Liánbāng shīxuǎn 蓮邦詩選
Selected Poems of the Lotus Land by 廣貴 (Yùfēng Guǎngguì, 輯)
About the work
A single-juǎn anthology of Pure Land devotional verse — zàn 讚, jié 偈, sòng 頌, and shī 詩 — compiled by the late-Míng Pure Land monk 廣貴 Yùfēng Guǎngguì 玉峰廣貴 in the late Wànlì or early Tiānqǐ period. The title — liánbāng 蓮邦 (“Lotus Land”) — is a standard Pure Land idiom for Sukhāvatī, the realm imagined as a paradisal lotus garden in Amitābha’s western Pure Land.
Abstract
The anthology gathers Pure Land devotional verse from across the Chinese tradition, organised by author and roughly chronologically: the foundational zàn of 曇鸞 Tánluán (the Zàn ēmítuó fó jié KR6p0073) and 善導 Shàndǎo (the canonical zàn sequences KR6p0074 KR6p0075 KR6p0076); the Sòng-period devotional verse of the Tiāntái Pure Land lineage (知禮 Sìmíng Zhīlǐ, 遵式 Cíyún Zūnshì); the Yuán-period White Lotus / Liánzōng verse (普度 Yōután Pǔdù, 天如則 Tiānrú Wéizé); and the late-Míng literati Pure Land poetry (袁宏道 Yuán Hóngdào, 袾宏 Yúnqī Zhūhóng, and lesser figures of the Yúnqī circle).
The work serves a devotional-liturgical function rather than a purely literary one: the verse selections are organised for daily recitation and chant, with prosodic conventions (mostly five- and seven-syllable lines, regular tonal patterns) that make them suited to the rhythms of monastic kèsòng 課誦 (recitation services) and lay-Buddhist devotional gatherings. The anthology can be read alongside the canonical Pure Land zàn texts (T1978–T1984, KR6p0073–KR6p0079) as a thematically related liturgical corpus.
The text is preserved only in the Xùzàngjīng 卍續藏 (X1207). No preface fixes a precise composition date; the dating bracket adopted (1590–1640) covers the late Wànlì / Tiānqǐ / Chóngzhēn period during which Guǎngguì was active.
Translations and research
- Mochizuki Shinkō 望月信亨. Chūgoku jōdo kyōrishi 中國淨土教理史. Kyoto: Hōzōkan, 1942/1964 — for the broader Chinese Pure Land literary tradition.
- No substantial dedicated secondary literature located on the Lián-bāng shī-xuǎn itself.