Chapter 3 · Guanding's Compilation and Zhanran's Revival

Part One · Sources and Formation

The last chapter ended with an entrustment: the Dharma had been placed in Zhiyi's hands. Yet throughout his life the Great Master Zhizhe taught orally and did almost no writing himself. If you can open the Three Great Works today, it is because of two other brushes: that of Zhang'an Guanding in the Sui and that of Piling Zhanran in the Tang. One brush turned spoken words into books; the other fastened those books back to their lineage. This chapter lets the two brushes speak for themselves.

1 · He Taught for a Summer—and Did Not Finish

Chapter 0 quoted the first eight characters of the Mohe Zhiguan. The latter half of Guanding's opening account matters even more. The punctuation is reproduced from the source:

「Though his delight in speaking was inexhaustible, he had barely reached 『contemplating objects』 when the Dharma-wheel stopped turning; the latter portion was not proclaimed.」 〔灌頂記《摩訶止觀》卷一·T46n1911 0001a09–10·待譯；「見境」引號為底本自有〕 『In today's words: Although his delight in speaking was inexhaustible, he had only reached 「contemplating objects」 when the Dharma-wheel stopped turning—the later portion was never proclaimed.』

That summer at Yuquan, the teaching stopped at 「contemplating objects」. What followed was never taught. On its first page, the Mohe Zhiguan, one of the Three Great Works, tells you that it is an unfinished book. Precisely because it is unfinished, the value of its record becomes even clearer. Who wrote down what had been taught? The book answers within its running text:

「As for the text of perfect-and-sudden contemplation, it is the ten fascicles recorded by Guanding at Yuquan Monastery in Jingzhou.」 〔同書·0003a09–10；「荊洲」字形照錄〕 『In today's words: The text of perfect-and-sudden calming-and-contemplation is the ten fascicles that Guanding recorded at Yuquan Monastery in Jingzhou.』

2 · The Brush of Zhang'an

How did Guanding make his record? At the opening of the Fahua Xuanyi, he recounts it himself in his preface:

「Fortunate indeed was Guanding! Formerly at Jianye, I first heard the words of the sutra; next, in Jiangling, I was honored to receive the Profound Meaning; late in life I returned to the Tiantai range and there encountered the master's passing. Traveling back and forth between Jingzhou and Yangzhou, over a road of nearly ten thousand li, joining and supplementing what came before and after, I barely heard it through once.」 〔灌頂序《妙法蓮華經玄義》·T33n1716 0681a15–18·待譯〕 『In today's words: How fortunate Guanding was! In earlier years at Jianye he first heard the sutra text; next, at Jiangling, he received the Profound Meaning; late in life he returned to the Tiantai range and there encountered the master's passing. He traveled back and forth between Jingzhou and Yangzhou, nearly ten thousand li, joining and supplementing the earlier and later teachings until he had heard one complete run through.』

At Jianye he heard the words of the sutra; at Jiangling he received the Profound Meaning; in the Tiantai range he encountered the master's passing. He crossed nearly ten thousand li between Jingzhou and Yangzhou, joining what came before to what came after, just to assemble one complete hearing. Once. Every reader who opens the ten fascicles of the Profound Meaning today is reading the fruit of that single hearing. Then comes his reason for setting it down:

「If these words were to fall away, those to come would be pitiable.」 〔同序·0681a20–21〕 『In today's words: If these words were lost, people in the future would be pitiable.』

「Thereupon I followed the sacred canon, wrote them down, and transmitted them—the Profound Meaning and the Words and Phrases, ten fascicles each.」 〔同序·0681a22–23〕 『In today's words: And so I followed the sacred canon, wrote the teachings down, and transmitted them—the Profound Meaning and the Words and Phrases, ten fascicles each.』

If these words were lost, people in the future would be pitiable—so he wrote them down. The readers he held in mind had not yet been born. Beneath the fascicle title in the Fahua Wenju, the source preserves an interlinear note that sums up Guanding's life:

「At twenty-seven I heard and received this at Jinling; at sixty-nine I added and revised it at Danqiu. I leave it as a gift for later worthies, so that together we may aspire to the Buddha's wisdom」 〔《妙法蓮華經文句》卷題夾註·T34n1718 0001b21–22·待譯·底本句末無標點〕 『In today's words: At twenty-seven I heard and received it at Jinling; at sixty-nine I was still adding and revising it at Danqiu. I leave it as a gift for later worthies, so that together we may aspire to the Buddha's wisdom.』

He heard it at twenty-seven and was still revising it at sixty-nine—a book worked over for more than forty years. At the end, four characters state his motive: that all might aspire together to the Buddha's wisdom. How did later generations describe such a record? Zhanran supplied a definition:

「As for a 『private record,』 the Venerable Zhang'an personally recorded in Jiangling what the Great Master taught; it was not produced together with anyone else, and therefore it is called private.」 〔湛然《法華玄義釋籤》·T33n1717 0815b10–11·待譯〕 『In today's words: A private record means that the Venerable Zhang'an personally recorded in Jiangling what the Great Master taught. It was not jointly produced with others, and so it is called private.』

(A Tang preface by Shenjiong at the opening of the Wenju separately calls it 「Dharma Master Guanding's private record」 〔T34n1718 0001a23–24〕. The preface writer's statement and the title attribution in the main text belong to distinct layers, as recorded in the textual studies for the individual chapters.)

