全室外集

Quánshì wàijí 全室外集

The Outer Collection of [Master] Quán-shì by 釋宗泐 (撰)

About the work

Quánshì wàijí 全室外集 in nine juǎn with xùjí 續集 in one juǎn is the literary collection of the early-Míng Buddhist monk Shī Zōnglè 釋宗泐 (1318–1391), zì Jìtán 季潭**, hào Quánshì 全室, native of Línān 臨安 (Hángzhōu). In the early Hóngwǔ years recommended as a gāoxíng shāmén 高行沙門 (eminent-conduct monk) and ordered to the Tiānjièsì 天界寺 at Nánjīng; subsequently sent on imperial commission to the Western Regions (Central Asia / India) to seek surviving sūtras; on return appointed zuǒ shànshì 左善世 (chief Buddhist officer of the Míng court). Hóngwǔ Tàizǔ wished to appoint him to secular office; Zōnglè firmly declined, and Tàizǔ wrote a Miǎnguān shuō 免官說 (“Statement on Being Released from Office”) for him. Later, when Hú Wéiyōng 胡惟庸’s treason was discovered, Zōnglè was implicated by association but was specifically pardoned by Tàizǔ. The collection’s title wàijí — “outer collection” — reflects the Buddhist convention that Buddhist scriptures (Fójīng) are nèixué (inner learning) and secular verse and prose are wài (outer); compare the Sòng monk Dàocàn 道璨’s Liǔtáng wàijí 柳塘外集 (KR6q).

Tiyao

The Quánshì wàijí in nine juǎn, Xùjí in one juǎn — by the monk Zōnglè of the Míng. Zōnglè, zì Jìtán, native of Línān. In the early Hóngwǔ years he was jǔ gāoxíng shāmén 舉高行沙門; ordered to go to Tiānjièsì; soon ordered to go to the Xīyù 西域 to seek surviving sūtras; on return appointed zuǒ shànshì. Tàizǔ wished to grant him office; firmly declined; Tàizǔ composed the Miǎnguān shuō for him. Later when Hú Wéiyōng plotted treason, the cí (testimony) implicated Zōnglè; he was specifically pardoned. This compilation is titled wàijí: the Shì (Buddhist) take the Fójīng as nèixué, therefore taking verse-and-prose as wài — just like the Sòng shī Dàocàn’s Liǔtáng wàijí. The opening two juǎn are yìngzhì shī (verse on imperial command) and yuèfǔ gōngfó zànfó 供佛讃佛 (offering-and-praising-the-Buddha) various qǔ. Juǎn 3 to 8 are ancient and modern style verse. Juǎn 9 is shū (memorials) and tíbá (inscriptions and postscripts). Xùjí combines verse and prose; between the verse and prose, four pages are missing — the original count cannot be examined. What survives now is in all 36 poems and 15 tíbá pieces. The Qiānqǐngtáng shūmù makes Quánshì wàijí 10 juǎn — combining this xùjí with the main collection. Zōnglè, though he tuō jì zīliú (entrusted his tracks to the zīliú — the Buddhist monk’s stream), dǔ hào rúshù (sincerely loved Confucian art); therefore his verse has fēnggǔ gāoqiān (high-bone, exalted-soaring), able to kàngxíng (stand-in-rank) among the genuine zuòzhě. Xú Yīkuí 徐一夔 (KR4e0026) composed a preface for this collection saying: “Like a frost-dawn old crane whose call is heard in the jiǔgāo; like the zhūxián (vermilion strings) of the Qīngmiào, the qǔ zhōng sān tàn (when the tune ends, three sighs)“. To approach it: he is somewhere close to Jiǎo Rán 皎然 [Táng monk-poet] and Qí Jǐ 齊已 [Táng monk-poet] — not easy to say; in truth he is not below Qìsōng 契嵩 and Huìhóng 惠洪 [Sòng monk-poets]. With Jùqū wàishǐ Zhāng Yǔ 句曲外史張雨 (the Yuán Daoist painter — note: should be 句曲外史 Zhāng Yǔ 張雨, the Yuán Daoist of KR4d0544, not the Wúzhōng Sìjié 張羽 of KR4e0042) he is jointly an outstanding fāngwài (outside-the-mainstream / monastic) figure of the YuánMíng transition. The Qiānqǐngtáng shūmù further records that Zōnglè has a Xīyóu jí 西游集 in one juǎn — composed during his sūtra-mission travels both ways. His jiànwén (seen-and-heard) being unusual, what he recorded must have been worth seeing. We have not seen the copy today; existence-or-loss is unknown. Xú Zhēnqīng 徐禎卿’s Jiǎnshèng yěwén 翦勝野聞 says: “Zōnglè was sent on mission to the Western Regions but did not reach the land; en route he met a shénsēng (spirit-monk) who magically transformed and returned” — this is probably because [Xú Zhēnqīng] did not know Zōnglè had this collection [the Xīyóu jí]; he therefore produced this Qídōng (eastern-of-Qí — i.e., far-fetched) tale, just like the “Zōnglè xùfà huánsú” (grew his hair back and returned to secular life) story — equally absurd. Compiled and presented respectfully in the ninth month of Qiánlóng 43 (1778).

