Annotation on the "Abridged Manual for Cultivation and Realization of [Repentance] Ritual [based on] the Scripture of Perfect Enlightenment Bodhi Site" compiled by Jingyuan (1011-1088)= 《圓覺經道場略本修證儀》
This thesis includes an annotation on the Abridged Manual for Cultivation and Realization of [Repentance] Ritual [based on] the Scripture of Perfect Enlightenment Bodhi Site compiled by Jingyuan (1011-1088). Some portions of the translation version are placed in Appendix section. Generally, the Abridged Manual is the summary version of Zongmi’s 18 scrolls of Liturgy for Cultivation and Realization of Scripture of Perfect Enlightenment Bodhi Site. This study was done due to my interest in Huayan tradition and repentance practice in Chinese Buddhism. In addition, research on this Manual has not been done by any scholars; as a result, I selected this one scroll of Abridged Manual to be my major research topic. Since previous scholarly research and translation on this manual were rare to find, most of my academic references were from Chinese Buddhist Canons. Hence, I used the textual and historical analysis methods. My research objectives were to analyze the contents of this Abridged Manual and from it I could discover the history and procedure of repentance ritual in Chinese Buddhism particularly from the point of Huayan tradition. In short, because this one-scroll Abridged Manual was very succinct, most of its contents were ambiguous. I had to frequently referring to Zongmi’s Great Ritual to clarify its actual meanings. From Jingyuan’s point of view, Daoan (312-385) is the first person who wrote a formal repentance ritual, the Fivefold Repentance in his Essay of Four Sections of Repentance, in the Western Jin (265-316), and Zhiyi (538-597) is the first person who successively transformed repentance ritual into a well organized liturgical practice. Repentance liturgies which compiled by Zongmi and Jingyuan were different from others as their Invitation ceremony was held before the Offering ceremony, and their main statues which enshrined in the Bodhi site were the Three Sages of Huayan. Simultaneously, this Manual encompasses the repentance of principle and phenomena. My studies were just a general research on this topic, further profound and specify studies could be done, and hopefully my immature research could be an academic reference.
