Wànsōng lǎorén píngchàng Tiāntóng Jué héshàng sònggǔ Cóngróng ān lù 萬松老人評唱天童覺和尚頌古從容庵錄
Old Man Wànsōng’s Critical Lectures on Reverend Jué of Tiāntóng’s Verses on Old Cases, the Cóngróng Hut Record
the Cóngróng lù 從容錄 (“Record of Serenity” or “Book of Equanimity”): the Cáodòng-side counterpart to the Bìyán lù — Hóngzhì Zhèngjué’s 宏智正覺 (1091–1157) one-hundred sònggǔ 頌古 (verse-commentaries on precedent cases) with the píngchàng 評唱 commentary of Wànsōng Xíngxiù 萬松行秀 (1166–1246) delivered from the Cóngróng ān 從容庵 retreat at Yànjīng 燕京 (modern Beijing) and finally delivered to the patron 耶律楚材 Yēlü Chǔcái (1190–1244; hào Zhànrán jūshì 湛然居士) in 1223, at Yēlü’s request; subsequently reprinted in the Míng (Wànlì 35 = 1607) as part of the Sìjiā yǔlù 四家語錄 series
About the work
The canonical gōng’àn 公案 collection of Cáodòng-side Chán, structurally parallel to the Línjì-side Bìyán lù (KR6q0078): Hóngzhì Zhèngjué’s one-hundred sònggǔ (composed during the 1129–1157 Tiāntóng abbacy and preserved in KR6q0070) as the core text, with Wànsōng Xíngxiù’s píngchàng 評唱 commentary providing the same multi-layer apparatus as Kèqín’s Bìyán lù: shìzhòng 示眾 (opening pointer), běnzé 本則 (main case) with interlinear zhùyǔ 著語, sòng 頌 (Hóngzhì’s verse) with interlinear zhùyǔ, and closing píngchàng proper. The work is structured in six juan rather than the Bìyán lù’s ten, with the hundred cases grouped into topically-labelled sub-clusters under each juan (shuōfǎ 說法, dìwáng 帝王, wènfǎ 問法, etc.) — an editorial innovation not present in the Bìyán lù. A commentary-of-commentaries; commentedTextid points to KR6q0070.
Tiyao
Not a WYG text; no 四庫 tíyào exists. The received text is framed by a dense layer of prefaces / postfaces recording the two principal stages of its transmission — Yēlü Chǔcái’s thirteenth-century solicitation and the Ming seventeenth-century reprinting.
Yēlü Chǔcái’s preface — Wànsōng lǎorén píngchàng Tiāntóng Jué héshàng sònggǔ Cóngróng ān lù xù 萬松老人評唱天童覺和尚頌古從容庵錄序, dated Jiǎshēn zhōngyuán rì 甲申中元日 (1224 mid-yuán festival), signed Qīshuǐ Yíllà (Yēlü) Chǔcái Jìnqīng xù yú Xīyù Ālǐmǎ chéng 漆水移剌楚才晉卿敘於西域阿里馬城 (“signed at the fortress of Alimalig in the Western Regions”) — records the text’s genesis. Yēlü narrates his Jīn 金-dynasty Chán study under the Yǎnjīng Shèng’ān Dènggōng 聖安澄公, his later re-examination under the layman 李純甫 PíngShān XiánXián 屏山閑閑 (Lǐ Chúnfǔ), and his decisive turn to Wànsōng Xíngxiù — “rú dé, rú shì, sù jì xīnkǔ, xīnshǒu bù tián, jǐn sān nián” (“as if intoxicated, as if awakening from death, I attended him daily through heat and cold, pushed away family matters, slept and ate only incidentally, for nearly three years”). Wànsōng bestowed on him the dharma-style Zhànrán jūshì 湛然居士. Yēlü subsequently left Yànjīng on the Mongol western campaign (扈從西征) — the Činggis Qan western expedition into Central Asia — and over seven years dispatched nine successive letters requesting a commentarial edition of Hóngzhì’s sònggǔ bǎi zé. Wànsōng’s completed text finally reached him at Alimalig (Ālǐmǎ chéng 阿里馬城, modern northern Xinjiang) — “as if intoxicated, as if recovering from death, joyful and calling out; facing eastward I prostrated again and again.”
