The commentaries on the Vimalakīrti Nirdeśa Sūtra preserved in the Dunhuang manuscripts are crucial to the study of Buddhist literature. In particular, the manuscripts of the Weimo yiji (Record of Meanings of the Vimalakīrti Nirdeśa... more
The commentaries on the Vimalakīrti Nirdeśa Sūtra preserved in the Dunhuang manuscripts are crucial to the study of Buddhist literature. In particular, the manuscripts of the Weimo yiji (Record of Meanings of the Vimalakīrti Nirdeśa Sūtra), for its early dates, illustrated the popularity of this scripture in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the doctrinal interpretations of this scripture, and the development of the Buddhist doctrinal commentaries. This paper aims to offer a comprehensive investigation of various manuscripts of the Weimo yiji in numerous Dunhuang and Turfan collections for an analysis. So far seventeen manuscripts from Dunhuang and four manuscripts from Turfan have been identified. This paper attempts to date them and categorize them into five transmission traditions based on their content, including the one from Dunhuang and another one by Huiyuan. This paper focuses on the entries in catalogues and their verifications, the commentaries and their sources, and the original commentaries and their additions. It also deals with the compilation of these five traditions, the manuscript traditions, and the colophons of the manuscripts.
