Lúshān jì 廬山記
Records of Mt. Lú by 陳舜兪 (Chén Shùnyú, d. 1074) — zhuàn 撰 with appended Lúshān lüèjì 廬山略記 (1 juan) by 釋慧遠 (Shì Huìyuǎn, 334–416) — zhuàn 撰
About the work
A 3-juan Northern Sòng monograph on Mt. Lú in Jiāngzhōu, composed by Chén Shùnyú during his Xī-níng-era exile to Nánkāng for opposing Wáng Ānshí’s Qīngmiáo (Green Sprouts) law. Chén made a 60-day comprehensive tour of Mt. Lú with the retired Liú Huàn 劉渙 (a man Chén describes as having previously made unsystematic field notes), reading by night and walking by day, examining inscriptions and oral tradition. The Sìkù tíyào notes that — like the imperfect Táng-era monographs of Huìyuǎn and Zhōu Jǐngwǔ that Chén faulted — the present 3-juan text is also incomplete: the table of contents lists Zǒngxù shān (1), Xù běi shān (2), Xù nán shān (3), then “fourth” and “fifth” chapters that are missing in both the present version and in the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn recension; the appended Lúshān lüèjì by Huìyuǎn (the Eastern Jìn founder of Pure-Land Buddhism, who founded the Mt. Lú Tōngyuánsì) was added by an unknown later hand.
Tiyao
We respectfully note: this is the work of Chén Shùnyú 陳舜兪 of the Sòng. Shùnyú, zì Lìngjǔ 令舉, of Wūchéng 烏程 (Húzhōu); the place where he resided was Báiniúcūn 白牛村, hence his self-style Báiniú jūshì 白牛居士. Jìnshì of Qìnglì 6 (1046); first place in the Special Examination of Jiāyòu 4 (1059); rose to Dūguān yuánwàiláng. In the Xīníng era he was prefected to Shānyīn County; for not implementing the Qīngmiáo law he was demoted to Tax Inspector at Nánkāng. His career is recorded in the Sòngshǐ.
When Shùnyú was demoted-official, with the retired Liú Huàn 劉渙 he toured Mt. Lú. He once spent sixty days in the effort, exhausting the scenery of the southern and northern mountains. Always grieving that the works of Huìyuǎn 慧遠 and Zhōu Jǐngwǔ 周景武 — the older mountain-records — were sketchy and incomplete; and that Liú Huàn had once made miscellaneous notes of what he had heard and seen but had not had time to put them into order — Shùnyú thereupon adopted his findings, joined them with the records and oral tradition of the elders. By day he walked the mountain; by night he opened books and verified. Deep pools and isolated stones — all are recorded without omission. He weighed right and wrong, only what could be transmitted being so. He further produced a Fǔyǎng zhī tú (Map of Looking-Up-and-Down), with the order of mountain-tour as the head.
His own note: “When I first toured Mt. Lú, I asked among the mountain-people of the rise and fall of stupas and temples and the names of waters and rocks; none could speak to me. Even those who could, often inherited corruption and lost truth. I therefore took the Jiǔjiāng tújīng and the older miscellaneous records, and verified them against the standard histories — or personally went to the place to test the inscriptions and verify against the elderly. From this I composed the Lúshān jì. Where the matter is buried and lost and cannot be re-known, I have left the gap.”
The headings: Zǒngxù shān (Chapter 1), Xù běi shān (Chapter 2), Xù nán shān (Chapter 3); without Chapters 4 and 5. The Map also is not preserved. Examining the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn, the missing portions are the same. Yet Northern Sòng dìzhì texts are rarely transmitted; this book’s evidentiary investigation is precise and accurate, especially what subsequent Lúshān jìshèng texts cannot reach. Although broken and missing, it is still precious; hence we record and preserve it.
The Shì Huìyuǎn Lúshān lüèjì in 1 juan, formerly attached at the end of this version — by whom appended is unknown — we now also gather and preserve it for reference.
Abstract
Chén Shùnyú’s Lúshān jì is the principal Northern Sòng monograph on Mt. Lú and one of the most important Chinese mountain-monographs of the medieval period. Its author Chén Shùnyú (CBDB record by alternate id; d. 1074, jìnshì 1046, Special Examination first-rank 1059) was a major Sòng-era critic of Wáng Ānshí’s Qīngmiáo law: his refusal to implement the law as Shānyīn magistrate led to his demotion to Tax Inspector at Nánkāng, an exile that became the occasion of his Mt. Lú field-research. The 60-day tour with the retired Liú Huàn (1000–1080) is one of the most carefully-documented systematic mountain-investigations in pre-modern Chinese topographical literature.
The text is incomplete: the table of contents lists 5 chapters of which only 3 (Zǒngxù shān, Xù běi shān, Xù nán shān) survive; the Fǔyǎng zhī tú (Looking-Up-and-Down Map) has not been transmitted. The Sìkù compilers verified that the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn recension shows the same lacunae. The appended Lúshān lüèjì attributed to the Eastern Jìn monk Huìyuǎn 慧遠 (334–416, founder of the Mt. Lú Tōngyuánsì and originator of the Pure-Land tradition) is of uncertain authorship; the Sìkù compilers preserve it without firm attribution.
The text is preserved in the Wényuāngé Sìkù quánshū (vol. 585.2). It is a principal documentary source for the medieval Mt. Lú Buddhist temples (especially the Tōngyuánsì and the Báiliánshè cult-center) and for late-Táng / Sòng Mt. Lú stele-inscription corpus.
Translations and research
No comprehensive English translation. Cited and discussed in: Erik Zürcher, The Buddhist Conquest of China (Brill, 1959; rev. 2007), §3 on Huì-yuǎn and Mt. Lú; Daniel B. Stevenson, “The Pure Land School in Modern Chinese Buddhism,” in Heart of Buddha, Heart of China (Princeton, 2009); Tim H. Barrett, The Religious Affiliations of the Chinese Cat (LSE, 1998). For Chén Shùnyú’s biography see DMSB s.v. Ch’en Shun-yü; for the Wáng Ān-shí reform context see Peter K. Bol, “This Culture of Ours”: Intellectual Transitions in T’ang and Sung China (Stanford, 1992). For the Mt. Lú Buddhist tradition see Stephen Teiser, The Ghost Festival in Medieval China (Princeton, 1988).
Other points of interest
Chén Shùnyú’s incomplete Lúshān jì is the most rigorous medieval-Chinese topographical monograph in the genre — its 60-day field-tour-by-day, evidence-collation-by-night methodology stands in striking contrast to the more impressionistic Táng predecessors that Chén explicitly criticized. The loss of the planned chapters 4–5 and the Fǔyǎng zhī tú is one of the more regrettable lacunae in surviving Sòng-era topographical literature.