(Chóngdiāo bǔ zhù) Chányuàn qīng guī 重雕補註禪苑清規
Re-engraved and Supplementarily-Annotated Chán-Monastery Pure Regulations
The foundational Northern-Sòng monastic code by Chángluò Zōngzé 長蘆宗賾 (hào Cíjué 慈覺), compiled in Chóngníng 2 (1103); the direct predecessor to the Yuán-dynasty KR6q0102 Chì xiū Bǎizhàng qīngguī and the most important surviving Sòng-period monastic code
About the work
A ten-juan Sòng-period monastic code, X63 n1245. Chóngdiāo bǔ zhù 重雕補註 (“re-engraved and supplementarily-annotated”) indicates the present edition’s Southern-Sòng re-cutting (Jiātài 2 = 1202) with added annotation on the Northern-Sòng original. Non-commentary on a named parent text; commentedTextid omitted. The Chányuàn qīng guī is the first major post-Bǎizhàng monastic regulatory text to survive from the Sòng; the original Bǎizhàng qīng guī of Bǎizhàng Huáihǎi (720–814) is lost, and Zōngzé’s work is accordingly the earliest extant foundational document of the Chinese Chán monastic-regulatory tradition.
Tiyao
Not a WYG text; no 四庫 tíyào exists. Zōngzé’s own preface (signed Zhēndìng fǔ Shífāng Hóngjì chányuàn zhùchí Chuánfǎ Cíjué dàshī Zōngzé jí 真定府十方洪濟禪院住持傳法慈覺大師宗賾集) is dated Chóngníng 2.8.15 (30 September 1103):
“In the Chán gate, though the procedural cases are no different from the bīnì 毗尼 [Vinaya], the nà-zǐ 衲子 [monk’s] house-style is a distinct standard. … This is why I have consulted widely with the kāi-shì [bodhisattvas] and gathered from all the various places, whatever may be of benefit to what one sees-and-hears, setting it out fully in the main outline. Alas! — the Shǎolín news was already a digging-of-flesh-to-make-a-sore; the Bǎizhàng regulations were themselves the new addition. How much more so now, when the cónglín [monastic grove] has spread and become less acceptable, and regulations proliferate, matters complexify. Yet the ornamentation of the báoshè 保社 [community] and the establishment of the fǎ chuáng 法幢 [dharma-banner] — in the Buddha-affair gate none of these can be missing. It is like the bodhisattvas’ three accumulations of precepts, the śrāvaka’s seven sections. Establishing regulations is not for the sake of complexity but to establish the teaching according to the practitioner’s capacity.”
A subsequent re-cutting note records: “This collection has formerly been printed and circulated in the world, but unfortunately the character-strokes have become worn. Now we have written it out in large characters and re-engraved the blocks. Those who receive this, take note. Jiātài rénxū [1202], the Yú Bā Xuānjiào 虞八宣教…”
Abstract
Chángluò Zōngzé 長蘆宗賾 (also 宗頤; lifedates unrecorded, active late 11th and early 12th centuries; DILA A000606), hào Cíjué 慈覺, was a Northern Sòng Yúnmén-school 雲門宗 monk, dharma-heir of Guǎngzhào Yìngfū 廣照應夫 (DILA A021069). Lay surname Sūn 孫, native of Xiāngyáng 襄陽 (Húběi). Ordained at 29 at the Zhēnzhōu Chángluò sì 真州長蘆寺 under Fǎxiù 法秀; when Fǎxiù departed and Yìngfū succeeded as abbot, Zōngzé completed his training and received transmission from Yìngfū, subsequently succeeding Yìngfū at Chángluò (hence his epithet Chángluò).
Zōngzé’s broader authorial corpus includes substantial Pure Land material: in Yuányòu 4 (1089) winter he composed the Liánhuā shèng huì lù wén 蓮華勝會錄文, founding a Pure Land fellowship on the Lúshān Báilián shè 廬山白蓮社 model; in Shàoshèng 3 (1096) compiled the Shuǐlù yí wén 水陸儀文 (water-and-land rites manual) in 4 juan; in Yuánfú 3 (1100) composed the Zé chánshī jiè xǐ miàn wén 賾禪師誡洗麵文 (admonition on noodle-washing). Zōngzé is thus another major Chán-Pure Land syncretic figure alongside Yǒngmíng Yánshòu.
In Chóngníng 2 (1103), as abbot of the Zhēndìng fǔ Shífāng Hóngjì chányuàn 真定府十方洪濟禪院, Zōngzé compiled the Chányuàn qīng guī. The text became the foundational Sòng monastic code, subsequently revised and supplemented through the 12th and 13th centuries, and ultimately superseded by Déhuī’s 1336 Yuán imperial Chì xiū Bǎizhàng qīngguī (KR6q0102). The present chóngdiāo bǔ zhù recension from 1202 represents the Southern-Sòng re-cutting with added annotation.
Dating bracket: notBefore 1103 (original compilation, Chóngníng 2 preface), notAfter 1202 (Jiātài 2 re-cutting; Yú Bā Xuānjiào colophon). Catalog dynasty 宋.
Translations and research
- Yifa. 2002. The Origins of Buddhist Monastic Codes in China: An Annotated Translation and Study of the Chanyuan qinggui. Hawai’i. Full English translation of the text with extensive introduction; the standard English-language reference.
- Foulk, T. Griffith. 1987. The “Ch’an School” and Its Place in the Buddhist Monastic Tradition. Diss., University of Michigan.
- Kagamishima Genryū 鏡島元隆 et al. 1972. 《譯注禪苑清規》. Sōtōshū Shūmuchō.
- 近藤良一 1968. 《百丈清規の成立》. Chibunkaku.
- Schlütter, Morten. 2008. How Zen Became Zen. Hawai’i.
Other points of interest
As the earliest surviving comprehensive Chán monastic code, the Chányuàn qīng guī is the single most important primary source for the institutional organisation of Sòng-dynasty Chán monasteries. Its 10-juan structure — administrative offices, annual calendar, daily schedule, ritual procedures, disciplinary protocols, funeral rites, etc. — provided the template subsequently expanded in the Yuán-dynasty KR6q0102 and the later derivative monastic codes. For the history of Chinese Chán institutional practice, Yifa’s 2002 annotated translation is the indispensable modern resource.
The integration of Pure Land devotional practice into the daily monastic schedule — documented extensively in the Chányuàn qīng guī — is important primary evidence for the Chán-Pure Land syncretism that came to define mature Chinese Buddhist practice. Zōngzé himself was a key figure in that syncretism, and his monastic code institutionally enshrines the integrated practice for the subsequent tradition.