Wànsōng’s own dispatching letter — Píngchàng Tiāntóng Cóngróng ān lù jì Zhànrán jūshì shū 評唱天童從容庵錄寄湛然居士書, dated Guǐwèi year shàngsì rì 癸未年上已日 (1223 shàngsì festival, upper first lunar-spring celebration) — precedes the work and records his own editorial stance: the commentary was composed in his old age (“lǎoyǎn hūnhuā, duō chū kǒuzhàn, ménrén bǐshòu” — “old eyes dim, mostly dictated orally, the disciples taking dictation”), at the Cóngróng ān 從容庵 (“Serenity Hut”) of the Bàoēn sì 報恩寺 in Yànjīng, where Wànsōng had retired. He presents the text as a direct counter-weight to Kèqín’s Bìyán jí 碧巖集 (the Línjì-side commentary): “measuring it against the Bìyán jí of Fóguǒ (KR6q0078), every fascicle has its shìzhòng 示眾, making it complete; measuring it against the Yuántōng Juéhǎi lù 圓通覺海錄, every phrase avoids digression, making it whole.”
Ming-dynasty reprint prefaces follow. The Cóngróng lù chóngkè Sìjiā yǔlù xù 從容錄重刻四家語錄序 by 羅汝芳 Luó Rǔfāng (1515–1588) of Nánchéng, countersigned by 沈咸 Shěn Xián of Chángzhōu dated Dīngwèi zhōngqiū 丁未中龝 (1607 mid-autumn), records the Ming editorial project. The Chóngkè Sìjiā píngchàng xù 重刻四家評唱序 by 徐琳 Xú Lín, Huátíng native and Chǔxióngfǔ prefect, dated Wànlì dīngwèi jú yuè jírì 萬曆丁未歲菊月吉旦 (1607 chrysanthemum moon), records that the Sìjiā yǔlù had previously circulated in a poor Yuán printing and that the jiǎngshī 覺虛 Juéxū solicited Xú’s support for a re-cutting.
Abstract
The compositional history of the Cóngróng lù is intimately tied to the Mongol-Yuán transition of political power in North China. Wànsōng Xíngxiù (1166–1246, DILA A000408), native of Hénèi 河內 (modern Qīnyáng 沁陽 in Hénán), lay surname Cài 蔡, entered the monastic life at fifteen at the Xíngtái Jìngtǔ sì 邢台淨土寺 under 淨贇 Jìngyūn; studied under Xuěyán Mǎn 雪巖滿 at Dàmíng 大明 in Cízhōu 磁州 (DILA’s chéngzǐ master Huìmǎn 慧滿, A015282); and received the Cáodòng dharma-seal after twenty-seven days’ intensive study. Subsequently held abbacies at Yànjīng Wànshòu 萬壽, Qīyǐn 棲隱, Bàoēn 報恩, Hóngjì 洪濟, and finally retired to the Cóngróng ān of the Bàoēn sì. During the Mongol siege of Yànjīng in Jīn Tàihé 8 / Yè zhēngdà years, Wànsōng organised his community to chant the Śūraṅgama Dharani through the assault on the city gates; he was subsequently honoured by both the Jīn and early Mongol (Tàizōng Ögödei) courts. After Ögödei’s accession in 1230 he received the imperial favour of fóyá 佛牙 (Buddha-tooth relic) and the command Wànsōng lǎorén fénxiāng zhùshòu 萬松老人焚香祝壽 (Wànsōng to burn incense for the imperial longevity) — an unusual imperial anointing by name. Died at eighty-one, Yuán Dìngzōng 1.4.7 (閏四月七日) bǐngwǔ 丙午 (30 May 1246). Stupa at Tōngxuánmén 通玄門 outside Yànjīng — now the Bāinián Zhuǎn 磚塔 (“Brick Pagoda”) north of the stone bridge in Beijing.
Wànsōng’s principal dharma-heir is the Mongol-Yuán statesman Yēlü Chǔcái 耶律楚材, Chinggis Qan’s Kitan-descent Confucian-Buddhist minister and the architect of the early Mongol administrative absorption of northern Chinese institutions. Yēlü’s solicitation of the Cóngróng lù across seven years and nine letters — while in Central Asia on the western campaign against the Khwarezmian empire — makes the text a rare instance of gōng’àn literature produced under direct transcontinental patronage.
