Chánzōng zhí zhǐ 禪宗直指
Direct Pointing of the Chán School
A practical Chán practice-manual by the Qing-dynasty lay-literatus 石成金 Shí Chéngjīn 石成金 (zì Tiānjī 天基, b. 1659), part of his Chuán jiā bǎo 傳家寶 (“Family-Heirloom Treasure”) multi-volume pedagogical series; circulating under the full title Chuán jiā bǎo Chánzōng zhí zhǐ: míng xīn jiàn xìng xū zhī chéng fó chéng zǔ yào fǎ 傳家寶禪宗直指（明心見性須知成佛成祖要法）
About the work
A one-juan practical Chán practice-manual aimed at a lay-practitioner audience, X63 n1258. Non-commentary; commentedTextid omitted.
Authorial attribution: Yángzhōu chéng Tiānjī zhuàn zhù 揚州城天基譔著 (“composed by Tiānjī of Yángzhōu city”); school credit: nán (Yóunián Sōngnián) xiào kè 男(峷年嵩年)校刻 (“sons Yóunián and Sōngnián collated and engraved”). Shí Chéngjīn is addressed here by his zì Tiānjī, with his sons credited as the engravers.
The text’s opening: “Fófǎ gōng-fu, dì yī yào lì jiān zhì 佛法工夫，第一要立堅志” (“In Buddha-dharma practice, the first [essential] is to establish a firm resolve”). The text proceeds in plain-language colloquial prose, drawing extensively on Confucian and vernacular-Chinese idiom (“Yuè wáng fù Wú chóu 越王之復吳讐” [the King of Yuè’s revenge on Wú], “Zhāng Liáng bào Hán hèn 張良之報韓恨” [Zhāng Liáng’s revenge on Han], etc.) to illustrate Chán practice-commitment. This secular-literati-accessible style is characteristic of Shí Chéngjīn’s Chuán jiā bǎo project as a whole.
Tiyao
Not a WYG text; no 四庫 tíyào exists. No separate preface.
Abstract
Dates discrepancy: The Kanripo catalog assigns dynasty: 明 to this text; however, 石成金 Shí Chéngjīn (DILA A000310) is firmly Qing-dynasty — born Shùnzhì 16 (1659), died early Qiánlóng period (likely 1740s), aged over 80. The catalog attribution to 明 is an error; the text is correctly placed in 清 dynasty here, following external evidence.
Shí Chéngjīn 石成金 (1659 – c. 1740), zì Tiānjī 天基, hào Xǐngzhāi 惺齋 and Liángjué jūshì 良覺居士 (“Awakened-Good Lay-Practitioner”), also Xǐngān yúrén 醒庵愚人 (“Foolish Man of the Awakening Hut”). Qing-dynasty literatus and lay Buddhist, native of Yángzhōu 揚州. Came from a prominent Yángzhōu family; well-educated in the Confucian canon; made his career as a teacher-author. His Chuán jiā bǎo quán jí 傳家寶全集 (“Complete Family-Heirloom Treasure”) is a massive multi-volume pedagogical-moral anthology covering Confucian ethics, practical advice, anti-superstition polemic, and Buddhist practice-instruction; the Chánzōng zhí zhǐ is one section of this larger corpus.
The text’s distinctive feature: it articulates Chán practice-instruction in a form accessible to literate lay readers without specialised Buddhist training, using secular-literary and historical analogies rather than technical Buddhist vocabulary. This is characteristic of late-Qing lay-Buddhist pedagogical literature, where the classical monastic-institutional framing gives way to literati-household-centred religious practice.
Dating bracket: notBefore 1690 (Shí Chéngjīn’s mature authorial career begins), notAfter 1740 (working terminus ante quem for the composition, before Shí Chéngjīn’s death).
Translations and research
- No full English translation of the Chánzōng zhí zhǐ or the broader Chuán jiā bǎo corpus located.
- Brokaw, Cynthia J. 2007. Commerce in Culture: The Sibao Book Trade in the Qing and Republican Periods. Harvard. Background on Qing lay-literati pedagogical literature of which Shí Chéngjīn’s Chuán jiā bǎo is an important example.
- Naquin, Susan. 2000. Peking: Temples and City Life, 1400–1900. California. Background on Qing urban lay-Buddhist practice.
Other points of interest
The inclusion of the Chánzōng zhí zhǐ in the Xù zàng jīng (X63 n1258) represents the canonical-Buddhist tradition’s acknowledgement of the late-Qing lay-pedagogical tradition’s place within the broader Buddhist textual heritage. The text’s straightforward-practical register and its secular-literary idiom distinguish it sharply from the technical-doctrinal literature of contemporary monastic authors and make it an important primary source for the social history of late-imperial Chinese Buddhism.