Pǔnéng Sōng chánshī jìngtǔ shī 普能嵩禪師淨土詩
Pure Land Verses of Chán Master Pǔ-néng Sōng by 普能嵩 (撰), recorded by 德潤 (敬錄)
About the work
A short single-juǎn anthology of seven-character regulated verses (qī yán lǜ shī 七言律詩) on Pure Land themes, composed by the Qīng-era Chán master 普能嵩 Pǔ-néng Sōng 普能嵩 and respectfully recorded (jìng lù 敬錄) by his disciple 德潤 Dé-rùn 德潤, identified as a hòu-xué 後學 (“later student”). The verses are exclusively Pure Land in content, treating the Sahā-world as a lún-huí kǔ (saṃsāric suffering) and the Western Pure Land as the jí-lè (Land of Bliss) — a theme worked out across some seventy-plus seven-line verses arranged as a sustained doctrinal-pastoral yǒng poem-cycle.
Abstract
The text opens directly with the verses, without preface or dating apparatus. The opening verses run:
wǒ fó cíbēi dà yuàn wáng, quàn rén niàn fó wǎng xī fāng 我佛慈悲大願王，勸人念佛往西方 (“Our Buddha, compassionate Great-Vow King, urges humans to niànfó and depart westward”)
jìngbāng guótǔ miào wúqióng, qībǎo zhuāng chéng jílè gōng 淨邦國土妙無窮，七寶妝成極樂宮 (“The Pure Land country is marvellous beyond limit; the Seven-Treasures Palace adorns the Land of Bliss”)
The verses move through the standard Pure Land themes: the bādé chí 八德池 (eight-virtues pond), the jiǔ pǐn 九品 nine-grade rebirth ranks, the jīngshā bù dì 金沙布地 (gold-sand spread on the ground), the bǎofá 寶筏 (jewel-raft) of the Buddha-name carrying the practitioner across the kǔhǎi sea-of-suffering, the cízūn 慈尊 (compassionate-honoured-one Amitābha)‘s welcoming-reception, and the practitioner’s awakening to zhìniàn in the deathbed moment.
The zhuàn 撰 (compositional) attribution is to Pǔnéng Sōng chánshī 普能嵩禪師 (Chán Master Pǔnéng Sōng); the lù 錄 (recording) attribution is to Dérùn. Neither figure is well-attested elsewhere; presumably both belong to the late-imperial Chán-Pure Land integration tradition. The zhūjūn néng fù liánchí huì, bù shǐ zhǔrén zhōng rì máng 諸君能赴蓮池會不使主人終日忙 (“if you, gentlemen, can attend the Lotus-Pond assembly, you will not let the host be busy all day”) of the early verses suggests the Liánshè 蓮社 / fǎhuì 法會 setting in which the verses originated — recited in a Pure Land devotional assembly under the master’s direction.
Preserved in the Xùzàngjīng 卍續藏 as X1215. The dating bracket adopted (1700–1900) is broad as no firm internal dating is preserved.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.