靈辯撰 《華嚴經論》의 流布와 現存狀況 -서울大 奎章閣 所藏 《花嚴經論》과 관련하여-

On the Circulation of Lingbian's Huayanjing-lun

Lingbian(靈辯, 477-522 A.D.) was the Buddhist scholar of North Wei dynasty. He studied the Huayanjing(華嚴經, Avatamsaka-sutra) in Mt. Wutai, and wrote the Huayanjing-lun(華嚴經論), the commentary on the Sutra, from 516 to 520 A.D. Being the earliest commentary, it explains each phrases of the Sutra in great detail and reaches up to 100 volumes. According to the biography of Lingbian written by Fazang(法藏) in the 7th century, the Huayanjing-lun was not much read and forgotten among the Buddhist scholars in the capital of Tang dynasty. After 683 A.D. when the Huayanjing-lun was rediscovered by the Huayan scholars in a temple near Mt. Wutai, this book was regarded as one of the most important commentary. But the interest in the Huayanjing-lun diminished gradually since Sung dynasty. Now, only a little bit of fragments of the commentary, discovered among the Tunhuang Documents, remains in China. Meanwhile the Huayanjing-lun was introduced into Silla dynasty in the end of the 7th century, which was handed into Ancient Japan by Simsang(審詳) and Jikin(慈訓), who were related to Silla's Huayan school, in the first half of the 8th century. But they had possessed only the first half part(vol. 1-50) of the whole quantity of 100 volumes. Moreover Huayan school in Japan declined in Heian period. As a result of that, the whole quantity of the commentary was not introduced into Japan. Now, only 6 volumes(vol. 3, 10, 14, 16, 17, 18) in the first half part of the commentary remains in Japan. These were discovered at Japanese Huayan temple and Shogojo(聖語藏) Archives, which are handcopy scriptures in Nara-Heian period. By the way, the whole quantity of the Huayanjing-lun was circulated in Koryo dynasty, succeed to Silla dynasty. Now, As a result of that, a book united 6 volumes(vol. 51-56), remains in Korea. Because this book is just a part of the second half of the whole 100 volumes which were not introduced into Japan, it is very significant to the studies on the circulation of Lingbian's Huayanjing-lun. This book is a possession of Kyujanggak(奎章閣), the archives of the Korean classics in Seoul Nation University, which was recently handcopy of the 6 volumes discovered at Songkwang Temple(松廣寺) Archives in 1930s. This origin of the 6 volumes vanished away during the Korean War, not found yet. But luckily the origin was examined and introduced by a Japanese scholar in 1940s. He inferred that this book was reissued in Choson dynasty from using Huayanjing-lun printed in Koryo dynasty. Compared to the whole quantity of 100 volumes, the extant volumes are just a bit of the Huayanjing-lun. But the remains are very important to understanding knowledge about the North Wei Buddhism, which became the foundation for most of the East Asian Buddhist schools.