Lèngyán jīng zhízhǐ 楞嚴經直指
Direct Pointing on the Śūraṃgamasūtra by 圅昰 (疏)
About the work
A ten-fascicle (10卷) Cáodòng-Chán “direct-pointing” commentary on the Śūraṃgamasūtra (KR6j0118) by Tiānrán Hánshì 天然圅昰 圅昰 (1608 – 1685), the principal late-Míng / early-Qīng Cáodòng master of the Lǐngnán 嶺南 region. Together with the accompanying Zhízhǐ kēwén (KR6j0698), the work forms Hánshì’s complete Lèngyán exegetical apparatus. Preserved as X14 no. 291 in the Xùzàngjīng. The catalog meta classes the dynasty as 明; the work was actually completed in the very early Qīng period, but Hánshì’s persona as a yímín 遺民 (“Míng-loyalist remnant”) makes this Míng-classification idiomatic.
Prefaces
The work is prefaced by a substantial Lèngyán zhízhǐ xù 首楞嚴直指敘 by a disciple: “Dàjué néngrén (Great-Awakened Capable Sage), having attained the Way ten days, immediately taught the Avataṃsaka: with the zhùdì fánnǎo (abode-ground afflictions) of sentient beings as the buddhas’ bùdòng zhì (immovable wisdom). Like directly handing the precious throne to the ordinary common — therefore not what the three-vehicle stream can fully believe. The śrāvakas in attendance saw not, heard not. Yet at the final raising-the-flower [Vulture-Peak], then jīnsè tóutuó [Mahākāśyapa] alone received the special transmission. Qìngxǐ [Ānanda] succeeded him as the second zǔ (patriarch) of the Western Heaven. Although he ascended-stage at the time of the chàgān (banner-pole) being laid, his awakening was at the bell-striking testing-of-permanence moment. Therefore the single sūtra of the Śūraṃgama is also a Dharma-seal of the lineage-school. From ancient times to the present, the commentaries on this all surpassed in their own [strengths]. My master, Tiānrán Shì héshàng, sat in stillness at Dānxiá; in three months he completed the Zhízhǐ. Just as it reached the birth-occasion …” (大覺能仁。成道十日。即說華嚴。以眾生住地煩惱。為諸佛不動智。如將寶位直授凡庸。故非三乘之流所能諦信。當時聲聞在坐。不見不聞。然而最後拈華。則金色頭陀。獨得別傳之囑。慶喜繼之。為西天二祖。雖登位於剎竿倒却之時。而發悟在擊鐘驗常之際。則楞嚴一經。又宗門之法印也。古今疏此。俱擅所長。吾師天然昰和上。宴坐丹霞。以三月成直指。適屆示生之 …).
Abstract
The preface attests that Hánshì composed the Zhízhǐ in three months while in seated retreat at Dānxiásì 丹霞寺 (in Guǎngdōng) — most plausibly during one of his Lǐngnán residency periods between his early establishment at Léifēng (1640s) and his late-life Lúshān period (1670s–1685). The genre name zhízhǐ 直指 (“direct-pointing”) signals a Chán-tradition reading that prioritizes the sūtra’s teaching as a Dharma-seal for direct mind-pointing, in contrast to the Tiāntái-doctrinal reading of 傳燈’s Yuántōng shū (KR6j0689) and the philological-doctrinal reading of 真鑑’s Zhèngmài shū (KR6j0683).
Hánshì was one of the leading figures of the Lǐngnán Cáodòng revival of the late-Míng / early-Qīng transition; together with 弘麗 Hónglì and 弘贊 Hóngzàn (his fellow Lǐngnán Cáodòng commentators) he forms the principal exegetical triad of the regional school. The Zhízhǐ is the most ambitious Lèngyán commentary from this triad and one of the principal Chán-school readings of the Lèngyán in the seventeenth century.
The dating bracket is set to 1640 – 1685, the productive Cáodòng-school career of Hánshì.
Translations and research
- Jiang Wu, Enlightenment in Dispute: The Reinvention of Chan Buddhism in Seventeenth-Century China (Oxford UP, 2008) — discusses the Lǐngnán Cáodòng revival including Hánshì.
- Lawrence C. H. Yim and Pi-ching Hsu (eds.), Lingnan: A Study in Chinese History from the Sixth to the Eighteenth Century (forthcoming) — for the broader Lǐngnán Buddhist context.
- No complete Western-language translation of the Zhízhǐ located.