Cónglín jiào dìng qīng guī zǒng yào 叢林校定清規總要
Collated and Corrected Essentials of the Cónglín Pure Regulations
A late-Southern-Sòng monastic-code collation-edition by Wéimiǎn 惟勉 (also hào Píngyán 屏岩) of the Jīnhuá Hòuhú 金華后湖 community, compiled from multiple circulating regulatory texts and issued under a unified editorial redaction; preface dated Xiánchún 10 (1274), postface dated Zhìyuán 21 (1284)
About the work
A two-juan late-Sòng / early-Yuán monastic regulatory text, X63 n1249. Non-commentary on a named parent text; commentedTextid omitted. The jiào dìng 校定 (“collated and corrected”) title indicates Wéimiǎn’s critical-editorial work across multiple extant monastic-regulations manuscripts, drawing on the broader Sòng-era qīng guī 清規 and rì yòng 日用 literature to produce a single unified redaction.
Tiyao
Not a WYG text; no 四庫 tíyào exists. Wéimiǎn’s own preface articulates the editorial rationale:
“The cónglín’s regulatory-standard has been fully set out by Bǎizhàng Dàzhì chánshī [Huáihǎi]. But as the ages pass, later generations prefer convenience and short-cuts, accumulating habits that become corrupted. Although the various communities are not all the same, none of them has so far violated the main principles. During my time as a monk-at-community I have often seen that my fellow-practitioners copy out the cónglín rì yòng qīng guī 叢林日用清規 with mutual gaps and omissions. Accordingly, in some leisure time, I borrowed all available copies, compared their variants, retained their agreements, and brought them together. With my own hand I have transcribed and the result is quite detailed; I have given it the title Cónglín jiào dìng qīng guī zǒng yào, dividing it into upper and lower volumes for ease of reading. That our school has qīng guī is like the Confucian school’s Lǐ jīng 禮經…”
The preface is signed Hòu Hú bǐqiū (Wéimiǎn) shū yú Jì Wán xuān 后湖比丘(惟勉)書于寄玩軒 (“Hòu Hú bǐqiū Wéimiǎn, written at the Jìwán xuān”), dated Xiánchún 10 jiǎxū 甲戌 pre-retreat two-days (咸淳十年甲戌歲結制前二日 = summer 1274).
Abstract
Wéimiǎn 惟勉 (DILA A001065), hào Píngyán 屏岩, was a Southern-Sòng / Yuán-transition monk of the Jīnhuá Hòuhú 金華后湖 monastic community (in modern Zhèjiāng). Lifedates unrecorded. His principal editorial work is the Cónglín jiào dìng qīng guī zǒng yào. Preface dates 1274; a postface he wrote subsequently is dated Zhìyuán 21 = 1284, indicating Wéimiǎn survived the SòngYuán transition and continued his editorial activity into the early Yuán.
The text’s historical importance: it bridges the SòngYuán transition and consolidates the accumulated Sòng-period qīng guī tradition before the Yuán-dynasty imperial Chì xiū Bǎizhàng qīngguī (KR6q0102) of 1336 supersedes earlier regulatory texts as the authoritative standard. Wéimiǎn’s collation is accordingly an important late-Sòng witness to what was later to be codified.
Dating bracket: notBefore 1274 (main preface), notAfter 1284 (postface; terminus ante quem for the final received text). Catalog dynasty 宋 reflects the majority compositional period, though the final editorial stratum is early-Yuán.
Translations and research
- Yifa. 2002. The Origins of Buddhist Monastic Codes in China. Hawai’i.
- Foulk, T. Griffith. 1987. The “Ch’an School”. Diss., Michigan.
- 近藤良一 1968. 《百丈清規の成立》.
Other points of interest
Wéimiǎn’s 1284 postface falls into the early-Yuán period, and the text is quoted by Déhuī in the 1336 Chì xiū Bǎizhàng qīngguī, confirming that Wéimiǎn’s collation had become a standard reference-work for the subsequent Yuán regulatory project. Wéimiǎn’s editorial stance — “retain the agreements, compare the variants” — illustrates the critical-philological method characteristic of the late-Sòng / early-Yuán Chán scholarly practice on received regulatory texts.