Jūnzhōu Dòngshān Wùběn chánshī yǔlù 筠州洞山悟本禪師語錄
Recorded Sayings of Chán Master Wùběn of Dòngshān in Jūnzhōu
recorded sayings of 良价 Dòngshān Liángjiè 洞山良价 (807–869), founder of the Cáodòng 曹洞 school; compiled by 玄契 Genkei and collated (jiào 校) by 慧印 Shigetsu Ein at the request of the congregation of Kichijō Zenji 江都吉祥禪寺 (Edo, i.e. Tōkyō); prefaced by 宜默 Gimoku in Genbun 4.3.8 (8 March 1739); afterword by 瑞方 Kūin Zuihō 空印瑞方.
About the work
A one-juan Japanese Edo-period recension of the recorded sayings of Dòngshān Liángjiè 洞山良价 (807–869) — the pivotal late-Táng Chán master who, together with his disciple Cáoshān 本寂 Běnjì 曹山本寂, gave his name to the Cáodòng 曹洞 school, one of the “five houses” of classical Chán. Received as T47 n1986A; the Taishō also prints a variant Japanese recension as T47 n1986B.
Abstract
The present text is an Edo-period Japanese recension of materials distributed across earlier Chinese sources. As Gimoku notes in his preface, the sayings of Dòngshān — the foundational figure of the Cáodòng school — “are scattered through the collections of various houses; there have been other compilations, none satisfactory” (qí yǔyán zhāngjù, sàn zài zhū jiā zhī piān jí, jiàn yǒu jí lù yě fēi 其語言章句。散在諸家之篇集。間有集錄也非). During the Genbun 元文 era (1736–1741) the monk Genkei assembled a new Dòngshān lù and printed it at the Shirahana-bayashi 白華林 press; the following year (ca. 1738) the congregation of Edo’s Kichijō-ji 吉祥禪寺 invited Shigetsu Ein to re-collate Genkei’s compilation, which he did, producing the present 1739 printed edition.
Gimoku’s preface catalogues the most famous encounter-stories and sayings of Dòngshān that are collected here: his probing of his master Yúnyán 曇晟 Tánshèng 雲巖曇晟 about “preaching of the insentient,” the poem about encountering his own reflection while crossing a stream (“踏斷過水浪” from Gimoku’s summary, alluding to Dòngshān’s Guòshuǐ jì 過水偈), his sharp refusal of a Yúnjū-shan offer of heavenly offerings, and his final “foolish feast” (yúchī zhāi 愚癡齋) by which he staged his own death. Gimoku describes Dòngshān admiringly as “the single truly pure master at the point when the genuine was shading into the counterfeit” (dāng wěi zhī jiāo chū shí, chún hū zhēn zhě, dú Dòngzǔ hū 當偽之交出時。醇乎真者。獨洞祖乎).
Dating follows the received-recension principle and respects the catalog meta’s dynasty tag 日本: notBefore 1736 (beginning of the Genbun era, when Genkei’s original compilation began); notAfter 1739 (Ein’s collation and the dated preface). The content is ninth-century Táng, but the catalog’s dynasty tag 日本 reflects the philological status of the compilation as an Edo-period Japanese editorial act rather than a direct Chinese transmission.
Translations and research
- William F. Powell, The Record of Tung-shan (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press / Kuroda Institute, 1986). The standard critical English translation, based primarily on the Genkei-Ein 1739 recension (i.e. the text printed here as T47 n1986A) with reference to the variant T47 n1986B.
- Heinrich Dumoulin, Zen Buddhism: A History, Vol. 1: India and China (World Wisdom, 2005), treats Dòngshān and the formation of the Cáodòng school.
- Taigen Dan Leighton, Just This Is It: Dongshan and the Practice of Suchness (Shambhala, 2015).
- Mario Poceski, Ordinary Mind as the Way: The Hongzhou School and the Growth of Chan Buddhism (Oxford UP, 2007) places Dòngshān in the Hóngzhōu filiation.
- Sōtō-school Japanese scholarship on Dòngshān is extensive; Kagamishima Genryū 鏡島元隆, Yokoi Kakuyū 横井覚祐, and others.
Other points of interest
The editorial history of the Dòngshān lù is unusually layered even for a Chán classic: the ninth-century Táng materials circulated in scattered form through the Sòng, were partially gathered in Sòng-era compilations including the Zǔtáng jí and the various lamp-records, and received their first genuinely consolidated form not in China but in Edo-period Japan through the efforts of Genkei, Shigetsu Ein, and their Kyōto-Edo scholarly network. The Kichijō-ji congregation’s patronage — specifically the Menzaki lay-donor Sukan Jitan 慈湛 (菅禪海 Kan Zenkai 菅禪海, of the Sugawara 菅原 family of Tanba 丹州, named in the colophon as the sponsor of the printing as a memorial offering for his late wife and daughter) — registers the social base of the Edo-period Rinzai revival’s engagement with Cáodòng classics.