Shinken 信堅 — Medieval Japanese Shingon 真言 scholar-monk of Mount Kōya 高野山, identified in the colophon to his only known canonical work as 高野山金剛佛子信堅 (“Vajra-disciple Shinken of Mount Kōya”). The colophon also records his composition “奉勅” — “by imperial command” — indicating that the work was prepared at the request of the imperial court. Precise lifedates and dynastic period are not preserved in standard biographical sources; on internal grounds (the work cites the late-Heian Shingi-Shingon literature but no clearly Kamakura material) composition is conventionally placed in the late Heian to early Kamakura period.
His sole surviving canonical work is the Shì móhēyǎn lùn sījì 釋摩訶衍論私記 (KR6o0096, T69n2289), a one-fascicle private sub-commentary on Nāgārjuna’s Shì móhēyǎn lùn KR6o0084 (T1668). The work is distinguished from the longer Shingon Shakuron commentaries by its explicit jin-ryaku (淺略, “shallow”) and jin-pi (深祕, “profoundly secret”) two-fold hermeneutic, which presents a public exoteric reading alongside an Esoteric interpretation only suitable for initiated readers.
DILA Buddhist Person Authority A000806.
Source: DILA A000806; transmission colophons of T69n2289.