Huáyán lüèshū juǎn dìyī 華嚴略疏卷第一
Brief Commentary on the Avataṃsaka-sūtra, Fascicle 1 anonymous Northern-Zhōu Dìlùnzōng commentary; critical edition by 悟緣 (整理)
About the work
A Northern-Zhōu period (557–581) Chinese Buddhist commentary on the Avataṃsaka-sūtra in Buddhabhadra’s 60-fascicle Eastern-Jìn translation (T09n0278, the Liù-shí huá-yán 六十華嚴), preserved in two Dūnhuáng manuscripts that are joined fragments of the same multi-fascicle original work. The text is lüè 略 (“brief”): it gives concise topical-headings, glosses on key terms, and structural divisions (kē-pàn 科判) of the host Liù-shí huá-yán — a precursor of the more elaborate Huá-yán commentaries of the Suí–Táng Huá-yán-zōng 華嚴宗.
Abstract
The two Dūnhuáng witnesses are: (1) Beijing Běi-dūn 01053 (Chén 53) — head damaged, tail intact with explicit tail-title Huá-yán lüè-shū juǎn dì-yī, tail-colophon “bǐ-qiū Fǎ-yuān gōng-yǎng liú-tōng 比丘法淵供養流通” (“for circulation, donated by the bhikṣu Fǎyuān”); covers from Shì-jiān jìng-yǎn pǐn 世間淨眼品 (1) through Xián-shǒu pǐn 賢首品 (8); and (2) Stein 2694 — head and tail intact, head-title Huá-yán lüè-shū juǎn dì-sān, tail-title Lüè-shū juǎn dì-sān, tail-colophon “Yuān-xǔ 淵許”; covers Shí-dì pǐn 十地品 (chapter 22). Both manuscripts are in the same hand, with related colophons mentioning Fǎyuān / Yuān-xǔ; they are demonstrably from the same multi-fascicle original.
The work is not in any historical Buddhist catalog or canon. Palaeographic features (no Táng huìzì 諱字 avoiding the personal name Yuān 淵 of Táng Gāozǔ 唐高祖 Lǐ Yuān 李淵) date the manuscript to the period before Táng (618). Internal evidence — “Lúshènàzhě, Zhōu míng qīngjìng yuánmǎn zhì 盧舍那者，周名清淨圓滿智” (Locana = Northern-Zhōu translation ‘Pure-and-Complete-Wisdom’) — places the composition of the commentary firmly in the Northern Zhōu (557–581), and most likely between the dynasty’s founding (557) and emperor Wǔdì 武帝’s anti-Buddhist proscription (574).
The author is contested. The earliest catalogues (Xīnbiān zhūzōng jiàozàng zǒnglù 新編諸宗教藏總錄, Tōiki dentō mokuroku 東域傳燈目錄, Zhūzōng zhāngshū lù 諸宗章疏錄) all record a Huáyán lüèshū in 4 fascicles by Huìguāng 慧光 (467–537) of Dàjuésì 大覺寺 in Northern-Qí Yèxià 鄴下, and the Xù gāosēng zhuàn 續高僧傳 j. 21 Huìguāng zhuàn notes that he wrote a Huáyánjīng shū. Some scholars therefore identify the present Lüèshū with Huìguāng’s. But the surviving Japanese Kanbun-jidai hand-copy of Huìguāng’s “Huáyánjīng yìjì 華嚴經義記” (Taishō T85), explicitly attributed to Dàjuésì shāmén Huìguāng shù, differs substantially from the Dūnhuáng Lüèshū — and Huìguāng (Northern Qí) is somewhat earlier than the dating evidence in the Dūnhuáng Lüèshū allows. Some scholars therefore propose Sēngměng 僧猛 (508–590) of Yúnhuásì 雲華寺 — the great Northern-Zhōu Dìlùnzōng 地論宗 master — as the author. The fascicle-3 witness Stein 2694 covers only as far as Shídì pǐn; if the original work followed the standard kēpàn practice the entire commentary should run to roughly 6 fascicles, again exceeding Huìguāng’s recorded 4 fascicles.
The commentary’s reliance on the Shí-dì jīng-lùn 十地經論 (T26n1522, Daśabhūmika-sūtra-śāstra of Vasubandhu, trans. by Bodhiruci 菩提流支 in 508–512) is conspicuous and confirms its Dì-lùn-zōng affiliation.
Translations and research
- Tang Yongtong 湯用彤, Hàn Wèi liǎng-Jìn Nán-Běi-cháo fójiào shǐ 漢魏兩晉南北朝佛教史 (Beijing: Zhōnghuá shū-jú, 1955) — context on Northern-dynasties Dì-lùn-zōng.
- Hamar, Imre, ed., Reflecting Mirrors: Perspectives on Huayan Buddhism (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2007) — context.
- Zhōu Shū-jiā 周叔迦, “Běi-dūn 01053 Huá-yán lüè-shū tí-jì,” Xiàn-dài fó-xué 1960 — first publication of the manuscript.
- Aoki Takashi 青木隆, Chigon kara Hōzō e 智儼から法藏へ (Tokyo: Daitō, 2010) — Huá-yán school formative period.
Other points of interest
Huá-yán lüè-shū is one of very few surviving substantial Northern-dynasties Chinese commentaries on the Avataṃsaka-sūtra, and the only one that survives in something approaching its original form (the partial-survival of Huì-guāng’s Yì-jì in Japanese kanbun-period copy aside). It is therefore an important witness to the doctrinal substrate from which the Huá-yán-zōng of the Suí–Táng later emerged.
Links
- CBETA
- T09n0278 (the Liùshí huáyán, the host scripture)
- T85n2756 (Huìguāng’s Huáyánjīng yìjì, for comparison)
- T26n1522 (the Shídì jīnglùn, the work’s main proof-text)
- IDP records for Běidūn 01053 and S.2694