǐ 起); the preface gives “Dàshèng qí shì lùn” 大乘奇世論 (with qí 奇); the tail-title reads “Dàshèng qǐshì lùn” 大乘起世論. Fāng Guǎngchāng treats the tail-title as authoritative.
The text is one of the principal Nánzōng Dūnhuáng documents from the Tibetan period and a key witness to the diffusion of Huìnéng-line Chán into the Hexi corridor.
Translations and research
- Yanagida Seizan 柳田聖山, Shoki Zenshū-shi sho no kenkyū 初期禪宗史書の研究 (Kyōto: Hōzōkan, 1967) — the foundational study of early Chán literature, including Nán-zōng Dūnhuáng manuscripts.
- McRae, John R., Seeing through Zen: Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003) — methodological framework.
- Ueyama Daishun 上山大峻, Tonkō bukkyō no kenkyū 敦煌仏教の研究 (Kyōto: Hōzōkan, 1990) — Tibetan-period Dūnhuáng Buddhism, the principal context for this manuscript.
- Fāng Guǎngchāng 方廣錩, “Dàshèng qǐshì lùn 整理本前言,” in Zàngwài fójiào wénxiàn vol. 3 (Beijing: Zōngjiào wénhuà, 1996).
Other points of interest
The shifting title-form across head, preface, and tail of the same manuscript is itself textually interesting: it suggests that the text circulated in oral teaching with a flexible title and only acquired stable form on copying.
Links
- CBETA
- IDP record for P.2039
- Cf. KR6v0024 (recto of the same scroll)