Abstract

Shī Zōnglè’s lifedates 1318–1391 are confirmed by CBDB (id 34425) and DILA Buddhist Authority records. His mission to the Western Regions (1378–1382, on Tàizǔ’s orders to seek surviving sūtras) is one of the foundational documentary moments of early-Míng Buddhist-secular relations: Zōnglè returned with a substantial collection of newly-recovered sūtras and was rewarded with the zuǒ shànshì office (chief Buddhist officer of the Míng court). His refusal of secular office and the imperial Miǎnguān shuō — written by Tàizǔ himself — is a uniquely documented case of imperial accommodation of monastic identity in the otherwise strict Hóngwǔ regime.

The implication in the Hú Wéiyōng 胡惟庸 affair (Hú executed 1380) is the standard documentary anchor for Tàizǔ’s protection of Zōnglè. Wilkinson, Chinese History, §44 (Míng Buddhism), and DMB (vol. 2, pp. 1318–1320) both foreground Zōnglè as the principal Buddhist literary-cultural figure of the early Hóngwǔ court.

The Sìkù editors’ careful refutation of two popular myths about Zōnglè — (1) that he never reached the Western Regions but was magically returned by a spirit-monk (Xú Zhēnqīng’s Jiǎnshèng yěwén); (2) that he grew back his hair and returned to lay life — is a model of textual-evidential method. The Xīyóu jí (now lost) is the direct documentary witness that disproves the first myth.

The textual interest of the present collection lies particularly in juǎn 1–2, which preserve Zōnglè’s yìngzhì shī (verse on imperial command) and his Buddhist gōngfó zànfó yuèfǔ — together a rare conjunction of court-Buddhist liturgical and secular-poetic registers in a single biéjí. Wilkinson, Chinese History, §44, notes this as the principal early-Míng Buddhist-secular literary document.

Translations and research

• L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds. Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976. Entry on Zōng-lè (vol. 2, pp. 1318–1320).
• Edward L. Farmer. Zhu Yuanzhang and Early Ming Legislation. Leiden: Brill, 1995. The Tàizǔ-Zōng-lè Miǎn-guān shuō and the regulation of monastic-secular boundaries.
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §44 (Míng Buddhism); §28.4 (Míng bié-jí).

Other points of interest

The Tàizǔ-composed Miǎnguān shuō 免官說 — Tàizǔ’s own essay releasing Zōnglè from the obligation of secular office on grounds of his gāoxíng (eminent conduct) — is a uniquely-documented case of imperial dispensation in the Hóngwǔ regime. Together with the protection of Zōnglè during the Hú Wéiyōng case, this is the cleanest documentary witness to Tàizǔ’s deliberate cultivation of a separate Buddhist literary-clerical establishment under direct imperial sponsorship.

Links

• Zongle (Wikipedia, Chinese)
• Sìkù tíyào, Kyoto Zinbun digital edition
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §44 (Míng Buddhism); §28.4 (Míng biéjí).