An Anthology of East Asian Commentaries on the Nyāyapraveśa

Book excerpt: An Anthology of East Asian Commentaries on the Nyāyapraveśa is a manual of Buddhist Logic by the scholar-monk Bak Hanyeong 朴漢永(1870–1948). Bak Hanyeong participated in the establishment movement of the Imje Buddhist Order 臨濟宗 in 1911, attempting to maintain authenticity of Korean Buddhist tradition. He served as principle of the Jung’ang Professional School of Buddhism (Jung’ang Bulgyo Jeonmunhakgyo 中央佛敎專門學校), the highest educational institute for Buddhism, and right after Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule in 1945, he was appointed as the first Supreme Patriarch of the Administrative Headquarters of Korean Buddhist Order (Joseon Bulgyo Jung’ang Chongmuweon 朝鮮佛敎中央總務院). An Anthology of East Asian Commentaries on the Nyāyapraveśa is a selected collection of East Asian commentaries on Xuanzang’s Chinese translation (647) of Śaṇkarasvāṇmin’s (ca. the late 6th century) Nyāyapraveśa. This work is written by centering on Ming dynasty Yogācāra monk Mingyu’s 明昱 (d.u.) commentary, the Yinming ruzhengli lun zhishu 因明入正理論直疏, along with Bak Hanyeong’s own “supplementary explanations” (bohae 補解) and “additional comments” (jeungju 增註), and also cites Zhixu’s 智旭 (1599–1655) commentary, the Yinming ruzhengli lun zhijie 因明入正理論直解. The expression hoeseok in the title means “to reconcile [conflicting] interpretations.” Although An Anthology of East Asian Commentaries on the Nyāyapraveśa is not Bak Hanyeong’s original arguments, it is one of important sources for the study of the modern Korean Buddhism, since this work contains detailed explanations of the commentaries on such a specific area as Buddhist Logic and thus represents Korean Buddhist scholastic standards of the modern period. The base texts for the translation are the edition of the Bulgyo jung’ang hangnim (1916) and the edition of the Jibang hagnim at Songgwang Monastary (1920). Both texts end with the phrase “The śramaṇa Gusan has interpreted [the Nyāyapraveśa] by reconciling [conflicting] interpretations” (龜山沙門會釋).