National Treasures & Important Cultural Properties
of National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan

This manuscript is volume six of a commentary on the Flower Garland Sutra, known in Chinese as Huayan wenyiji (J., Kegon mongiki), based on the translation of the Lotus Sutra (in sixty volumes) by the Indian monk Buddhabhadra (359-429) during the Eastern Jin dynasty (317-342). The inscription below the title tells us that the Chinese sramana monk Lingyu (n.d.) collected this set of sutras for the temple Baoshan si in 559 Lingyu’s name appears in chapter 9 of Xu gaosengzhuan (Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks), where a set of nine scrolls including a commentary on the Flower Garland Sutra is mentioned, indicating that the volume here may have been part of this set. This volume is the only extant copy of this commentary, whose transcription date it appears to be around the later half of the sixth century not long after its compilation. The manuscript was originally formatted as a scroll, then reformatted into an accordion book, and then returned to its original form as a handscroll.