Xù zhǐyuè lù 續指月錄
Continuation of the Record of the Finger Pointing at the Moon
compiled by 聶先 (Niè Xiān), early Qīng (preface 1679)
About the work
A 20-juan early-Qīng continuation of Qú Rǔjī’s Zhǐyuè lù (KR6q0023), extending the Chán anthology with figures from the Yuán, Míng, and early Qīng periods. Compiled by Niè Xiān, a Qīng-era lay Chán practitioner.
Abstract
Niè Xiān maintains the Zhǐyuè lù’s anthological method — extracting pedagogically useful dialogues, demonstrations, and verses, omitting biographical apparatus — and extends the genealogy through the post-Sòng generations that the original Zhǐyuè lù had not covered. Heavy use of Yuán-Míng recorded-sayings literature and contemporary Qīng monastic biography. Like the parent work, Xù zhǐyuè lù circulated principally among Qīng literati interested in Chán teaching content rather than among monastic specialists; together the two works form the standard late-imperial Chinese lay Chán reader.
Translations and research
No English translation. Treated within scholarship on the Zhǐyuè lù tradition. Modern punctuated text on the standard Chán-canon digital projects.
Other points of interest
Together with the Zhǐyuè lù, the Xù zhǐyuè lù served as one of the two principal vehicles through which Chán teaching reached late-imperial Chinese learned culture beyond monastic circles.