344 george a. keyworth1796.39:579b29–c01). This commentary is a landmark text for how it
made intelligible to an East Asian audience the often incomprehensible,
Sanskrit-laden terminology of the Mahāvairocana sūtra and other ritual
manuals (kalpa, yigui ), which set forth the actions—rather than the
doctrines—of the buddhas and bodhisattvas. In China and Korea, Yixing’s
discussion of the single path to awakening has largely been viewed through
the inclusive lens of either Tiantai (Tendai) or Huayan
doctrinal classification schemes. In Japan, where the distinct Tōmitsu
(Shingon ) and Taimitsu (Tendai) traditions developed
apart from other forms of Sinitic Buddhism, Yixing has been viewed as
the formative interpreter of the Mahāvairocana sūtra’s womb mandala.
In addition to his work with Śubhākarasiṃha on the Mahāvairocana
sūtra, Yixing also co-translated the One Hundred and Eight Dharmakāya
Mudrās of Vairocana According to the Vajraśekhara sūtra (Jin’gangding
jing Piluzhe’na yibaibazun fashen qiyin
, T. 877), and is credited with six other texts in the
Taishō-era Sino-Japanese Buddhist canon. One of these is the Proce-
dures to Acquire Wishes from the Secret Techniques of the Innumer-
ably Compassionate Mañjuśrī-Yamāntaka (Manshusheli Yanmandejia
wan’ai mishu ruyifa , T. 1219),
which influenced Daoist liturgical spell practices (Sakade 1999). The
remaining texts include ritual manuals, including the Manual on the
Cultivation of Mahāvairocana’s Dharma-Eye (Dapiluzhe’na foyan
xiuxing yigui , T. 981) and the Manual of
the Spell to Remove Obstacles and Ward off Calamities by means of
Bhaiṣajyaguruvaidūryaprabha-[rāja] (Yaoshi liuliguang rulai xiaozai
chunan niansong yigui , T. 922);
and materials that concern Indian astronomy and cosmology: the Man-
ual of the Constellations and Celestial Bodies (Suyao yigui ,
T. 1304), the Procedures for Distinguishing the Movements of the Stars
According to the Seven Planets (graha-nakṣatra) (Qiyao xingchen biex-
ingfa , T. 1309), and the Procedures for the Fire Ritual
for the Seventh Luminary (Ursa Major or Sapta-rsi-tārā)̣ (Beidouqixing
humofa , T. 1310).
It is regrettable that the breadth and depth of Yixing’s erudition has
largely eluded Western scholarship on China, with the single excep-
tion of Joseph Needham’s (1959) remarkable study of science in pre-
modern China.