Chánlín bèi yòng qīng guī 禪林備用清規
Complete-Preparation Pure Regulations of the Chán Forest
A ten-juan Yuán-dynasty comprehensive monastic code compiled (biān 編) by Dōnglín Yīxián 東林弌咸 (also 澤山弌咸 Zéshān Yīxián; active late 13th – early 14th century); successor to Zōngzé’s 1103 KR6q0136 Chányuàn qīng guī and precursor to Déhuī’s 1336 imperial KR6q0102 Chì xiū Bǎizhàng qīngguī
About the work
A ten-juan Yuán-dynasty monastic code, X63 n1250. Non-commentary on a named parent text; commentedTextid omitted. The text represents a significant Yuán-period recension of the cónglín monastic regulatory tradition, consolidating and updating the received Sòng material.
Tiyao
Not a WYG text; no 四庫 tíyào exists. The received text opens with a preface by the jūshì Yuán Juǎn 袁桷 (Qīngróng jūshì 清容居士, 1266–1327) dated Tàidìng 2.6 (1325.6), followed by Yīxián’s own self-introduction dated Zhìdà xīnhài qiū 至大辛亥秋 (1311 autumn). Yīxián’s authorial line: Lúshān Dōnglín Dàpíng xīnglóng chánsì zhùchí bǐqiū Yīxián biān 廬山東林大平興龍禪寺住持比丘弌咸編.
Abstract
Dōnglín Yīxián 東林弌咸 (DILA A022328), zì Dōnglín 東林 (“East Forest”); Yuán-dynasty LínjìYángqí Chán monk, dharma-heir of Juéān Mèngzhēn 覺菴夢真 (DILA A008313). Also styled Zéshān Yīxián 澤山弌咸 (hence the form Zéshān Xián dàshī 澤山咸大師 in the compilation’s preface).
The work’s compilational history, per DILA A022328 and Yuán Juǎn’s preface: in Zhìyuán wùyín 至元戊寅 (1278) Yīxián studied under Shílín héshàng at Nánpíng, and — working from copies of Dàchuān and Xiàowēng chánshī’s Rì yòng guǐzé 日用軌則 held by his friend Yúnmíng Xītáng 雲明西堂 — began compilation work. In rénwǔ 壬午 (1282) he continued the work under Juéān chánshī at Chéngtiān. The final 10-juan text — with the zhù shèng 祝聖 (imperial-longevity prayer) and rú lái jiàng dàn 如來降誕 (Buddha-birthday) rituals prefixed as juan 1 — was completed by Zhìdà 4 (1311) autumn and received Yuán Juǎn’s preface in 1325. Yīxián subsequently held successive abbacies at Shuāngjìng 雙徑, Yǒngjiā Tiānníng 永嘉天寧, Yǒngfú 永福, and the Lúshān Dōnglín Dàpíng xīnglóng chánsì 廬山東林大平興龍禪寺.
Dating bracket: notBefore 1311 (Yīxián’s self-dated compilation signature), notAfter 1325 (Yuán Juǎn’s preface). The composition-and-expansion work spanned 1278–1311. Catalog dynasty 元.
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.
- 椎名宏雄 1993. 《宋元版禅籍の研究》.
Other points of interest
The Chánlín bèi yòng qīng guī is the penultimate major Yuán-period monastic code, followed 25 years later by Déhuī’s imperial KR6q0102 Chì xiū Bǎizhàng qīngguī (1336) which subsequently superseded all prior regulatory texts as the authoritative standard. Yīxián’s text is accordingly an important pre-Déhuī witness to the state of Chán monastic regulation in the early Yuán.
Yuán Juǎn 袁桷’s preface associates the text’s institutional authority with his own position as a major Yuán-dynasty literatus and lay Buddhist (Qīngróng jūshì), providing official lay-literati backing for the monastic editorial project.