Dōnggāo lù 東皋錄
Record from East-Mound by 釋妙聲 (撰)
About the work
Dōnggāo lù 東皋錄 in three juǎn is the collected prose and verse of the YuánMíng transition monk Shì Miàoshēng 釋妙聲 (zì Jiǔgāo 九臯, c. 1320 – c. 1384), a Chán cleric originally of the Wú xiàn 吳縣 (Sūzhōu) Jǐngdé sì 景德寺 and later abbot in succession of the Chángshú Huìrì sì 常熟慧日寺 and the Píngjiāng Běichán sì 平江北禪寺. The title is from his sobriquet Dōnggāo 東皋 (“East-Mound”). The collection has three juǎn of verse and four juǎn of záwén in the original, but the printed text has merged them into three combined fascicles.
Tiyao
Examined respectfully: Dōnggāo lù, three juǎn, by the Míng monk Shì Miàoshēng 釋妙聲. Miàoshēng, zì Jiǔgāo 九臯, native of Wú xiàn 吳縣. At the end of the Yuán he resided at the Jǐngdé sì 景德寺; later he resided at the Chángshú Huìrì sì 常熟慧日寺; later still he presided at the Píngjiāng Běichán sì 平江北禪寺. In Hóngwǔ 3 (1370) he was summoned together with the monk Wànjīn 萬金 to take part in the regulation of Buddhist affairs in the empire. His prose and verse he kept in his mountain quarters; in Hóngwǔ 17 (1384) his disciple Déhuán 德瓛 first cut the blocks for them.
The Míng shǐ yìwén zhì 明史藝文志 and the Míng sēng hóngxiù jí 明僧宏秀集 both record the collection as seven juǎn. The present book bears the seal of the Jígǔgé 汲古閣 (Máo Jìn 毛晉’s library) and is a Máo-family manuscript; Máo’s prefatory note also states that it was cut by Déhuán in three juǎn of verse and four juǎn of záwén. The book before us, however, contains both záwén and shī in a total of three juǎn — evidently a consolidation made during the manuscript transmission. When Miàoshēng entered the Míng, he was already over sixty; the bulk of his prose and verse was composed in the Zhìzhèng era of the Yuán [1341–1368], so Gù Sìlì 顧嗣立 also includes the collection in his Yuán shī xuǎn 元詩選. But men outside the world [i.e. clerics] do not seek rank or salary, and one cannot determine their dynastic affiliation by whether they have held office; once he had presented himself at the imperial gate, he had already declared his allegiance to the new ruler and can no longer be styled an yílǎo (loyalist of the old). We therefore assign him to the Míng, following the actuality.
Miàoshēng was on cordial terms with 袁桷 袁桷, 張翥 張翥, 危素 危素, and others, and his work therefore has the flavour of shìfēng 士風 (literati style). At the time of the late-Yuán Lǐ disorders [the Lǐ Èr 李二 rebellion?] his pieces gǎnshì shūhuái (responding to events, expressing emotion) are often impassioned and quite readable. The miscellaneous prose is in clean, regulated genre; his four-six parallel prose still retains the legacy of the Southern Sòng. Among the zīliú 緇流 (Buddhist clergy), although unable to bring with him a halo of mist and clouds, he is still not the sort whose air smells of vegetable stalks and bamboo shoots [i.e. dull cleric-prose]. Reverently collated on the ninth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). General compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General collator: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The CANWWW dataset is for Buddhist Taishō texts and does not list Miàoshēng. The Sìkù tíyào’s resolution of his dynastic placement (Míng, not Yuán) is the principal authority. His lifedates are conventionally given as c. 1320 – c. 1384 (i.e. b. before 1320 if he was “already over sixty” entering the Míng in 1368–70). The collection’s content draws him into the YuánMíng transition literati circle of 袁桷, 張翥, 危素 KR4e0012, and his late-Yuán-era záwén (in four-six parallel prose) is one of the few surviving substantial bodies of clerical piāntǐ from the transition. The 1370 imperial summons (alongside the monk Wànjīn 萬金 of the Jǐngshān 徑山 line) to participate in the regulation of Buddhist affairs is recorded in the Hóngwǔ shí lù and in 宋濂’s prose.
Translations and research
- Yü Chün-fang. 1981. The Renewal of Buddhism in China: Chu-hung and the Late Ming Synthesis. Columbia UP. Treats the founding-Hóngwǔ regulation of Buddhism (the Hóngwǔ 5 zhèng-rì lì 洪武五正日例) in which Miào-shēng participated.
- Timothy Brook. 1993. Praying for Power: Buddhism and the Formation of Gentry Society in Late-Ming China. Harvard UP.
Other points of interest
- The text was kept in the Máo Jìn 毛晉 Jígǔgé 汲古閣 manuscript collection. Máo’s prefatory note records the Hóngwǔ 17 cutting by Déhuán in detail.
Links
- Miao Sheng (DDBC Buddhist persons)
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng biéjí).