Dedication verses in the opening part for questions from Wonhyo's P'anpiryangnon were introduced first in a journal named the Shoon (書苑) in Meiji 45 (1912). Fragments of the P'anpiryangnon in the Otani University Collection was discovered by Kanda...
Dedication verses in the opening part for questions from Wonhyo's P'anpiryangnon were introduced first in a journal named the Shoon (書苑) in Meiji 45 (1912). Fragments of the P'anpiryangnon in the Otani University Collection was discovered by Kanda Hisanobu (神田久信, 1854-1918)around Meiji 20 (1887). His grandson, Kanda Kiichiro (神田喜一郎, 1897-1984) inherited it. Afterwards, the fragments were studied by Hukihara Shoshin (富貴原章信). His work is regarded as significant in a way that it was the initial study on the P'anpiryangnon and formed a fundamental foundation of the bibliographical, philological, and philosophical research on the P'anpiryangnon in Japan and Korea. Furthermore, in April 2002, Kobayashi Yoshinori (小林芳規) reported that the Otani manuscript of the P'anpiryangnong had faded marks of marginal notes written in the Shilla language.
The initial study on the P'anpiryangnon by Hukihara Shoshin at 1967 shows several important findings. The first remark is the seal of Naikeshiin 「(內家私印)」 which is closely connected to Empress Kōmyō (光明皇后, 701-760), was stamped to the back of the paper in the overlapped part of the second and the third sheets. Secondly, although the P'anpiryangnon presumably consists of twenty-five sheets containing forty-four sections, only three sheets containing one hundred and five lines are extant. The surviving parts are eight sections, from the seventh to the fourteenth, and dedication verses in the opening part for questions.
For the sake of understanding of Wonhyo's P'anpiryangnon, Hukihara Shoshin provided a preparation stage for the interpretation of the P'anpiryangnon by explaining the theoretical background in Shilla dynasty when Wonhyo flourished and issues of Buddhist logic in regard with Consciousness-only inference (唯識比量). Meanwhile, Shoshin introduced another fragment which consists of eleven lines in the Sakai Ukichi (酒井宇吉) collection in 1969. Therefore, we can say that most of the later studies on the P'anpiryangnon are complements or reinterpretations of Shohin’s works. Afterwards, Miyazaki Kenji (宮崎健司) re-examined previous bibliographic studies in his article. His new arguments are as follows. He assumes that the date that Naikeshiin (內家私印) seal was stamped between the lifetime of Empress Kōmyō’s life and her death. He raises the possibility that the P'anpiryangnon was transcribed and transmitted by a Korean monk, Shinshō (審祥). He assumed that it would have been transcribed before 733.
The study on the P'anpiryangnong was introduced to Korea by Kim Ji-gyun while he was studying in Japan: it was two years later than that the first study was introduced in Japan. Afterwards, the recent distinct research on the philosophy of the P'anpiryangnon was done by Kim Sung-chul in 2003. He analyses the text by re-examining thoroughly incomplete manuscripts and the Otani manuscript of the P'anpiryangnon. Since then, he has continued to publish several research articles on the P'anpiryangnon. Other than his works, there are few articles which partly discuss each section.
Since the P'anpiryangnon has been transmitted to Japan from the Edo period in the form of handwriting collection which is called Tekagami (手鑑) and through the Tojigire (東寺切) calligraphed by Kōbō-Daishi, it was recently introduced and studied while some fragments and manuscripts were discovered by some collectors. The whole extent parts of the text, which has been known or publically reported so far, are only one-fifth of the P'anpiryangnon.