唯識=Weishi (Conscious-only); 晚明佛教=Late Ming Buddhism; 江戶佛教=Edo Buddhism; 《觀所緣緣論》=Guan suoyuanyuan lun
摘要
In the late Ming there was a renaissance of Weishi (consciousnessonly) in which at least thirty-fi ve Weishi commentaries were produced in China without access to the key Weishi commentaries authored by Kuiji, Huizhao, and Zhizhoh. On the other hand, the Weishi lineage of Faxiang Zong in Japan together with those key Weishi commentaries have never been interrupted since Tang dynasty. Due to the lost Weishi lineage and texts, those late Ming made Weishi commentaries have been in doubt and challenged. Especially some Weishi experts in Japan in the Edo period criticized some late Ming authors for producing valueless and incorrect Weishi commentaries. This article attempts to investigate if such challenges and criticisms are fair enough and if the differences between the late Ming commentaries and the Edo commentaries in terms of the access to the key Tang Weishi commentaries shape how these two groups understood and interpreted the same Weishi text.
Thus, this study selects Xuanzang’s Guan suoyuanyuan lun which is Xuanzang’s translation of Dignāga’s Ālambana-parīkṣā as a base text and compares two late Ming commentaries that were written by Mingyu and Zhixu with two Edo commentaries that were authored by Kiben and Kaidou. The analysis is conducted in two levels: the high-level analysis and the deeper dive analysis. In the high-level analysis, several interesting areas are identified including: 1) the Edo commentators had much longer commentator’s introduction. 2) Kiben, Kaidou and Mingyu spent most effort in commenting on the second verse & the second prose. 3) The quotation accounts for approximately 40% of the Edo commentaries. On the contrary, in the late Ming group Mingyu quoted about 10% and Zhixu quoted less than 1%. In the deeper-dive analysis of the sources and the frequencies of quotations, of the longer Edo commentator’s introduction, of the controversial about the second moon as “dṛṣṭānta” (example), of what making the appearance of the collection, and of what making the sense faculties, it is found that the access to the key Tang Weishi commentaries does significantly impact the commentators’ capacity to identify controversial issues, to distinguish different realists’ views, and to address the Weishi internal arguments. However, there are some occasions that commentators seemed choosing not to use all the sources that available to them. Several possibilities were discussed. In addition, the commentators’ different agendas, sense of subjectivity, and personal expertise also play important roles in determining whether and/or how they comments on what.
II. The late Ming Buddhism 36 A. Threat from Catholic missionaries B. Talks between Confucians and Buddhists C. The late Ming renaissance of Weishi D. Sanjiao tongyuan and Jushi Buddhism E. The talks between chan (禪) and jiang (講)
III. The Edo Buddhism 41 A. System of head and branch temple (寺院本末制度) B. Family-temple registration system (檀家制度) C. Scholarship and Training facilities (檀林) for Monks
IV. The Analysis of AP commentaries 43 A. High Level Analysis B. Deeper Dive Analysis
