Wú xīn lùn 無心論
Treatise on No-Mind
A short Q-and-A-format Chán doctrinal treatise articulating the wú xīn 無心 (“no-mind”) position of the pre-mature-Chán tradition; received in the Dūnhuáng manuscript recension (Pelliot 2462 and related witnesses) under the ascription shì Pútídámó zhì 釋菩提達摩製 (“composed by the śramaṇa Bodhidharma”); actually a Táng-era composition of the 8th or early 9th century post-Bodhidharma milieu
About the work
A one-juan short doctrinal treatise in dialogue format — a hépìshàng wèn dá 和尚問答 (monk’s-questions-and-responses) exchange — between “héshàng” (the master) and a dìzǐ (disciple) on the doctrine of wú xīn 無心 (“no-mind”). Taishō T85 n2831, based on Dūnhuáng manuscript witnesses; the text does not survive in mainstream canonical collections and reaches the Taishō only through the Stein / Pelliot Dūnhuáng manuscript transmissions. Pseudepigraphic; commentedTextid omitted.
The text opens on the paradox central to its doctrinal stance: “The zhì lǐ 至理 (“ultimate principle”) has no words; but it must borrow words to manifest itself. The Great Way has no form; but it appears as form in order to receive and interact. Now let us hypothetically establish two persons to discuss together the doctrine of no-mind.” The disciple then asks: “Is there mind or no-mind?” The master answers “No-mind.” The disciple: “If there is no-mind, who can see, hear, feel, know? Who knows the no-mind?” The master: “It is precisely because of no-mind that there can be seeing, hearing, feeling, knowing; because of no-mind that one can know no-mind.” The extended Q-and-A proceeds through the full range of paradoxes arising from this position.
Tiyao
Not a WYG text; no 四庫 tíyào exists. The attribution to Bodhidharma is per the title-line only; no preface or dating colophon survives. The Dūnhuáng manuscript status of the text places it firmly in the 8th-to-9th-century Northern-School / early-Chán manuscript milieu.
Abstract
The Wú xīn lùn is one of a cluster of short anonymous-pseudonymous Chán treatises preserved only in the Dūnhuáng manuscript cache, all sharing the same general 8th-century Northern-School doctrinal orientation: xiū xīn 修心 (“cultivating the mind”) as the primary meditational practice, wú xīn 無心 (“no-mind”) as the ultimate realisation, and an emphasis on direct verification of buddha-nature through sustained practice. The group includes the Xiū xīn yào lùn (Zuìshàng chéng lùn KR6q0086, here also attributed to Hóngrěn though comparable to the present text in style and content), the Dámó Duànjì lùn 達摩斷際論, the Dámó Wúshàng lùn 達摩悟性論, and the Wú xīn lùn. Collectively this manuscript-cluster represents the principal surviving primary evidence for pre-Shénhuì Chán doctrinal writing.
The attribution of the Wú xīn lùn to Bodhidharma — as with the Shǎoshì liù mén KR6q0084’s six gates — is a retrospective pseudepigraphic assignment consistent with the eighth-century Chán practice of claiming direct continuity with the First Patriarch to legitimate doctrinal positions. The text’s doctrinal stance is more directly aligned with the Northern-School and late Oxhead (Niútóu) milieu than with anything plausibly of Bodhidharma’s own early-sixth-century moment.
Dating bracket: notBefore 700 (earliest plausible composition of the text’s doctrinal stratum), notAfter 850 (paleographic terminus ante quem for the Dūnhuáng manuscript witnesses). The dominant compositional period is probably mid-to-late 8th century.
Translations and research
- Suzuki, D. T. 1935. Manual of Zen Buddhism and Essays in Zen Buddhism, Series I. Eastern Buddhist Society. Contains partial translations of the Wú xīn lùn.
- Yanagida Seizan 柳田聖山 1969. Daruma no goroku 達摩の語錄 (Zen no goroku series vol. 1). Chikuma Shobō. Includes the Wú xīn lùn within the Bodhidharma-attributed textual corpus with annotated Japanese translation.
- McRae, John R. 1986. The Northern School and the Formation of Early Ch’an Buddhism. Hawai’i. Background on the Dūnhuáng early-Chán manuscript corpus in which the Wú xīn lùn is embedded.
- Broughton, Jeffrey L. 1999. The Bodhidharma Anthology: The Earliest Records of Zen. California.
- 柳田聖山 & 梅原猛 1969. 《無の探求(中國禪)》. Kadokawa. Chapter-level treatment of the wú xīn doctrine’s classical formulations.
- Faure, Bernard. 1997. The Will to Orthodoxy: A Critical Genealogy of Northern Chan Buddhism. Stanford.
Other points of interest
The Wú xīn lùn’s dialogic opening formula — “jiǎ lì èr rén gòng tán wú xīn zhī lùn 假立二人共談無心之論” (“let us hypothetically establish two persons to discuss together the doctrine of no-mind”) — explicitly marks the dialogue as a didactic fiction rather than a historical record. This metatextual acknowledgement is rare in Chán literature, which typically presents its dialogues as historical exchanges between named masters and disciples; the Wú xīn lùn’s self-conscious rhetorical framing is one of its distinctive generic features and positions the text closer to abstract doctrinal treatise than to yǔlù 語錄 record.
The Dūnhuáng-recension-only survival of the text is characteristic of the broader pattern of pre-Shénhuì Chán textual transmission: texts that did not successfully align with the subsequently-dominant Southern-School lineage construction dropped out of the mainstream canonical tradition and survive only through accidental preservation in the Dūnhuáng cave-library.