Wéishān jǐngcè jù shì jì 溈山警策句釋記
Annotated Sentence-Exposition Record of Wéishān’s Jǐngcè
A two-juan late-Ming / early-Qing commentary on Wéishān Língyòu’s 溈山靈祐 Guīshān jǐngcè by the Dǐnghúshān abbot Zàishēn Hóngzàn 在犙弘贊 (1612–1686), with jì 記 (record) annotations by his disciple Huìgōng Kāixiòng 慧弓開詗 (1634–1676/7)
About the work
A two-juan detailed commentary on the Guīshān jǐngcè 溈山警策 by Wéishān Língyòu 溈山靈祐 (771–853). Taishō X63 n1240. The work is structurally more elaborate than the earlier Sòng Shǒusuì commentary KR6q0131: Hóngzàn supplies the jù shì 句釋 (sentence-by-sentence exposition) and Kāixiòng supplements with further jì (explanatory records) including a kē wén 科文 (topical outline) that hierarchically structures the whole.
Commentary on a parent text (Wéishān Língyòu’s Guīshān jǐngcè); commentedTextid omitted as the parent text does not have its own KR catalog entry.
Tiyao
Not a WYG text; no 四庫 tíyào exists. The text opens with the kē wén outline structuring the commentary: “Shì cǐ jǐngcè dà kē fēn [èr] 釋此警策大科分(二) — chū tímù [èr] 初題目(二)” (“The major exposition of this Jǐngcè divides into two: first, the title — divided into two: (a) the person, (b) the method; next, the main text — divided into two…”). The hierarchical outline continues through multiple levels of subdivision characteristic of the mature scholastic exegetical tradition.
Abstract
Zàishēn Hóngzàn 在犙弘贊 (1612–1686, DILA A000244) was a late-Ming / early-Qing Cáodòng-lineage monk, best known as a major Vinaya specialist and Pure Land devotional author rather than primarily as a Chán commentator. Lay surname Zhū 朱; native of Xīnhuì 新會 (Guǎngdōng). Initially a Confucian scholar (gōngshēng), converted to Buddhism after the Ming-Qing transition; studied Chán under Dǐnghú Dàoqiū 鼎湖道邱 and received transmission; held abbacies at the Bǎoxiànglín 寶象林 in Guǎngzhōu and subsequently at the Dǐnghúshān Qìngyún sì 鼎湖山慶雲寺 in Zhàoqìng 肇慶. Hóngzàn is the author of an enormous Vinaya corpus (Sì fēn jiè běn rú shì 四分戒本如釋, Guī jiè yào jí 歸戒要集, Bā guān zhāi fǎ 八關齋法, Lǐ fó yí shì 禮佛儀式, etc.) and numerous devotional works. Died on Kāngxī 25.5.22 (12 July 1686), aged 75.
Huìgōng Kāixiòng 慧弓開詗 (1634–1676/7, DILA A001382), lay surname Zhāng 張, given-name Míngdá 明達, hào Shíjiàn 石箭. A disciple of Hóngzàn. Died on Kāngxī 15 (1676/7), aged 43.
The commentary’s paired Hóngzàn / Kāixiòng collaborative authorship — the master supplying the primary exposition and the disciple providing the outline-and-record supplementation — is a characteristic late-imperial Chinese scholastic-commentarial pairing. The commentary’s date is bracketed by Hóngzàn’s active period (ca. 1660 onward, after his Dǐnghú abbacy appointment) and Kāixiòng’s 1676/7 death. Catalog dynasty 明 reflects the continued-Ming tradition within which both figures worked, though technically their careers overlap with early Qing.
Dating bracket: notBefore 1660 (Hóngzàn’s Dǐnghú abbacy), notAfter 1686 (Hóngzàn’s death; Kāixiòng’s pre-1677 death is the terminus ante quem for his contribution).
Translations and research
- No full English translation of this commentary.
- 陳垣 Chén Yuán 1962. 《清初僧諍記》. Zhōnghuá Shūjú. Background on Hóngzàn’s late-Ming / early-Qing milieu.
- Jiang Wu. 2008. Enlightenment in Dispute: The Reinvention of Chan Buddhism in Seventeenth-Century China. Oxford.
- 釋弘贊 various modern Chinese editions of Hóngzàn’s Vinaya works.
Other points of interest
Hóngzàn’s specialisation in Vinaya rather than Chán is noteworthy for this commentary: the Guīshān jǐngcè text as an admonition for monastic novices fits the Vinaya-regulatory orientation Hóngzàn was celebrated for, and the commentary accordingly emphasises the disciplinary-practical content over doctrinal-speculative elaboration. This contrasts with Shǒusuì’s earlier Sòng commentary KR6q0131, which engaged more broadly with the text’s Chán doctrinal content.