Tracing the Formation Process of the Printed Edition of Tanyan's Commentary on the Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna

Tanyan's 曇延 (516-588) Dacheng qixinlun yishu 大乘起信論義疏 (the Commentary on the Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna, hereafter referred to as the “Tanyan Commentary”) is an annotated work on the Dacheng qixinlun 大乘起信論 (the Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna, hereafter referred to as the Awakening of Faith), traditionally attributed to Paramārtha (499-569) as well as one of the oldest surviving commentary on the Awakening of Faith. This paper aims to lay the groundwork for further research on the Tanyan Commentary by examining textual issues within its extant versions. Currently, the only widely accessible version of the Tanyan Commentary is the one included in the Dainihon Zokuzōkyō 大日本續藏經, published in 1909 at Japan (hereafter referred to as the “Zokuzōkyō Version”). However, this printed text is riddled with numerous issues. Previous studies on the textual issues of the Tanyan Commentary, such as those by MOCHIZUKI Shinkō 望月信亨 (1922) and TAKASAKI Jikidō 高崎直道 (2009 [1997]), reference only three manuscript versions of the commentary. Building on these prior works, this paper examines the textual issues of the Tanyan Commentary using thirteen manuscript versions that the author has identified to date. Particular attention will be given to the formation process of the Zokuzōkyō Version, the sole printed edition, to shed light on the textual problems of the Tanyan Commentary. The research conclusions are as follows: 1. Thirteen manuscript versions of Tanyan Commentary are extant in Japan. 2. These manuscript versions can be divided into three groups from A to C. 3. The texts of Group A embodies the best quality. Group B comes next, Group C embodies the worst. 4. Zokuzōkyō Version belongs to Group C. 5. The texts of group C has been inherited in the following order: the second manuscript belonging to Ryūkoku (龍谷) University → the third manuscript belonging to Ryūkoku University → the manuscript belonging to Kyoto (京都) University → Zokuzōkyō Version. 6. The latter three frequently altered the original texts without any comment.