《觀音玄義》作者再考

A Re-examination of the Authorship of the Guanyin xuanyi

Regarding the issue of the authorship of Tiantai texts, Tetsuei SATO reminds us that some Tiantai texts attributed to Zhiyi (538-597) were not only altered by his disciples to incorporate their own ideas, but were also later fabricated or mixed with works by other authors. Research has shown that the Guanyin xuanyi 觀音玄義 (A Profound Meaning of Guanyin) is one such example, leading some scholars to conclude that it was actually written by Zhiyi's disciple Guanding (561-632). SATO points out that a manuscript of the Guanyin xuanyi from the end of the Kamakura period (1185-1333), preserved in the Kanasawa Bunko collection, does not bear an author's name. It wasn’t until the Keian era of the Edo period (1648) that the printed edition included the inscription “Recorded by Master (Guan) Ding of the Tiantai school” on its title page. SATO suggests that the process of establishing the authorship of the Guanyin xuanyi is therefore worth further examination. Although current scholarship has identified Guanding as the author of the Guanyin xuanyi, this paper will further explore the actual authorship of this work, questioning whether Guanding was indeed the only author involved. The paper does so by closely examining the transcription of specific Sanskrit words into Chinese characters and highlighting instances where inconsistent transcriptions occur. Such cases demonstrate that the texts we have today were not solely authored by Guanding, suggesting that some parts were later added by Tiantai monks during the Tang dynasty.