Yǒngjiā chánzōng jí zhù 永嘉禪宗集註
Annotated Chánzōng Yǒngjiā jí
The Ming-dynasty re-edition and commentary on KR6q0089 Chánzōng Yǒngjiā jí 禪宗永嘉集 by Yōuxī Chuándēng 幽溪傳燈 (1554–1628), the major Ming Tiāntái 天台宗 master and abbot of the Gāomíng sì 高明寺 on Mount Tiāntái
About the work
A two-juan Ming commentary on the KR6q0089 Chánzōng Yǒngjiā jí of Yǒngjiā Xuánjué 永嘉玄覺 (665–713). Taishō X63 n1242. Chuándēng is credited chóng biān bìng zhù 重編並註 (“re-edited and annotated”): he restructured the received Yǒngjiā jí text and supplied detailed commentary from a Tiāntái doctrinal perspective. Commentary on a parent text (KR6q0089); commentedTextid: KR6q0089.
Tiyao
Not a WYG text; no 四庫 tíyào exists. The opening Yǒngjiā chánzōng jí zhù xù 永嘉禪宗集註序 frames Chuándēng’s hermeneutical approach: the Yǒngjiā jí core text’s distinctive ChánTiāntái syncretic character positions it as properly readable through Tiāntái doctrinal apparatus, which Chuándēng — as a Tiāntái master — is uniquely qualified to supply. The preface develops an elaborate cosmological framing (the twelve-hour night-and-day cycle as “hūn dòng 昏動 confused-and-stirring”), then pivots to the Lèngyán jīng 楞嚴經’s xìng jué bì míng 性覺必明 passage as the doctrinal foundation for the Yǒngjiā reading.
Abstract
Yōuxī Chuándēng (1554–1628, DILA A007274), zì Wújìn 無盡, hào Yǒumén 有門; as an abbot of the Tiāntái Gāomíng sì 高明寺 (the monastery also called Yōuxī dàochǎng 幽溪道場, hence his hào Yōuxī), Chuándēng was the major Ming Tiāntái master of the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Lay surname Yè 葉, native of Sānqú Gūmiè 三衢姑蔑 (modern western Zhèjiāng).
Entered monastic life at 26 (ordained under the Jìnxián Yìngān chánshī 進賢映庵禪師); studied Tiāntái doctrine under the Bǎisōng Zhēnjué 百松真覺 (DILA A000964); received doctrinal transmission. Established residence at the Gāomíng sì on Tiāntáishān from Wànlì 15 (1587), where he remained for over 40 years, reviving the Tiāntáizōng 天台祖庭 institutionally and composing extensive doctrinal-commentarial works. Major published works include commentaries on the Lèngyán jīng 楞嚴經, Wéimójié 維摩詰, Jìngtǔ shēng wúshēng lùn 淨土生無生論, and the Tiāntái shān fāngwài zhì 天台山方外志 (monastic gazetteer).
The Yǒngjiā chánzōng jí zhù was composed during Chuándēng’s mature Gāomíng-abbacy period. The text represents Chuándēng’s reading of the Yǒngjiā Chán-Tiāntái synthesis as properly integrated within his own Tiāntái doctrinal framework; his commentary accordingly supplies Tiāntái-specific explanation of the ten-essay schema (zhǐ-guān 止觀, Śamatha / Vipaśyanā / Upekṣā verses, etc.) in their Tiāntái rather than Chán doctrinal form.
Chuándēng died Chóngzhēn 1.5.21 (22 June 1628), aged 75, sēnglà 50. His principal dharma-heir was Ōuyì Zhìxù 藕益智旭 (1599–1655), though Zhìxù’s subsequent career aligned him with the broader late-Ming Buddhist reform movement rather than with a strict Tiāntái identity.
Dating bracket: notBefore 1590 (Chuándēng’s mature Gāomíng residency begins), notAfter 1628 (his death). Probably composed in the 1600s–1620s. Catalog dynasty 明.
Translations and research
- No full English translation of the commentary.
- 牧田諦亮 Makita Tairyō 1976. 《中国近世仏教史研究》. Heirakuji Shoten. Background on Chuándēng’s Ming Tiāntái project.
- 山口瑞鳳 Yamaguchi Zuihō 1960s. Articles on Ming Tiāntái.
- Chan, Wing-tsit. 1953. Religious Trends in Modern China. Columbia. Covers Chuándēng.
Other points of interest
Chuándēng’s Tiāntái-framed reading of the Chánzōng Yǒngjiā jí restores an interpretive stance that accords with Xuánjué’s own early-8th-century doctrinal formation: Xuánjué himself had trained in the Tiāntái tradition under Huìwēi 慧威 at Zuǒxī 左溪 before meeting Huìnéng, and his Yǒngjiā jí synthesis explicitly draws on Tiāntái zhǐguān 止觀 terminology integrated with Huìnéng-school Chán. Chuándēng’s Ming commentary thus re-reads the text against an interpretive stream that the later Chán tradition had largely displaced with a more strictly-Chán reading — a historiographically significant act of doctrinal restoration.