Jiè chūxīn xuérén wén 誡初心學人文
Admonitions to Beginning Students
“Admonitions to Beginning Students” — Pojo Chinul’s 普照知訥 (1158–1210) short pastoral-regulatory composition for novice monks entering the Susŏn-sa 修禪社 community at Songgwang-san, one of the three short Taishō-preserved Chinul-attributed Sŏn texts (alongside KR6q0095 Zhēn xīn zhí shuō and KR6q0097 Xiū xīn jué)
About the work
A one-juan short pastoral-regulatory text for novice monks, setting out the minimum expected behavioural and attitudinal norms for entering and living in the Sŏn monastic community. Taishō T48 n2019B. Non-commentary; commentedTextid omitted.
The text proceeds through a long sequence of direct imperatives in the classical jiè 誡 (“admonition”) genre: avoid evil friends and draw near worthy companions; receive the five precepts or ten precepts; know the opening-and-closing of chífàn 持犯 (observance-and-violation); rely on the Buddha’s words and do not follow common rumour; once having left home and entered the pure assembly, constantly think of softness, pleasantness, and compliance; do not be haughty or conceited; treat those older as elder brothers and those younger as younger brothers; mediate disputes between others; never speak ill of another, etc. The content is deliberately simple and behavioural, directed at day-to-day monastic formation.
Tiyao
Not a WYG text; no 四庫 tíyào exists. No separate editorial preface; the text opens directly with the fū 夫 marker and the first admonition. The signature line is absent in the Taishō recension proper — the attribution to Chinul is preserved through the paired transmission with KR6q0095 and KR6q0097 under the single Pojo Chinul authorship-line.
Abstract
Composed by Chinul in the founding-and-organising phase of the Susŏn-sa community, c. 1205. The text articulates Chinul’s view that the Sŏn community must be built on a foundation of everyday behavioural discipline and interpersonal ethics, before the more advanced doctrinal and meditational teaching can take hold. In this it is part of the broader Koryŏ-period Sŏn-community literature — regulatory documents such as Chinul’s own Kwŏnsu chŏnghye kyŏlsa mun 勸修定慧結社文 (1190) and Susŏnsa kyŏlsa mun 修禪社結社文 (1205) — that set out the monastic-communal ideal.
The text has remained a fundamental element of the Korean Chogye-order novice curriculum to the present day, read alongside Ch’osim hagin mun (the standard Korean reading of this title) in the Ch’ogye ilgwa 初階日課 devotional-educational programme of Korean monastic training.
The received Taishō text concludes with a Ming-period postface (dated 正統十二年 = 1447.12.8) by a bǐqiū of the Dà Tiānjiè méngtáng 大天界蒙堂 that analyses the five types of xīn 心 (material, reflective, aggregated, ālaya, true) and relates them to the doctrinal content of KR6q0095 Zhēn xīn zhí shuō. This postface is editorially later than the Jiè chūxīn xuérén wén proper and appears in the Taishō through the Japanese transmission of the bundled Chinul-corpus.
Dating: notBefore 1205 (Chinul’s formal founding of Susŏn-sa), notAfter 1205 (working estimate — probably composed during the initial community-building year). Catalog dynasty 高麗.
Translations and research
- Robert E. Buswell, Jr. 1983. The Korean Approach to Zen: The Collected Works of Chinul. Hawai’i. Standard English translation of this text as Admonitions to Beginners.
- Keel Hee-sung 1984. Chinul: The Founder of the Korean Sŏn Tradition. Berkeley Buddhist Studies Series.
- 李智冠 (Yi Chi-gwan) 1989. 《韓國禪學史》.
Other points of interest
The genre of the Jiè chūxīn xuérén wén — short behavioural-imperative admonitions for novice monks — has close parallels in the Chinese Chán tradition (notably the Bǎizhàng qīngguī 百丈清規 and 靈祐 Guīshān Língyòu’s Guīshān jǐngcè 溈山警策, the latter itself sometimes bundled with novice-instruction materials). Chinul’s Jiè chūxīn xuérén wén is the Korean-side parallel and is the shortest of the three foundational Korean monastic-pedagogical texts alongside the Yaksa myoeng 藥師命 and the Wŏnhyo palsim 發心.