Xìn xīn míng 信心銘
Inscription on Faith in the Mind
“Inscription on Faith in the Mind” — the canonical short Chán didactic poem, 584 lines of four-character rhymed verse on the nature of mind, non-duality, and the zhìdào 至道 (“supreme Way”), traditionally attributed to Sēngcàn 僧璨 (d. 606), the Third Chán Patriarch; in fact almost certainly a mid-to-late Táng composition of the 8th century, first securely attested in the Jǐngdé chuándēng lù of 1004
About the work
A one-juan short míng 銘 (inscription) in rhymed four-character verse, opening on the famous line “Zhìdào wú nán, wéi xián jiǎnzé 至道無難，唯嫌揀擇” (“The supreme Way is without difficulty — it only hates discriminating selections”) and running through 584 lines (73 stanzas of 4 lines each + closing). Taishō T48 n2010. The text is didactic-poetic rather than doctrinal-treatise: it operates by paradox, parallel, and recursive negation rather than by systematic exposition, and is accordingly the single most quoted Chán verse-text after the Tánjīng transmission-gathas. Pseudepigraphic; commentedTextid omitted.
The signature Chán doctrines of the Xìn xīn míng — the bù èr 不二 non-duality of yǒu 有 and wú 無, the rejection of discriminating preference between opposites, the identity of movement and stillness, the ultimate identity of mind and dào, and the conclusion that “fǎ xìng 法性 is present everywhere, excludes nothing” — became foundational doctrinal slogans for all subsequent Chinese and East-Asian Chán / Sŏn / Zen.
Tiyao
Not a WYG text; no 四庫 tíyào exists. No editorial preface or postface: the poem opens directly on “Zhìdào wú nán” and closes on “Xìn xīn bù èr, bù èr xìn xīn; yán yǔ dào duàn, fēi qù lái jīn 信心不二，不二信心；言語道斷，非去來今” (“Faith-mind is not-two, not-two is faith-mind; the road of words is cut, it is not past present future”), without any framing apparatus. The attribution to Sēngcàn is by title-page line only.
Abstract
Traditional attribution to Sēngcàn, the Third Chán Patriarch (d. Dàyè 2 = 606), has been questioned on doctrinal, linguistic, and historical grounds since the early 20th century. The text’s vocabulary (notably the mǎgǔ 摩谷 and liǎng biān 兩邊 framings characteristic of post-神會 Shénhuì Chán), its use of concepts (non-dual bù èr, yuán xìng 圓性, yīzhǒng píng huái 一種平懷) that belong to the 8th-century Chán doctrinal vocabulary, and its stylistic regularity as a finished míng piece, all argue for late-Táng composition rather than Sēngcàn’s early-Suí milieu. The first securely datable attestation is in 道原 Dàoyuán’s Jǐngdé chuándēng lù 景德傳燈錄 of 1004 (juan 30), where the text is given verbatim under the Sēngcàn-attribution; no pre-1004 citation is known. Modern consensus, following Yanagida Seizan, places the actual composition between approximately 720 and 820 in a Hóngzhōu-school or post-Hézé milieu.
Sēngcàn himself (DILA A001601, also transmitted as 僧粲; shì Jìngzhì chánshī 鏡智禪師 / Jiànzhì chánshī 鑑智禪師 after the Sòng-period avoidance-taboo; also styled Sānzǔ 三祖) is recorded in the canonical Chán lineage as the dharma-heir of 慧可 Huìkě (the Second Patriarch) and the teacher of 道信 Dàoxìn (the Fourth Patriarch). He is said to have received the dharma as a báiyī 白衣 (lay disciple) who presented to Huìkě a question on whether he might not be impure enough to be trained, and after Huìkě’s response ji-xīnshìfǒ 即心是佛 (“your mind itself is the Buddha”) received ordination and transmission. During the Zhōu Wǔdì 周武帝 persecution (574–578) he concealed himself at the Wǎngōng shān 皖公山 in Shūzhōu 舒州; travelled briefly to the Luófú shān 羅浮山 in Guǎngdōng; and died at the Shūzhōu Shāngǔ sì 舒州山谷寺 on Dàyè 2.10.15 (23 November 606). Tomb-inscription preserved in Quán Táng wén juan 390 (Shūzhōu Shāngǔ sì Juéjì tǎ Suí gù Jìngzhì chánshī bēimíng 舒州山谷寺覺寂塔隋故鏡智禪師碑銘, by the early-Táng monk 法琳 Fǎlín — or, per another tradition, by 獨孤正倫 Dúgū Zhènglún). Posthumous stupa title: Juéjì tǎ 覺寂塔.
Dating bracket: notBefore 700 (earliest plausible composition of the text’s doctrinal stratum), notAfter 1004 (first securely datable attestation in the Jǐngdé chuándēng lù). Dynasty tag 隋 per catalog meta, reflecting the traditional Sēngcàn attribution; the received-recension interpretation of the dating convention would place the text in Táng (700–900) — an explicit editorial decision is noted here in accordance with the Platform-Sūtra convention in the present kb.
Translations and research
- D. T. Suzuki. 1934. Manual of Zen Buddhism. Eastern Buddhist Society. Classic English rendering.
- Richard B. Clarke. 1973 (many reprints). Hsin-hsin-ming: Verses on the Faith-Mind. White Pine Press. A meditative-devotional English rendering.
- Ericusson, Seon. 1983. Trust in Mind: The Rebellion of Chinese Zen. Wisdom. Translation with running commentary.
- Yanagida Seizan 柳田聖山. 1974. 《禪の語錄》 17 《信心銘 證道歌 十牛圖 坐禪儀》. Chikuma Shobō. The standard critical edition and Japanese annotated translation; includes the definitive argument against the Sēngcàn-attribution.
- Jorgensen, John. 2005. Inventing Hui-neng, the Sixth Patriarch. Brill. Contextualises the Xìn xīn míng in the post-Hézé editorial program of inventing early-Chán textual warrants.
- McRae, John R. 2003. Seeing Through Zen. California.
- Faure, Bernard. 1993. Chan Insights and Oversights. Princeton.
- 印順. 1971. 《中國禪宗史》. Zhèngwén Chūbǎnshè.
Other points of interest
The Korean Sŏn tradition, following 知訥 Chinul (1158–1210), has made the Xìn xīn míng a central text in the kyoan curriculum of the Chogye Order, often paired with the Zhèng dào gē 證道歌 of 玄覺 Yǒngjiā Xuánjué (665–713). The Japanese Rinzai and Sōtō traditions likewise canonise the text; Dōgen cites it repeatedly in the Shōbōgenzō. Its brevity — readable in fifteen minutes — and its aphoristic form have made it the classical Chán entry text for readers approaching the tradition in Western translation, a role comparable to the Dào dé jīng 道德經 in the popular Western reception of Daoism.
The text is bundled with three other short classical Chán poetic works — the Zhèng dào gē 證道歌, the Shí niú tú 十牛圖 (Ten Ox-herding Pictures), and the Zuò chán yí 坐禪儀 — in Yanagida’s critical edition Zen no goroku vol. 17, recognising the four as a coherent sub-genre of early-to-middle-Chán didactic-pedagogical verse distinct from the yǔlù genre.