Chì xiū Bǎizhàng qīngguī 勅修百丈清規
Imperially-Commissioned Revision of the Bǎizhàng Pure Regulations
The Yuán-dynasty authoritative monastic code for Chán monasteries, compiled by Dōngyáng Déhuī 東陽德煇 at the Bǎizhàng monastery 百丈山 in Hóngzhōu 洪州 on imperial commission during Zhìyuán 1 (1335), and promulgated throughout the realm in Zhìyuán 2 (1336); the final-form comprehensive revision of the regulatory tradition founded in the early ninth century by Bǎizhàng Huáihǎi 百丈懷海 (720–814)
About the work
The canonical Yuán-dynasty monastic code for Chinese Chán institutions, promulgated by imperial decree of the Yuán Shùnzōng emperor (later the Míng Tàizǔ reissued the decree in 1382 and 1424 renewing its authoritative status). Taishō T48 n2025. Eight juan, with extensive prefatory matter and appended documents. Not a commentary; commentedTextid omitted.
The Bǎizhàng qīngguī 百丈清規 tradition as a genre originated with Bǎizhàng Huáihǎi (720–814), the great Hóngzhōu-school Chán master who, per canonical Chán history, in the early ninth century produced the first distinctive set of monastic regulations for Chán monasteries — separating them institutionally from the earlier Vinaya-dominated monastic organisation. The original Bǎizhàng qīngguī is lost; the tradition was subsequently revised in a sequence of major Sòng and Yuán reworkings: Yángzhōu Chánlín sì’s Chányuàn qīngguī 禪苑清規 KR6q0136 (1103) by Chángluò Zōngzé 長蘆宗賾; the Chóngshì Jiāotài qīngguī 重詳教太清規 (1311); and the present Chì xiū Bǎizhàng qīngguī (1335–36) by Déhuī, which became the authoritative final form.
The 8-juan structure covers: the broad categories of monastic ritual and administration, the annual and monthly observance calendar, the specific offices and duties within the monastic community, the protocols for ordination and precept-observance, the meal-time and assembly-time protocols, the funeral and memorial rites, and the secondary ritual apparatus. The text functions as the comprehensive reference manual for Chán monastic governance.
Tiyao
Not a WYG text; no 四庫 tíyào exists. The received text opens with an extensive Míng-era imperial memorandum: the Lǐbù shàngshū Hú Yíng 胡濙 (and others) memorandise in Zhèngtǒng 7 (1442) on the need to reprint the Chì xiū Bǎizhàng qīngguī, noting that the original Yuán printing has become scarce and the later monks are increasingly ignorant of ritual-regulatory detail. The memorandum summarises the regulatory history:
“[The monastery’s zhùchí] Zhōngzhì 忠智 memorialises: This monastery, from the Táng, has had the teachings of the Buddha-patriarch Great Master Huáihǎi 懷海 of Bǎizhàng, named the Bǎizhàng qīngguī. In the Zhìyuán period [the monk] Déhuī newly re-edited and had it engraved, circulating it throughout the monastic communities; the monks have followed the regulations in observance. In Hóngwǔ 15.4.25 [1382], it was honoured that the Tàizǔ Gāo Huángdì issued an imperial-seal decree: Any mountain-monk not following the Pure Regulations, must be corrected by the law. Rendered it reverently, they observed it. In Yǒnglè 10.5.3 [1412], it was honoured that the Tàizōng Wén Huángdì issued an imperial-seal decree: The monks must observe the old system, honour the patriarchal style, carefully keep the Pure Regulations, keep body-and-mind strictly pure. Rendered it reverently.”
Then: “Now the Pure Regulations woodblocks at this monastery have long disappeared. … Your servant perceives that the later-learning monks, many of them having not seen the Pure Regulations’ form-and-structure, are ignorant of ritual measures and unfamiliar with the precepts, greatly insulting the patriarchal style.” The memorandum requests a new imperial printing, which is granted; the 1442 Míng re-cutting is the edition the Taishō text derives from.
Abstract
Déhuī’s compositional project was commissioned by the Yuán imperial court in Zhìyuán 1 (1335), on the basis that the existing monastic codes — the earlier Sòng and early-Yuán qīngguī — had become fragmentary and inconsistent across regional monasteries. Déhuī, as zhùchí of the Bǎizhàng mountain monastery (the institution named for Bǎizhàng Huáihǎi and the legitimating site for any monastic-code revision), compiled the authoritative consolidation. Laxin-heir Xiàoyǐn Dàxīn 笑隱大訢 (a senior contemporary Chán abbot) served as the jiàozhèng 校正 (textual-editorial reviewer). The work was completed in 1335 and promulgated throughout the realm in Zhìyuán 2 (1336).
The text’s authority subsequently persisted through the YuánMíng transition, with the Míng Tàizǔ renewing the decree in Hóngwǔ 15 (1382) and the Míng Chéngzǔ again in Yǒnglè 10 (1412). Its status as the monastic code for Chán institutions in China was thus continuous from 1336 through the mid-Qīng; it lost its exclusive authority only in the early 20th century when the Bǎizhàng qīngguī tradition was institutionally superseded by new reform movements.
Dating bracket: notBefore 1335 (Déhuī’s compositional work), notAfter 1336 (the text’s promulgation). Catalog dynasty 元.
Translations and research
- Yifa. 2002. The Origins of Buddhist Monastic Codes in China: An Annotated Translation and Study of the Chanyuan qinggui. Hawai’i. Translation and study of the earlier Sòng Chányuàn qīng-guī (1103) which is the direct predecessor of Déhuī’s text; includes comparative treatment.
- Foulk, T. Griffith. 1987. The “Ch’an School” and Its Place in the Buddhist Monastic Tradition. Diss., University of Michigan. Extensive treatment of the Chán qīng-guī tradition.
- Foulk, T. Griffith. 1993. “Myth, Ritual, and Monastic Practice in Sung Ch’an Buddhism.” In Religion and Society in T’ang and Sung China, ed. P. B. Ebrey & P. N. Gregory, 147–208. Hawai’i. Broader methodological study of the monastic-regulation genre.
- Kagamishima Genryū 鏡島元隆 et al. 1972. 《譯注禪苑清規》. Sōtōshū Shūmuchō. Japanese translation and study of the Chányuàn qīng-guī.
- 近藤良一 1968. 《百丈清規の成立》. 京都: Chibunkaku. Monograph on the textual history of the qīng-guī tradition.
- Welter, Albert. 2006. Monks, Rulers, and Literati. Oxford. Discusses the imperial-state / monastic-regulatory interface.
Other points of interest
The Chì xiū Bǎizhàng qīngguī is the single most important regulatory text in the Chinese Buddhist monastic tradition. Its promulgation by imperial authority created a level of regulatory standardisation across Chinese Chán monasteries that had not previously existed, and that never subsequently was superseded in pre-modern Chinese Buddhism. The text entered Japanese Sōtō practice through the Chinese-Japanese SōtōŌbaku transmissions of the Kamakura-Muromachi period, where it coexists with the Japanese-compiled Sōtō qīngguī traditions (Keizan Jōkin’s 瑩山紹瑾 Kōroku 光錄, the Dōgen-lineage compositions, etc.).
Déhuī’s jiàozhèng reviewer Xiàoyǐn Dàxīn 笑隱大訢 was himself a significant Yuán Chán figure and the abbot of the Jìnshān 金山 monastery; his participation in the project served to strengthen its authority beyond the Bǎizhàng-centred lineage.