Jiànzhōu hóng shì lù 建州弘釋錄
Record of Glorifying the Dharma in Jiànzhōu
compiled by 元賢 Yuánxián (集, sobriquet Yǒngjué 永覺, 1578–1657), late Míng / early Qīng
About the work
A two-juan regional Buddhist record covering eminent monks of the Jiànzhōu 建州 region (modern north-central Fújiàn 福建), compiled by Yǒngjué Yuánxián as a local-history complement to his lamp-record continuation Jìdēng lù (KR6q0038). Title — “Record of Glorifying the Dharma in Jiànzhōu” — frames it as a regional commemoration.
Abstract
Yuánxián was abbot at Gǔshān Yǒngqiánsì 鼓山湧泉寺 in Fúzhōu and the central figure of seventeenth-century Cáodòng Chán in Fújiàn; the Jiànzhōu hóng shì lù gathers biographies and recorded sayings of Buddhist figures associated with the region, both Chán and other traditions. Useful as a primary source for late-Míng Fújiàn Buddhism.
Translations and research
No English translation. Treated within Jiang Wu, Enlightenment in Dispute (OUP, 2008), in the broader treatment of Yuánxián’s circle and Gǔshān 鼓山 monastic community.
Other points of interest
Yuánxián’s combination of national lamp-record activity (the Jìdēng lù) and regional Buddhist historiography (this work) is a typical late-Míng monastic-intellectual profile.