Wéishān jǐngcè zhù 溈山警策註
Commentary on Wéishān’s Jǐngcè
A Song-dynasty commentary by Dàhóng Shǒusuì 大洪守遂 (1072–1147) on the Guīshān jǐngcè 溈山警策 (“Admonitions of Guīshān”) by Wéishān Língyòu 溈山靈祐 (771–853)
About the work
A one-juan commentary on the Guīshān jǐngcè (also known as Wéishān jǐngcè under different character), the classical short monastic-admonition text traditionally attributed to Wéishān Língyòu (see 靈祐). Taishō X63 n1239. Commentary on a parent text (Wéishān Língyòu’s Guīshān jǐngcè), which circulates as an independent text not separately catalogued in KR6q — accordingly commentedTextid is omitted.
Shǒusuì’s commentary proceeds line-by-line through the text of the Jǐngcè, supplying lexical, doctrinal, and contextual explanations. The commentary’s value lies in its preserving the mid-Sòng Chán interpretation of the text, and in its textual-critical attention to variant readings: per the preface “zì yǒu chuǎn cuò ér jiǔ wèi néng biàn 字有舛錯而久未能辨” (“the characters have errors and for a long time no one has been able to discriminate [the correct readings]”), which Shǒusuì has now done.
Tiyao
Not a WYG text; no 四庫 tíyào exists. The received text carries a preface Zhù Wéishān jǐngcè xù 注溈山警策序 signed by the official Zhāng Zhū 張銖 (Zuǒ cháofèng dàfū, xīn Guǎngnán dōnglù zhuǎnyùn pànguān) dated Shàoxīng 9.12.1 (紹興九年十二月旦日 = 1140.1), framing the commentary’s significance: “From the Sixth Patriarch onward there were five schools; the Wéiyǎng was one of them. Regrettably its direct transmission was subsequently lost. But its teaching passes down for ten thousand generations without decline, not dependent on specific individuals’ preservation… The Dàhóng Jìngyán chánshī [Shǒusuì], whose Chán learning is foremost of his age, took occasional leisure to play with the brush and inkstone; in the 己未 [1139] summer retreat period, in response to students’ requests, he composed this commentary, his interpretations clearly and easily accomplished. … The disciple Shǐ Déxián 史德賢 wishes to engrave blocks to broaden its circulation.”
Abstract
Dàhóng Shǒusuì 大洪守遂 (1072–1147, DILA A000362), shì Jìngyán chánshī 淨嚴禪師 (conferred in Zhènghé 8 = 1118 by imperial decree), was a Northern Sòng / Southern Sòng transition Cáodòng 曹洞宗 master. Lay surname Zhāng 章, native of Péngxī 蓬溪 in Suìníng 遂寧 (modern Sìchuān). Dharma-heir of Dàhóng Bào’ēn 大洪報恩 in the Cáodòng lineage descending from Dàokǎi 道楷 道楷 → Zǐchún 子淳. Held abbacies at Dàhóng 大洪, Shuānglín yuàn 雙林院 in Suízhōu 隨州, Shuǐnán yuàn 水南院, Déān Yánfú yuàn 德安延福院, and back at Dàhóng shān from Shàoxīng 5 (1135). Died on Shàoxīng 17.3 (spring 1147), aged 76, during Shuǐnán retreat.
Dating bracket: notBefore 1100 (Shǒusuì’s active Chán-authorial career), notAfter 1139 (Zhāng Zhū’s preface; the commentary was completed by summer 1139 per the preface’s internal dating). Catalog dynasty 宋.
Translations and research
- No full English translation of this commentary. The Guīshān jǐngcè parent text itself is translated in multiple English anthologies.
- Schlütter, Morten. 2008. How Zen Became Zen. Hawai’i.
- 椎名宏雄 1993. 《宋元版禅籍の研究》. Daitō Shuppansha.
Other points of interest
The Wéiyǎng school, as Zhāng Zhū’s preface notes, had lost its direct lineage-transmission by the Northern Sòng; the Guīshān jǐngcè text however continued to circulate in Chán monastic-pedagogical use well beyond the institutional extinction of the school. Shǒusuì’s commentary — coming from a Cáodòng-lineage master rather than a Wéiyǎng-lineage master — marks the text’s passage into the broader Chán canonical curriculum where it was read and commented on from within other lineage-traditions. This cross-lineage reception of the Guīshān jǐngcè continues through the Ming (KR6q0132 Wéishān jǐngcè jù shì jì by the Ming Línjì monk 弘贊) and into Japanese Zen tradition.