Jìngtǔ jǐngyǔ 淨土警語
Admonitory Sayings on the Pure Land by 行策 (Jiéliú Xíngcè, 著)
About the work
A short single-juǎn collection of pastoral and admonitory sayings on Pure Land cultivation by 行策 Jiéliú Xíngcè 截流行策 (1628–1682) — late-Míng / early-Qīng LínjìYángqí Chán master and conventional Tenth Patriarch of the Chinese Pure Land lineage. Composed during Xíngcè’s mature period at the Liánfūān 蓮柎庵 in Hángzhōu (established 1663) or the Yúshān Pǔrén yuàn 虞山普仁院 (his principal seat from 1670) up to his death in 康熙 21 (1682).
Abstract
The Jǐngyǔ gathers Xíngcè’s pastoral sayings on Pure Land practice — exhortations to single-mindedness in niànfó, warnings against complacency and against false confidence in wéixīn jìngtǔ 唯心淨土 (the “mind-only Pure Land” doctrine) as an excuse for slack practice, instructions for the conduct of the niànfó retreat (the qīqī 七期 or “seven sevens” / 49-day retreat that Xíngcè systematised), pastoral counsel for the deathbed zhìniàn, and moments of polemic against the late-Míng / early-Qīng kuángchán 狂禪 (“wild Chán”) tradition that Xíngcè saw as a danger to authentic religious life. The register is direct, colloquial, and pastoral — characteristic of the jǐngyǔ genre, which aims at moral wakefulness rather than scholastic doctrinal exposition.
Xíngcè’s institutional contribution to Qīng Pure Land Buddhism was the revival of the Liánshè 蓮社 (“Lotus Society”) devotional-fellowship tradition descending from Lúshān Huìyuǎn — a programme of intensive lay-monastic Pure Land devotional fellowship at the Pǔrén yuàn that he founded in 1670 — and the systematisation of the niànfó qīqī 念佛七期 retreat as the standard intensive Pure Land practice form. The companion liturgical manual is the Qǐ yīxīn jīngjìn niànfó qīqī guīshì KR6p0094, which together with the Jǐngyǔ constitutes the core of Xíngcè’s Pure Land programme.
The text is preserved in the Xùzàngjīng 卍續藏 (X1174). The dating bracket adopted (1660–1682) covers Xíngcè’s mature post-1660 Pure Land period.
Translations and research
- Yü, Chün-fang. The Renewal of Buddhism in China. New York: Columbia, 1981 — touches on Xíngcè in the broader late-imperial Pure Land context.
- Wu, Jiang. Enlightenment in Dispute. New York: Oxford, 2008 — for Xíngcè’s Línjì-Yángqí background.
- Welch, Holmes. The Practice of Chinese Buddhism, 1900–1950. Cambridge, MA: Harvard, 1967 — for the institutional successor of Xíngcè’s Lián-shè programme.
Other points of interest
Xíngcè’s qīqī (49-day) Pure Land retreat became the standard intensive Pure Land practice form of late-imperial and modern Chinese Buddhism, still in active use in contemporary monastic and lay-Buddhist circles. The Jǐngyǔ’s pastoral guidance on the conduct of the retreat — the discipline, the daily niànfó schedule, the management of the deathbed-rehearsal aspect of the practice — remains a foundational reference for contemporary Pure Land retreat-leaders.