Chán jiā guī jiàn 禪家龜鑑
Mirror of the Chán School (Korean Sŏn-ga kwi-gam)
The most influential Chosŏn-period Korean Sŏn doctrinal treatise, by Cheongheo Hyujeong 清虛休靜 (1520–1604), hào Tuìyǐn 退隱 (“Retreated-and-Concealed”) and Xīshān 西山 (“West Mountain”), known as Sŏsan Taesa 西山大師 in Korean tradition
About the work
A one-juan short Sŏn doctrinal compendium in verse-and-prose form, X63 n1255. Non-commentary; commentedTextid omitted. The most influential single Korean Sŏn doctrinal text since Chinul’s KR6q0097 Xiū xīn jué, and the canonical expression of Chosŏn-dynasty Korean Sŏn teaching.
The text is structured as a sequence of short topical passages — each consisting of (a) a main zhèng wén 正文 quoted proposition (often adapted from earlier Chinese or Korean Chán sources), followed by (b) Hyujeong’s own zhù 註 commentarial exposition. The opening passage exemplifies the format: “Yǒu yī wù yú cǐ, cóng běn yǐ lái zhāozhāo línglíng, bù céng shēng bù céng miè, míng bù dé zhuàng bù dé 有一物於此，從本以來昭昭靈靈，不曾生不曾滅，名不得狀不得” (“Here there is a single thing, from the beginning clearly-clearly and mysteriously-mysteriously; it has never been born, never ceased; it cannot be named, cannot be described”), followed by Hyujeong’s extensive exposition citing earlier patriarchs (古佛, Jiāshè 迦葉, Shénhuì 神會, Huáiràng 懷讓) on the same theme.
Tiyao
Not a WYG text; no 四庫 tíyào exists. Signature line: Cáoxī Tuìyǐn shù 曹谿退隱述 (“composed by Tuìyǐn of Cáoxī” — i.e., at the Jogye-san 曹溪山 monastic centre, Korea).
Abstract
Cheongheo Hyujeong 清虛休靜 / Sŏsan Taesa 西山大師 (1520–1604, DILA A015785), zì Rúxìn 汝信, hào Qīngxū 清虛 (“Clear-Empty”), Xīshān 西山, and Tuìyǐn 退隱; imperial titles Guóyī dù dà chánshī 國一都大禪師 (“Great Chán Master of National Uniqueness”) and Fúzōng fǔjiào pǔjì dēngjiē zūnzhě 扶宗拊教普濟登階尊者. Lay surname Cuī 崔; native of Koryŏ Wánshān 完山 region. The single most influential Korean Buddhist figure of the mid-Chosŏn period.
Dharma-heir of Yǐnān Línguān 隱庵靈觀. Famously rallied Buddhist monastic militia during the Japanese Imjin War 1592–1598 (despite the Chosŏn state’s official Neo-Confucian anti-Buddhist stance), contributing to Korean military resistance and subsequently restoring Korean Buddhism to a respected-if-circumscribed institutional position in the late Chosŏn.
Hyujeong’s doctrinal synthesis in the Chán jiā guī jiàn integrates elements of the full classical-Chinese Chán doctrinal inheritance — Dàhuì-school kànhuà 看話, HóngzhìCáodòng silent-illumination, Yǒngmíng Yánshòu’s Chán-Pure-Land syncretism, Chinul’s dùnwù jiànxiū — into a unified synthetic Korean position that became foundational for later Chosŏn Korean Buddhism.
Principal dharma-heirs include Samyeong Yujeong 四溟惟政 (1544–1610) and numerous others, through whom Hyujeong’s synthesis was transmitted to subsequent Korean Buddhism.
Died Wànlì 32 (1604/5), aged 85, sēnglà 65.
Dating bracket: notBefore 1550 (Hyujeong’s mature authorial career), notAfter 1604 (his death). The precise composition date is not specified; probably the 1570s or 1580s.
Translations and research
- Boep Joeng Sunim & Mu Soeng Sunim. 1996. The Way of Korean Zen. Weatherhill. English translation of the Sŏn-ga kwi-gam.
- Keel Hee-Sung. 1989. “Chosŏn Sŏn Practice and Its Role in the Formation of Korean Buddhism.” In Korean Buddhism: Tradition and Transformation, ed. Lewis R. Lancaster & Chai-Shin Yu. Asian Humanities Press.
- Buswell, Robert E., Jr. 1992. The Zen Monastic Experience: Buddhist Practice in Contemporary Korea. Princeton. Background on the living Korean Sŏn tradition that Hyujeong shaped.
- 李智冠 1989. 《韓國禪學史》. Chūngang Ilbosa.
- Park, Sung-bae. 1983. Buddhist Faith and Sudden Enlightenment. SUNY.
Other points of interest
The Chán jiā guī jiàn has the status in Korean Buddhism that the Tánjīng 壇經 has in Chinese Buddhism: a founding-patriarchal short text that is memorised by monastic novices, quoted at length in subsequent commentarial tradition, and that shapes the core doctrinal self-understanding of the continuing living tradition. In the Jogye-order’s present-day curriculum the text is read alongside Chinul’s KR6q0097 Xiū xīn jué as the two principal Korean-authored foundational texts.
Hyujeong also composed an important companion text, the Sŏn-gyo kyŏl 禪教訣 (“Resolution of Sŏn and [Doctrinal] Teaching”), advocating the integration of Sŏn and gyo doctrinal traditions that is the signature Korean Buddhist integrative position.