Regarding the significance of the Fanwang jing among the apocryphal texts that deal with the forty stages, those texts compiled shortly after the Fanwang jing, such as the Pusa yingluo benye jing (菩薩瓔珞本業經, T 1485), included better organized and more comprehensive discussions of this topic. In fact, the classical Chinese text that comprises the first fascicle of the Brahmāʼs Net Sutra is virtually impenetrable, written in a rough, almost childlike style, highly deficient in standard Chinese grammatical particles that enable the reader to parse the text. As a result, the first fascicle of the Fanwang jing has been almost entirely ignored, by classical commentators as well as modern scholars (a notable exception to this is the full commentary on the text by Daehyeon 大賢, the Beommanggyeong gojeokgi 梵網經古迹記, T 1815).

The second fascicle, on the other hand, became one of the most intensively studied works in the East Asian tradition—a text of interest to scholars from virtually every East Asian Mahāyāna tradition. By the end of the fifth century, the second fascicle of the Fanwang jing was circulating in China as an independent text on the precepts. This second fascicle, which standing alone has been called the 'Chapter' or “The Book of the Bodhisattva Precepts” has been highly regarded in the East Asian Buddhist tradition as laying a foundation for the so-called Mahāyāna precepts tradition (大乘戒/菩薩戒), and became the basic canonical work for defining the Vinaya in Mahāyāna.

Major commentaries include:

• The 菩薩戒義疏 (T 1811, by Zhiyi 智顗 and Zhanding 灌頂)
• The 梵網經菩薩戒本私記 (HBJ 1.586–604, by Wonhyo 元曉)
• The 天台菩薩戒疏 (T 1812, by Zhiyi 智顗)
• The 梵網經菩薩戒本疏 (T 1813, by Fazang 法藏)
• The 菩薩戒本疏 (T 1814, by Uijeok 義寂)
• The 梵網經古迹記 (T 1815, by Daehyeon 大賢) [Note: Daehyeonʼs commentary has scores of subcommentaries written on it. See under that entry for details.]

Other Silla Commentarial Works on the Brahmāʼs Net Sutra

References:

Funayama Tōru. 2010. “Bonmōkyō no shohon no ni keitō 梵網經諸本の二系統 .” Toho gakuhoKyoto Daigaku Jinbun kagaku kenkusho   80 : 178–211.

----. 2011. “Bonmōkyō geken sengyo no sai kentō 梵網經下卷先行說の再檢討 .”  In Sankyō kyōshō ronsō zokuhen 三敎交涉論叢續編 . Kyoto daigaku jinbun kagaku kenkyūjo 京都大学人文科学研究所.

Groner, Paul. 1990. “The Fan-wang ching and Monastic Discipline in Japanese Tendai: A Study of Annenʼs Futsū jubosatsukai koshaku.”  In Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha. Honolulu:  University of Hawai`i Press. 251–290.

----. 2005. “Tradition And Innovation: Eisonʼs Self-Ordinations And the Establishment of New Orders of Buddhist Practitioners.”  In Bodiford, William M., ed. Going Forth: Visions of Buddhist Vinaya (Essays Presented in Honor of Professor Stanley Weinstein. Honolulu:  University of Hawaii Press.

Hui Seng 慧僧. 1981. The Buddha Speaks the Brahmā Net Sutra: The Ten Major and Forty-eight Minor Bodhisattva Precepts. Talmadge, Ca.:  Buddhist Text Translation Society.

Muller, A. Charles. 2012. The Collected Works of Korean Buddhism: Volume XI: 梵網經古迹記 Exposition of the Sutra of Brahmāʼs Net. Seoul:  Compilation Committee of Korean Buddhist Thought, Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism.

Yamabe, Nobuyoshi. 2005. “Visionary Repentance And Visionary Ordination In the Brahmā Net Sūtra.”  In Bodiford, William M., ed. Going Forth: Visions of Buddhist Vinaya (Essays Presented in Honor of Professor Stanley Weinstein. Honolulu:  University of Hawaii Press.

[Chinese Buddhist Canonical Attributions Database]

[European Language Translations]