Bǎizhàng qīng guī zhèng yì jì 百丈清規證義記
Verified-Meaning Record on the Bǎizhàng Pure Regulations
A Qing-dynasty 9-juan authoritative commentary-and-supplementary-expansion by Yuánhóng Yírùn 源洪儀潤 (active early 19th century) on the canonical Yuán-dynasty KR6q0102 Chì xiū Bǎizhàng qīngguī 勅修百丈清規; preface dated Dàoguāng 3 (1823)
About the work
A nine-juan Qing-dynasty detailed commentary on the Yuán-dynasty Chì xiū Bǎizhàng qīngguī (KR6q0102) by Déhuī 德煇. Taishō X63 n1244. commentedTextid: KR6q0102. The zhèng yì 證義 (“verified-meaning”) title indicates Yírùn’s role as authoritative expositor of the received monastic code — providing detailed regulatory-procedural, liturgical, and interpretive guidance supplementing the core Déhuī text.
The work’s 9-juan scale (one more than the Déhuī parent text’s 8) reflects Yírùn’s extensive supplementary additions: additional ritual procedures, updated regulatory material reflecting Qing-dynasty monastic practice, and detailed exegesis on points the Yuán original had left compressed.
Tiyao
Not a WYG text; no 四庫 tíyào exists. Opening Bǎizhàng qīng guī yuán xù 百丈清規原序 is by the Northern-Sòng literatus Yáng Yì 楊億 (974–1020, Hànlín xuéshì, Kāiguó hóu) — this is in fact the preface to the much earlier Sòng Chányuàn qīngguī 禪苑清規 (1103), reproduced here by Yírùn as part of his apparatus establishing the Sòng / Yuán genealogical context for the Bǎizhàng regulatory tradition. Yírùn supplements with his own Qīngguī zhèng yì jì xù 清規證義記序 dated Dàoguāng 3 (1823).
Abstract
Yuánhóng Yírùn 源洪儀潤 (lifedates unrecorded, DILA A001647), zì Yuánhóng 源洪, Qing-dynasty monk active in the early 19th century at the Huílóng Zhēnjì sì 迴龍真寂寺 (hence the alternate name Zhēnjì Yírùn 真寂儀潤). His preface to the Bǎizhàng qīng guī zhèng yì jì is dated Dàoguāng 3 (1823), providing a tight terminus ante quem for the composition.
Yírùn’s published authorial output includes:
- Bǎizhàng qīng guī zhèng yì jì 百丈清規證義記 (KR6q0135, 9 juan, Dàoguāng 3 = 1823);
- Zàijiā lǜ yào guǎng jí 在家律要廣集 (3 juan, expansion of Ōuyì Zhìxù’s earlier compilation; preface Dàoguāng 4 = 1824);
- Fǔhóng jì bǔ dìng xù 輔宏記補訂序 (in the Sìjiāo yí zhù huìbǔ fǔhóng jì 四教儀註彙補輔宏記);
- Compilation of the Shuǐlù yíguī 水陸儀規 (water-and-land rites manual);
- Dìyú míngmù 地輿名目 (geographical gazetteer).
Dating bracket: notBefore 1823 (terminus post quem from the dated preface), notAfter 1823 (preface completion). Catalog dynasty 清.
Translations and research
- Welch, Holmes. 1967. The Practice of Chinese Buddhism 1900–1950. Harvard. Background on the continuing authority of the Bǎizhàng qīng-guī tradition into the 20th century.
- Foulk, T. Griffith. 1987. The “Ch’an School” and Its Place in the Buddhist Monastic Tradition. Diss., University of Michigan.
- Yifa. 2002. The Origins of Buddhist Monastic Codes in China. Hawai’i.
Other points of interest
Yírùn’s zhèng yì jì is the authoritative reference for Qing-dynasty monastic ritual procedure, supplementing the Yuán-era Déhuī text with over five centuries of subsequent institutional development. For any historical study of Chinese monastic practice between the 16th and 19th centuries, Yírùn’s commentary is a primary-source document; it represents the consolidated accumulated tradition as it stood in the early-19th-century Chinese Buddhist establishment.
The commentary’s zhèng yì 證義 (“verified-meaning”) title is characteristic of late-imperial Chinese Buddhist scholastic-commentarial vocabulary, emphasising the authoritative-expository rather than the critical-interpretive function.