Bǎo jìng sānmèi běn yì 寶鏡三昧本義
Original Meaning of the Precious-Mirror Samādhi
A Qing-dynasty doctrinal exposition by Jiéliú Xíngcè 截流行策 (1628–1682) on the Cáodòng-school Bǎo jìng sānmèi gē 寶鏡三昧歌 (“Song of the Precious-Mirror Samādhi”) originally attributed to Dòngshān Liángjiè 洞山良价 (807–869) and transmitted as the canonical core-text of the Cáodòng doctrinal tradition
About the work
A one-juan Qing-dynasty doctrinal exposition with six diagrammatic explanations (liù zhǒng tú shuō 六種圖說), X63 n1237. Non-commentary on a specific parent Bǎo jìng sānmèi gē text, which is itself short (360 characters) and circulates embedded in later Cáodòng lineage-histories; commentedTextid omitted because the Bǎo jìng sānmèi gē does not exist as a standalone KR text.
Xíngcè’s opening statement narrates the text’s transmission: “The Bǎo jìng sānmèi was intimately sealed-and-delivered by Dòngshān at Yúnyán [Tánshèng] and then secretly transmitted to Cáoshān [Běnjì]. The Cáodòng masters, concerned that it might spread too widely, kept it as a chamber-transmission to establish the lineage-essentials and prevent leakage. It was Zhū Shìyīng 朱世英 who first obtained it from an old monk and made it circulate in the world. The text has 360 characters; within it the passages on the six trigrams (liù yáo 六爻) and the piānzhèng huíhù 偏正回互 [oscillation of straight-and-slant] are the pivot-points of the whole piece.”
The Bǎo jìng sānmèi text, in its 360-character received form, uses the Yì jīng 易經’s trigram / hexagram apparatus to articulate the Cáodòng wǔ wèi doctrine — specifically the chóng lí 重離 (doubled-lí = ䷝ hexagram 30) as the fundamental diagrammatic figure. Xíngcè’s běn yì exposition works out this Yì-Chán correspondence systematically through his six diagrams.
Tiyao
Not a WYG text; no 四庫 tíyào exists. Xíngcè’s own preface introduces the compositional context: “Recently I saw the Rén tiān yǎnmù 人天眼目 KR6q0081 which records the Five Houses’ foundational principles, and in its treatment of the Cáodòng lineage there is much corruption and error — is this not because of confusion about this fundamental-source samādhi? My friend the jūshì Hú Jiè 胡介 of Lǚtáng 旅堂 saw this and was pained by it; he asked me to correct and clarify the text’s meaning. Before long the jūshì passed away, and I kept the matter in my heart for several years. One day a Chán student urged me, and I shut the door, burned incense, and reread the last instructions three times. I realised that the sānmèi’s essential meaning appears layer-upon-layer in the chóng lí hexagram; accordingly I drew out its threads and composed six tú shuō 圖說 (diagrammatic explanations) to manifest its truth.”
Abstract
Jiéliú Xíngcè 截流行策 (1628–1682, DILA A000421), lay surname Jiǎng 蔣, native of Yíxīng 宜興 (Jiāngsū), was a late-Ming / early-Qing LínjìYángqí Chán monk who became one of the principal Pure Land practitioners of the Qing. Entered the Wǔlín Lǐ’ān sì 武林理安寺 at 23 to study under Ruòān Tōngwèn 箬菴通問; after five years of never-lying-down-to-sleep practice attained realisation. Later encountered Xī’ān Yīng 息庵瑛 who encouraged his turn to Pure Land; studied Tiāntái doctrine under Qiántáng Qiáoshí 錢塘樵石; established the Liánfūān 蓮柎庵 on the West Brook of Fǎhuā shān 法華山 in Hángzhōu in Kāngxī 2 (1663) for intensive Pure Land practice; revived the Liánshè 蓮社 fellowship at Yùshān Pǔrén yuàn 虞山普仁院 from Kāngxī 9 (1670). Died Kāngxī 21.7.19 (21 August 1682), aged 55.
Xíngcè is traditionally counted the tenth Patriarch of the Chinese Pure Land lineage, reflecting his integrative position that brings Cáodòng doctrinal apparatus together with Pure Land devotional practice. The Bǎo jìng sānmèi běn yì is his principal Cáodòng-doctrinal work; his other major works include the Jīn’gāng jīng shū jì huìbiān 金剛經疏記會編 (10 juan, combining Zōngmì’s and Zǐxuán’s commentaries) and numerous shorter Pure Land devotional writings.
Dating bracket: notBefore 1650 (Xíngcè’s active authorial career), notAfter 1682 (his death). Probably composed during the Pǔrén yuàn period of the 1670s. Catalog dynasty 清.
Translations and research
- Yü, Chün-fang. 1988. “The Ch’an-Pure Land Syncretism in China: Takmg Yün-ch’i Chu-hung as an Example.” Studies in Chinese Buddhism. Hawai’i. Background on the late-Ming / early-Qing Chán-Pure Land synthesis.
- Getz, Daniel. 1999. “T’ien-t’ai Pure Land Societies and the Creation of the Pure Land Patriarchate.” In Buddhism in the Sung. Hawai’i.
- Welter, Albert. 2011. Yongming Yanshou’s Conception of Chan. Oxford.
- 陳垣 Chén Yuán 1962. 《清初僧諍記》. Zhōnghuá Shūjú. Background on the early-Qing Chán controversies in which Xíngcè participated.
Other points of interest
The Bǎo jìng sānmèi gē text Xíngcè comments on is itself deeply embedded in Sino-Japanese Cáodòng doctrinal tradition: it is one of the three canonical Cáodòng verse-texts alongside the Sānzǔ xìn xīn míng (KR6q0085) and the Yǒngjiā zhèng dào gē (KR6q0090), and has been the subject of numerous commentaries from the Sòng onward. Xíngcè’s běn yì exposition is unique in the commentarial tradition for its systematic use of Yì jīng-trigram diagrammatic apparatus to explicate the wǔ wèi doctrine — a Confucian-Buddhist syncretic move characteristic of late-Ming / early-Qing Chinese intellectual practice.