Chi Limei 池麗梅
(British Columbia University, Asian Studies Department, PhD Programme)
Textual Lineages in the Transmission of the Manuscript of the Mohe zhiguan, Scroll I, in the International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies Collection
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The Mohe zhiguan 摩訶止觀 or The Great Tranquillity and Insight (Taishō
Canon, Vol. 46, No. 1911) represents a series of lectures given by the
Great Tiantai Master Zhiyi 天台大師智顗 (538-597) during the summer retreat of
594 (year 14 of the Kaihuang era 開皇十四年) at the Yuquan Temple 玉泉寺 situated
in the province of Xingzhou 荊州. The text was established by Zhang’an Guanding
章安灌頂 (561-632), one of Zhiyi’s disciples, who took notes of and edited
the Master’s oral exposition. Actually it seems that Guanding worked time
and again on editing and polishing the text and the Mohe zhiguan assumed
its final form sometime between 606 (year 2 of the Daye era 大業二年) and 632
(year 6 of the Zhenguan Era 貞觀六年), the latter actually being the year of
Guanding’s death.
This editorial history appears to have produced a few versions of the
Mohe zhiguan. We know that during the life of Xingxi Zhanran 荊渓湛然 (711-782),
the Sixth Tiantai Patriarch, the text still circulated in three versions.
Only one, called the ‘third version’ 第三本, survived precisely because it
was used by Zhanran as the basis of his Zhiguan fuxing zhuan hongjue 止觀輔行傳弘決.
The ‘first version’ 第一本 and the ‘second version’ 第二本 appear to have later
been lost. The version used by Zhanran is the extant text entitled Mohe
zhiguan 摩訶止觀, which begins with the phrase zhi guan ming jing 止觀明静 and
comprises ten scrolls 十巻.
The most widely used editions nowadays are the Taishō Canon text and,
especially in Japan, the version found in the Bukkyō taikei 佛教体系 (also
adopted by the Tendai daishi zenshū 天台大師全集). There are quite a few divergences
between the two versions, and lately it has become increasingly frequent
to use the Taishō edition as the basic text and collate it with the Bukkyō
taikei readings. Comparing various editions is, no doubt, a basic task
of all philological research, but in this particular case, one cannot help
questioning the historical foundation as well as the meaning of such an
endeavour. The reason is simple: we know that the Taishō Tripiｔaka used the Ming Edition of the Buddhist Canon 明版 as its master copy,
but we have no information concerning the sources used by the Bukkyō taikei
in establishing its edition. The nature of the variant readings found in
the latter version is, therefore, unclear. The only way to find an answer
and establish a trustworthy edition of the Mohe zhiguan is to look into
the manuscript transmission of the text in China and Japan.
The manuscript of Scroll I of the Mohe zhiguan in the International
College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies (ICPBS) Collection offers a unique
chance to understand the transmission of the text. The scroll, which dates
back to the mid-Heian Period, is believed to be the oldest extant manuscript
of the Mohe zhiguan. Together with the Kongō-ji manuscript which contains
the entire text and was copied in the 12th century, it represents an extremely
important witness reflecting the Mohe zhiguan version transmitted to Japan.
We are still at an early stage of our research, but there is little doubt
that once the lineage of the ancient Japanese manuscripts is determined,
the historical relevance of the textual differences from the Ming version
will become clear. This will eventually lead to a much better understanding
of the place occupied by the ancient Japanese manuscripts (including Scroll
I of the ICPBS Collection) in the general stemma of textual transmission
of the Mohe zhiguan in East Asia. Last but not least, the collation of
various versions and the philological analysis of the relations between
the lineage of Japanese manuscripts and the lineage of printed Chinese
editions will provide a solid basis for establishing a reliable critical
edition of the text.
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