Extended Meaning of the Tract on Hidden Merit阴骘文广义

Also known as

Abridged Extended Meaning of Lord Wenchang's Tract on Hidden Merit, Complete Works of Anshi (included)

Author / transmission

Zhou Mengyan (Anshi, 1656–1739)

Period

Qing · Composed by Zhou Mengyan of the Qing (style name Siren, sobriquet Anshi), probably completed between the late Kangxi and Yongzheng reigns; two fascicles, one of the works making up the Anshi quanshu.

Canon division

Outside the Canon (Qing-dynasty morality book)

Collected in

Outside the canon.

Category

Morality Books (Shanshu)

Fascicles

2 juan

Synopsis

Extended Meaning of the Tract on Hidden Merit is a commentary on the Tract on Hidden Merit composed by the Qing-dynasty lay Buddhist Zhou Mengyan (style name Siren, sobriquet Anshi), included in his Anshi quanshu (Anshi's Complete Books, which also contains the Wanshan xianzi, Yuhai huikuang, and Xigui zhizhi). The work provides a line-by-line exegesis of the Tract on Hidden Merit, drawing extensively on the scriptures, treatises, and historical and biographical narratives of the Three Teachings, with particular emphasis on the Buddhist doctrine of karmic cause and effect and rebirth, while also incorporating the Daoist concept of chengfu (inherited burden), ledgers of merit and demerit, and Confucian ethics; its argumentation is dense and its prose fluent, and it is regarded as one of the most doctrinally sophisticated of all morality-book commentaries. Zhou himself was a native of Kunshan near Suzhou and a devout adherent of Pure Land Buddhism; his commentary consistently directs the notion of 'hidden merit' toward practices such as abstaining from killing, protecting living creatures, renouncing lust, and reciting the Buddha's name, reflecting the confluence of lay Buddhism and the morality-book movement in Jiangnan during the Qing. In modern times, Master Yinguang praised the Anshi quanshu as 'the most extraordinary book for saving the world,' and vigorously promoted its circulation, ensuring the work's continued influence in Chinese society throughout the twentieth century. For the study of Daoism, it is a key text for observing how a Daoist morality book was received and reinterpreted by Buddhist lay practitioners.

Key Ideas

• One of the doctrinally most sophisticated commentaries on the Tract on Hidden Merit
• Draws extensively on the scriptures and historical narratives of the Three Teachings
• Subsumes the doctrine of hidden merit under Buddhist karmic causation
• Part of the Anshi quanshu and the Jiangnan lay-Buddhist movement
• The Buddhicized reinterpretation of a Daoist morality book

Structure

Two fascicles, providing a line-by-line exegesis with appended stories.

Editions

• Qing-dynasty printed edition of the Anshi quanshu
• Modern circulating edition promoted by Master Yinguang
• Various modern typeset editions

Translations

• Partial English translations (e.g. an abridged rendering as 'Safe Harbor' / Anshi quanshu)

Full Text & Online Resources

• Wikisource: Anshi quanshu
• CTEXT: search

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