The question of the authenticity of the Luelun Anle Jingduyi (Brief Discourse on the Pure Land of Bliss) has been a nagging problem within Shinshū studies since the Edo Period when the Tendai scholar Reikū first raised doubts whether it was truly authored by Tanluan. This text, however, is cited in Daochuo’s Anlechi (Collection of Passages on the Pure Land) compiled about eighty years after Tanluan’s death. Daochuo identifies Tanluan’s Zan Amituofo jie (Gāthās in Praise of Amida Buddha) as an authentic work by Tanluan by referring to the Brief Discourse on the Pure Land. Daochuo’s reference to this text is also consistent with the description found in Jiacai’s Chingtu lun (Discourse on the Pure Land). Based on this bibliographic evidence, it now seems likely that the Brief Discourse is Tanluan’s work.
Examining the content of the work also inspires confidence that Tanluan is the author. Passages about the Pure Land are similar to those found in Tanluan’s Commentary on Vasubandhu’s Discourse on the Pure Land, which is undoubtedly Tanluan’s work. The discussion of the ten thought-moments that are the cause for birth in the Pure Land is somewhat different in these two texts: in the Commentary, Tanluan states that it should be understood as mind; in the Brief Discourse, however, he states that it can be understood as both mind and practice (nembutsu). This difference may indicate that a development occurred within Tanluan’s Pure Land thought.
Although some maintain a cautious stance, I conclude that the Brief Discourse on the Pure Land of Bliss is authentically Tanluan’s work.
