Zī mén jǐng xùn 緇門警訓
Admonitions and Instructions for the Black-Robed Gate
“Warning Instructions for the Black-Robed” — a 10-juan Ming-period comprehensive anthology of admonitions, exhortations, jǐng cè 警策 (“warning-whip”), jiè 戒 (“admonitions”), zhēn míng 箴銘 (“injunctions and inscriptions”), fǎyǔ 法語 (“dharma addresses”), and other pastoral-regulatory texts for monks, supplementarily compiled (xù jí 續集) by the Ming Línjì-school Yángqí-branch monk Mìān Rújǐn 蔤菴如巹 (b. 1425), printed at Jiāhé 嘉禾 in Chénghuà 6 (1470) and subsequently expanded to its received 10-juan form by later editorial hands
About the work
A 10-juan comprehensive anthology of short moral-regulatory texts directed at monastic practitioners. Taishō T48 n2023. Zī mén 緇門 (“black-robed school”) is the collective term for the Buddhist monastic community; the jǐng xùn 警訓 genre denotes short admonitory-exhortatory writings. The work continues the pastoral-regulatory tradition exemplified by Guīshān Língyòu’s Guīshān jǐngcè 溈山警策 KR6q0075 background, Chinul’s Jiè chūxīn xuérén wén (KR6q0096), and the Chánlín bǎoxùn (KR6q0099), now in its Ming-period encyclopedic form.
Non-commentary; commentedTextid omitted.
Tiyao
Not a WYG text; no 四庫 tíyào exists. The opening preface Chóngkān Zī mén jǐng xùn xù 重刊緇門警訓序, signed by Kōngxué 空谷 (Kōnggǔ Jǐnglóng 空谷景隆 1393–1470, Rújǐn’s teacher) at the Qīngpíngshān Kōngxué Méngtáng 清平山空穴蒙堂 on Chénghuà 6.3 shuò 春三月朔 (spring 3rd month, 1470, new-moon day), sets out the editorial program:
“A single nature is round and clear, complete in every person; with a sudden deluded thought arising, saṃsāra-revolution begins. The Great Compassion broadly rescues those submerged in the flood of stagnation; the gates of expedient methods are many, enabling practice-cultivation to restore the [original] nature. But one must orient the will; then the qì follows it. Those who cannot command the qì through the will often fall into error without return. Thereupon those possessing great faculties, riding the vehicle of the original vow, extinguishing the Treasure of the True Dharma Eye, come forth and wield bitter pliers-and-hammer, angry fist and hot shout, like sudden thunder and lightning too swift to cover the ears, so as to boil-and-smelt, turn-and-shape, overturn-and-open-up their students; or they preach fǎyǔ 法語, xiǎocān 小參, shìzhòng 示眾, jǐngcè 警策, xùnjiè 訓誡, zhēn míng 箴銘 — to excite them, to spur them, to uplift them, to guide and entice them.”
The preface frames the Zī mén jǐng xùn as a compendium aggregating these diverse short-genre pastoral-regulatory texts across the full Buddhist tradition. The final rhetorical flourish — “because of words one sees the matter; because of matter one sees the principle; because of principle one sees the mind; because of mind one sees the nature, and restores the original self-so-heaven” — places the anthology in the standard four-step pedagogical rhetoric of late-Ming Chán didactic literature.
Abstract
Rújǐn (DILA A000342), hào Mìān 蔤菴, native of Jiāhé 嘉禾 (Jiāxīng 嘉興, Jiāngnán), lay surname Jiāng 姜, born 1425 (death unrecorded). Initially studied under 衡宗繼 Héng Zōngjì of the Zhēnrú sì 真如寺; subsequently became a dharma-heir of Kōnggǔ Jǐnglóng (1393–1470) at the Xiūjí shān 修吉山. After Kōnggǔ’s death (1470) Rújǐn turned to Pure Land practice; later studied with 無住 Wúzhù. Composed the Chánzōng zhèngmài 禪宗正脈 (“Orthodox Veins of the Chán Lineage”) in 10 juan in Hóngzhì 2 (1489) — a major Ming Chán lineage-compendium.
Per DILA, Rújǐn’s original Zī mén jǐng xùn xù jí was 2 juan, completed in 1470 and printed with Kōnggǔ’s preface. The expanded 10-juan recension preserved in Taishō T48 n2023 is “probably the product of later editorial expansion.” The later editorial layer is therefore Ming-mid-to-late (15th to late-16th century), drawing on the rapidly-expanding late-Ming Buddhist printing industry.
Dating bracket: notBefore 1470 (Rújǐn’s Chénghuà 6 compilation), notAfter 1600 (working terminus ante quem for the 10-juan expansion; the exact date of final consolidation is not recorded). Catalog dynasty 明.
Translations and research
- No full English translation located.
- 柴山全慶 Shibayama Zenkei 1956. 《緇門警訓講話》. Daitō Shuppansha. Japanese Rinzai-master lecture-commentary.
- Yifa. 2002. The Origins of Buddhist Monastic Codes in China. Hawai’i. Provides context for the broader monastic-regulatory genre.
- 牧田諦亮 Makita Tairyō 1976. 《中国近世仏教史研究》. Heirakuji Shoten. Background on Ming Buddhist printing culture.
- 椎名宏雄 1993. 《宋元版禅籍の研究》. Daitō Shuppansha. Background on the Sòng precedents that Rújǐn’s work consolidates.
- Brose, Benjamin. 2015. Patrons and Patriarchs: Regional Buddhist Monasteries and Literati in Late Tenth-Century China. Hawai’i. Background on monastic-community literature.
Other points of interest
The Zī mén jǐng xùn’s broad scope — 10 juan encompassing the full range of short pastoral-regulatory genres across the Buddhist tradition — positions it as the encyclopedic capstone of the monastic-admonition literature, in roughly the relationship to the Chánlín bǎoxùn (KR6q0099) that the Zōngjìng lù (KR6q0092) bears to the Chányuán zhūquánjí dūxù (KR6q0091) for the doctrinal compendium genre. In both cases a targeted Sòng-period compilation is later supplemented into a comprehensive late-medieval or early-modern encyclopedic form.
Rújǐn’s Chánzōng zhèngmài 禪宗正脈 (1489), his other major work, is the Ming-period canonical Línjì lineage-compendium and is typically read alongside the Zī mén jǐng xùn as the pair of Rújǐn’s lineage-and-pastoral contributions to the Ming Buddhist regulatory literature.