3 · The Brush of Jingxi

More than a century after Zhang'an's death, the record faced a new problem: copying introduced errors, and readers lost their point of reliance. At the opening of the Zhiguan Fuxing Chuanhong Jue, the preface by Pumenzi names the line of transmission:

「Thereupon it was entrusted to Guanding. Master Ding drew it out and extended it. Reverently upholding and widely recording it, he caused the doors and windows of the teaching to shine anew.」 〔普門子序《止觀輔行傳弘決》·T46n1912 0141a17–18·待譯〕 『In today's words: Thereupon it was entrusted to Guanding. Master Ding drew it out and extended it; reverently upholding it, he made extensive records—and from that point the doors and windows of the teaching shone brightly again.』

The preface lists those after Guanding—Fahua Wei, Tiangong Wei, and Zuoxi Xuanlang, then Zhanran, in the preface writer's own account—and follows with a sentence naming the illness of the age:

「The succession had continued for four generations and nearly two hundred years. Fish-and-lu copyists' errors had arisen, and differences were not absent.」 〔同序·0141a24–25〕 『In today's words: The succession had continued for four generations and nearly two hundred years. Fish-and-lu errors—copyists mistaking one similar character for another—had arisen, and there were indeed discrepancies.』

Four generations of transmission, nearly two hundred years: errors between 「fish」 and 「lu」 had already appeared. The longer a book was transmitted, the farther it moved from the words first spoken. That was the fate of every manuscript age. Zhanran answered by composing a commentary for each of the Three Great Works. At the opening of the Shiqian, he describes how his brush began:

「Formerly in the Tiantai range, I recorded beneath the slips in response to those who asked questions」 〔湛然《法華玄義釋籤》·T33n1717 0815b05·待譯〕 『In today's words: Formerly in the Tiantai range, as people asked questions, I made records beneath the slips.』

He recorded answers as questions arose, later returning to Piling to embellish them, presenting what he understood to later worthies and daring to hope that they would add and delete as needed—his own words in that same passage. At the opening of the Fuxing, he counts out ten reasons for writing his commentary:

「In recounting the causes for this work, there are ten intentions in all. First, so that people may know there is a lineage and that it is not an arbitrary product of personal fancy or a private departure from the master's intent. Second, for those who once received the lineage but abandon the root and follow teachings they have not seen. Third, for later generations who transmit it in turn, give rise to divergent understandings, and lose their original reliance. Fourth, for those who trust this school and delight in its practice but live elsewhere with no teacher from whom to receive it. Fifth, for those who cultivate both doctrine and contemplation and like to rely on the teaching texts, so that practice and understanding may both be complete. Sixth, to indicate the joints, the broad and the concise, the beginnings and endings, and the essential purport of the text. Seventh, to establish the master's understanding so that it does not sink into oblivion and may benefit the future. Eighth, to nourish my own contemplative understanding, guard against error, and make inquiry easier. Ninth, to expose what I understand, lest there be confusion or forgetting, and to seek correction and deletion. Tenth, to accord with the Buddha's intent, exercise a mind of great compassion, and practice benefiting others.」 〔湛然《止觀輔行傳弘決》·T46n1912 0141b20–29·待譯〕 『In today's words: This account of the work's origin has ten intentions. First, to let people know that there is a lineage—that it is not whatever one's private fancy invents or a personal deviation from the master's intent. Second, for those who once had a lineage but abandoned the root to follow teachings they had never seen. Third, for later generations who transmit it in turn, gradually form divergent understandings, and lose their original reliance. Fourth, for those who trust this school and delight in its practice but live elsewhere with no teacher from whom to receive it. Fifth, for those who cultivate both doctrine and contemplation and like to rely on the teaching texts, so that practice and understanding may both be complete. Sixth, to indicate the joints, the broad and the concise, the beginnings and endings, and the essential purport of the text. Seventh, to establish the former master's understanding so that it does not sink into oblivion and may benefit the future. Eighth, to nourish one's own contemplative understanding, guard against error, and make inquiry easier. Ninth, to expose one's own understanding, lest there be confusion or forgetting, and to ask others to correct and delete it. Tenth, to accord with the Buddha's intent, exercise the mind of great compassion, and perform the practice of benefiting others.』

The first of the ten intentions is 「lineage」; the last is 「great compassion」. Writing a commentary was not a compulsion to annotate books. It was the protection of the Dharma. Zhanran also established the textual form of the Mohe Zhiguan:

「This one work had three successive versions.」 〔同書·0141b29–0141c01〕 『In today's words: This work had three successive versions.』

「The third should be regarded as the revised version; it need not be called the abbreviated version.」 〔同書·0141c07–08〕 『In today's words: The third should be regarded as the revised version; it need not be called the abbreviated version.』

Zhanran states plainly, 「The one that begins, ‘Calming and contemplation, lucid and still,’ is it. What we now receive is precisely the third version」 〔0141c04–05〕. What you read today is the third, revised version. That determination is itself part of Zhanran's work as a textual scholar. The preface says that he 「composed the Fuxing commentary in ten fascicles」 〔0141a27〕. He also wrote the short treatise Jingang Pi. In an interlinear note beneath its title he describes its form: 「By means of a dream, I lodge the account in a traveler and establish host and guest. May the reader forgive it」 〔T46n1932 0781a18·待譯·夾註〕. Its existence is recorded here; its meaning awaits translation.

4 · What Brought the Works Down to the Present?

What brought the Three Great Works down to the present day? This chapter answers with a visible chain. Zhizhe taught but seldom wrote (Shenjiong's preface says that over more than thirty years he 「had only the Vimalakīrti Commentary」); Zhang'an joined and supplemented the teachings until he had heard them once through, then spent more than forty years adding and revising them into books; and when 「nearly two hundred years」 had brought mounting fish-and-lu errors, Zhanran fastened the works back to their lineage through his three commentaries. Speaker, recorder, interpreter: three generations, each fulfilling one task. Remove a single link and the book would not be in your hands. Once the books had been transmitted in a settled form, how did later generations read them, and why did disputes arise? That is the next chapter.

Author · Shi Huijing CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · 二〇二六 · 夏