Tánzhōu Wéishān Língyòu chánshī yǔlù 潭州溈山靈祐禪師語錄
Recorded Sayings of Chán Master Língyòu of Wéishān in Tánzhōu
recorded sayings of the Táng master Wéishān Língyòu 溈山靈祐 (771–853), founder of the Wéiyǎngzōng 溈仰宗 (one of the Five Houses of classical Chán); compiled (biānjí 編集) as part of the late-Míng Wǔjiā yǔlù 五家語錄 project by 圓信 Yǔfēng Yuánxìn 語風圓信 of Jìngshān 徑山 and the layman 郭凝之 Guō Níngzhī (self-styled Wúdì dìzhǔrén 無地地主人, “Master of the No-Land Land”)
About the work
A one-juan late-Míng recension of the recorded sayings of Wéishān Língyòu (also spelled Guīshān 潙山 or 偽山), companion volume to the Wǔjiā yǔlù’s treatment of Dòngshān Liángjiè (KR6q0067), Cáoshān Běnjì (KR6q0068), Yúnmén Wényǎn (KR6q0073 parallels), and Línjì Yìxuán. Taishō T47 n1989. Not a commentary; commentedTextid omitted.
The Wéishān / Yǎngshān pair — teacher and dharma-heir, Língyòu and his disciple 慧寂 Huìjì (Yǎngshān 仰山, 807–883) — gives the Wéiyǎng school its name and is canonically the first of the Five Houses to coalesce as a distinct Chán lineage. Language in the text still preserves the pre-systematic texture of ninth-century Hóngzhōu-school Chán, closer to the dialogue-narrative modes of the Zǔtáng jí 祖堂集 (KR6q0002) than to the later mature gōng’àn idiom.
Tiyao
Not a WYG text; no 四庫 tíyào exists. The opening credit line simply reads Jìngshān shāmén Yǔfēng Yuánxìn / Wúdì dìzhǔrén Guō Níngzhī biānjí 徑山沙門語風圓信 無地地主人郭凝之編集 (“The Jìngshān shāmén Yǔfēng Yuánxìn; the No-Land Land-Master Guō Níngzhī — compiled”). No separate editorial preface accompanies this volume in the T47 n1989 recension. For general editorial-project context see the Wǔjiā yǔlù notes at KR6q0067 and KR6q0068.
Abstract
The text opens biographically: Língyòu was a native of Chángxī 長谿 in Fúzhōu 福州, lay surname Zhào 趙, tonsured at fifteen at the local Jiànshàn sì 建善寺 under the Vinaya master 法常 Fǎcháng; studied the Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna doctrinal systems at Hángzhōu Lóngxìng sì 杭州龍興寺 until the age of 23, when he travelled to Jiāngxī and entered the ménxià 門下 of Bǎizhàng Huáihǎi 百丈懷海 (720–814), the leading Hóngzhōu-school master of his generation. The celebrated cuòhuǒ 撮火 exchange — Bǎizhàng asking Língyòu to stir the ashes, then producing a hidden ember when Língyòu declares the brazier dead, and saying “you called it ‘no-fire’, but this is what?” — is the narrative provoking Língyòu’s first awakening, with its biān xiàng 辨像 emphasis on the recognition of immediate presence.
The later geomantic exchange with the itinerant 司馬頭陀 Sīmǎ tóuduó is the textual locus for Língyòu’s foundation of the Dàguī monastery 大溈山 in Tánzhōu 潭州 (modern Húnán): Sīmǎ identifies Dàguī as “a seat for fifteen-hundred monks”, pronounces that Bǎizhàng’s frame (“bone-man”) is incompatible with the mountain’s genius (“flesh-mountain”), and — after a provocative test in which the dǐzuò 華林覺 Huálín Jué misnames a water-pitcher as “not-wooden-slipper”, while Língyòu kicks the pitcher over — selects Língyòu as the proper occupant. Subsequent lineage-narrative (arrival of 懶安 Lǎn’ān, the liánshuài 李景讓 Lǐ Jǐngràng’s imperial request for the monastery name Tóngqìng sì 同慶寺, 裴休 Péi Xiū’s lay patronage) is consolidated. The text then runs through the standard Guīshān shàngtáng 上堂 sermons, dàwèn 答問 exchanges, and the famous Guīshān–Yǎngshān pairing-dialogues that became the doctrinal signature of the school. The closing biographical note dates Língyòu’s death to Dàzhōng 7.1.9 (24 February 853), aged 83, sēnglà 64; posthumous title Dàyuán chánshī 大圓禪師, stupa Qīngjìng 清淨.
Interlinear commentator-names (Cáoshān dài yún 曹山代云 / Xuěfēng yún 雪峯云 / Yúnjū yún 雲居云 / Fǎyǎn yún 法眼云 / Jiāngshān Qín yún 蔣山懃云 / Jìngshān Gǎo yún 徑山杲云 / Bǎoníng Yǒng yún 保寧勇云) thickly populate the text — these are later-Chán masters inserting retrospective dàiyǔ 代語 or biéyǔ 別語 comments on Língyòu’s exchanges — and their presence is the diagnostic marker that the received recension is post-Sòng. The Míng editorial stratum (Yuánxìn / Guō Níngzhī) primarily selects, arranges, and retains this layered commentarial apparatus rather than producing a new interpretive frame.
Dating: following the convention adopted for the parallel Wǔjiā yǔlù volumes, notBefore 1630, notAfter 1650. The original ninth-century material of course long pre-dates this editorial window; the received recension is the Míng product.
Translations and research
- Yanagida Seizan 柳田聖山 1985. 《禪の語錄》 9 《潙山靈祐》. Chikuma Shobō. Annotated Japanese edition of the yǔlù.
- Jia, Jinhua. 2006. The Hongzhou School of Chan Buddhism in Eighth- through Tenth-Century China. SUNY. Places Língyòu in the Hóngzhōu / Mǎzǔ descent of ninth-century Chán.
- Poceski, Mario. 2007. Ordinary Mind as the Way: The Hongzhou School and the Growth of Chan Buddhism. Oxford. Treatment of the Guīyǎng house in the post-Bǎizhàng lineage consolidation.
- Foulk, T. Griffith. 1987. The “Ch’an School” and Its Place in the Buddhist Monastic Tradition (Diss., Michigan). Includes treatment of the Guīshān monastic regulations tradition.
- 印順 1971. 《中國禪宗史》. Taipei: Zhèngwén chūbǎnshè. Standard Chinese-language lineage history.
Other points of interest
Língyòu is traditionally credited with authoring the Guīshān jǐngcè 溈山警策 (“Admonitions from Guīshān”), one of the two short Táng monastic-regulations documents that became canonical pedagogical texts in later Chinese and Japanese Chán / Zen — read alongside the Bǎizhàng qīngguī 百丈清規 in the monastic curriculum. The Jǐngcè is a separate text from the present yǔlù and circulates as an independent short work.
The Wéiyǎng school 溈仰宗 did not long survive Língyòu’s generation in any institutional form; by the late Táng / Five Dynasties the house was effectively absorbed into the wider Chán mainstream. Its “Five Houses” status is accordingly a retrospective classificatory category rather than a reflection of enduring sectarian organisation. Anecdotes from the Guīshān / Yǎngshān dialogues — the round-image (yuán xiāng 圓相) practice, the water-buffalo self-identification in Língyòu’s “I will become a water-buffalo in my next life” sermon — were however widely absorbed into the later Chán commentarial repertoire across all houses, and are preserved densely in the present yǔlù.