Bóshān chán jǐng yǔ 博山禪警語
Chán Warning-Words of Bóshān
A late-Ming Chán practice-admonition compendium, shuō 說 (oral-discourse) by Wúyì Yuánlái 無異元來 (1575–1630) of the Bóshān Néngrén sì 博山能仁寺 in Xìnzhōu 信州, compiled (jí 集) by 成正 Chéngzhèng
About the work
A two-juan compendium of Chán practice-admonitions and experiential-instructional material, X63 n1257. Non-commentary; commentedTextid omitted. Yuánlái’s jǐng yǔ 警語 (“warning words”) address the psychological-experiential pitfalls of sustained kànhuà 看話 practice, and the text was widely used as a practical manual in late-Ming / early-Qing Chán training.
Tiyao
Not a WYG text; no 四庫 tíyào exists. The opening Bóshān jǐng yǔ xù 博山警語序 articulates the text’s purpose: “Jǐng 警 [warning] means to wake someone up; some say it means ‘to startle’. It is like there is a thief watching a great house; the master lights the lamp and sits all night on the public platform, coughing noisily so the thief fears and cannot enter. If he dozes off for a moment, the thief will take advantage and enter, and the storehouse will be emptied. Thus severely-walled-cities strike the watch-clapper and the diào dǒu 刁斗, and sudden disturbances find no vulnerability: because they are jǐng ready-warning from the moment of opportunity. Humans have the great calamity of birth-and-death, which is a myriad-kalpa unwaking long dream; it also acts as the thief’s intermediary, daily robbing the household-treasure. If there is no great-awakening heroic-painful speaking to warn-and-wake, then one’s whole life is in drunken-dreaming, without a day of awakening.”
Abstract
Wúyì Yuánlái 無異元來 / Bóshān Yuánlái 博山元來 (1575–1630, DILA A000114), zì Wúyì 無異. Late-Ming Cáodòng 曹洞宗 master, dharma-heir of Wúmíng Huìjīng 無明慧經 (1548–1618) in the same line that also produced Yǒngjué Yuánxián (1578–1657). Native of Shūchéng 舒城 (Ānhuī), lay surname Shā 沙.
Entered monastic life at 16; studied first at Jīnlíng Wǎguān sì 金陵瓦棺寺 under Xuělàng héshàng 雪浪, hearing the Lotus lectures; then at Jiànwǔ 建武 under Jìng’ān Tōng héshàng 靜菴通和尚 of the Wǔtái 五臺, receiving the tonsure. After five years of kōng guān 空觀 practice, received full precepts at Chāohuá shān 超華山 under Hóng fǎshī 洪法師. Subsequently met Shòuchāng Jīng chánshī 壽昌經禪師 (= Wúmíng Huìjīng) and received dharma-transmission. At age 27 (ca. 1602) received púsà vinaya at the Éhú Xīn héshàng 鵞湖心和尚.
Held successive abbacies at the Xìnzhōu Bóshān 信州博山 (principal seat, whence his Bóshān epithet), Jiànzhōu Dǒngyán 建州董巖, Jiànzhōu Yǎngshān 建州仰山, Fúzhōu Gǔshān 福州鼓山, Jīnlíng Tiānjiè 金陵天界, and other monasteries. Died Chóngzhēn 3.9.18 (23 October 1630), aged 56, sēnglà 41.
Authored a substantial corpus: 35-juan Wúyì Yuánlái chánshī guǎnglù 無異元來禪師廣錄; 6-juan Bóshān Wúyì dàshī yǔlù jíyào 博山無異大師語錄集要; the 2-juan Bóshān cān chán jǐng yǔ 博山參禪警語 (= the present KR6q0148 Bóshān chán jǐng yǔ). Principal dharma-heirs include Xuěguān Zhìyǐn 雪關智誾, Chángqìng Zōngbǎo Dàodú 長慶宗寶道獨, and numerous others.
The compiler chéngzhèng 成正 (DILA entry not located under this exact form; possibly Xuěguān Zhìyǐn’s student) gathered Yuánlái’s jǐng yǔ into the received two-juan form. Compositional dating: notBefore 1600 (Yuánlái’s active teaching period at Bóshān), notAfter 1630 (his death).
Translations and research
- Jeff Shore. 2016. Zen Classics for the Modern World: Translations of Chinese Zen Poems and Prose with Contemporary Commentary. Diane Publishing. Contains partial treatment of Yuánlái.
- Jiang Wu. 2008. Enlightenment in Dispute. Oxford. Places Yuánlái in the late-Ming / early-Qīng Cáodòng revival.
- 陳垣 1962. 《清初僧諍記》. Zhōnghuá Shūjú.
Other points of interest
Yuánlái and Yuánxián together constitute the two most important 17th-century Cáodòng masters, both descending from the same Wúmíng Huìjīng lineage. The Cáodòng revival of the late Ming — to which these two figures are central — is the principal source of the modern Chinese Cáodòng tradition, as well as the Japanese Sōtō school’s late-Ming / early-Qīng Chinese-side inheritance.