The Cóngróng lù functions doctrinally and editorially as a Cáodòng-side response to the Línjì-side Bìyán lù, a matching pair consciously so-constructed: just as Kèqín commented on his grandfather-in-dharma Chóngxiǎn’s verses, Wànsōng commented on his Cáodòng-ancestor Hóngzhì’s verses; just as the Línjì set was burned by its own heir Dàhuì, the Cáodòng set was preserved under court patronage and transmitted without catastrophe. The two texts together structure the received gōng’àn canon of classical Chán.
Dating bracket: notBefore 1223 (Wànsōng’s dispatch letter to Yēlü), notAfter 1607 (Xú Lín’s Ming reprint preface, the latest of the received text’s framing documents). The dominant JīnYuán compositional stratum is 1220–1224. Dynasty tag 宋 follows the catalog, reflecting Hóngzhì Zhèngjué’s role as the author of the core verse-set; the commentary proper is JīnYuán transitional.
Translations and research
- Thomas Cleary. 1990. Book of Serenity: One Hundred Zen Dialogues. Lindisfarne Press (reprinted Shambhala, 2005). The standard full English translation, based on the Taishō recension.
- Wilhelm Gundert. 1964. Bi-Yän-Lu. Hanser (German; parallels with Cóngróng lù material).
- Leighton, Taigen Daniel, and Yi Wu. 2000. Cultivating the Empty Field: The Silent Illumination of Zen Master Hongzhi. Tuttle. Partial treatment of the Hóngzhì sònggǔ as it appears in the Cóngróng lù.
- Schlütter, Morten. 2008. How Zen Became Zen. Hawai’i. Extended treatment of the Dàhuì / Hóngzhì controversy and its inscribed record in the parallel gōng’àn collections.
- Ishii Shūdō 石井修道 1988 (and continuing). 《從容錄》 annotated Japanese edition in the Zenbunka kenkyūjo Zenshū shisō kenkyū series.
- Yi, Sungho. 2009. Hongzhi Zhengjue and Chan Silent Illumination. Routledge. Monograph treatment of Hóngzhì’s teaching with reference to the Wànsōng commentary.
- Sørensen, Henrik. 2010. “Esoteric Buddhism under the Yuán.” Studies in Chinese Religions. Contains treatment of Wànsōng’s Mongol-court connections.
- De Rachewiltz, Igor. 1962. “Yeh-lü Ch’u-ts’ai (1189–1243): Buddhist Idealist and Confucian Statesman.” In Confucian Personalities, ed. Arthur F. Wright & Denis Twitchett, 189–216. Stanford. Standard biography of Yēlü, including his Chán studies under Wànsōng.
Other points of interest
Wànsōng’s companion commentary the Qǐngyì lù 請益錄 (in 2 juan, X67 n1307) treats a further set of one-hundred gōng’àn as a supplementary teaching on specific disciples’ requests. Together the Cóngróng lù and Qǐngyì lù constitute the full Wànsōng commentarial apparatus. Wànsōng’s other major work is the Zǔdēng lù 祖燈錄 (lineage compendium), preserved only in fragments.
Yēlü Chǔcái’s Zhànrán jūshì wénjí 湛然居士文集 (14 juan, Sìbù cóngkān) contains extensive autobiographical reference to the Cóngróng lù’s composition, including Yēlü’s own pǎi 派 matching-verses on a subset of the one-hundred cases — making the work arguably the earliest Chinese-Chán text with substantial Kitan-Mongol lay-co-authorial presence.
The Cóngróng lù’s Ming reprint in the Sìjiā yǔlù 四家語錄 series of 1607 is part of the same broader late-Míng Chán philological revival that produced 圓信 Yǔfēng Yuánxìn and 郭凝之 Guō Níngzhī’s Wǔjiā yǔlù 五家語錄 (KR6q0075, KR6q0076, KR6q0077, etc.). The Míng textual-critical engagement with both Línjì-side and Cáodòng-side Chán classics (Bìyán lù, Wǔjiā yǔlù, Cóngróng lù, plus the Jǐngdé chuándēng lù and related) is a coherent project whose institutional vehicle is the late-Wànlì monastic-lay editorial network.