Chánlín bǎoxùn niān sòng 禪林寶訓拈頌
Niānsòng (Raised-Verse) Commentary on the Chánlín bǎoxùn
An early-Qīng Chán verse-commentary on KR6q0099 Chánlín bǎoxùn 禪林寶訓, by Běnchōng Xíngshèng 本充行盛 (d. 1671/2), recorded by his disciple Chāojì 超記
About the work
A one-juan verse-commentary in the niān sòng 拈頌 (“raising-up-and-verse”) genre — where each passage from the parent text is “raised” (niān 拈) for comment and followed by a four-line verse encapsulating the commentator’s teaching. X64 n1264. commentedTextid: KR6q0099.
Xíngshèng selected 42 passages from the Chánlín bǎoxùn’s approximately 300 items and composed 74 verse-commentaries totalling one juan.
Tiyao
Not a WYG text; no 四庫 tíyào exists. The opening preface discusses the state of Chán monastic practice in Xíngshèng’s time: “Learning without tracing to the instructions is not broad; inquiry without investigating the instructions is not thorough; thinking without verifying the instructions is not careful; discrimination without detailing the instructions is not clear; practice without relying on the instructions is not sincere. Therefore what one values is the gèmíng jiù zhī 革凡就聖 standard of changing the ordinary and approaching the sacred…”
Abstract
Běnchōng Xíngshèng 本充行盛 (died Kāngxī 10–11 = 1671/2; birth year unrecorded; DILA A000418), zì Běnchōng 本充; hào Yòuwēng 褎翁 and Nánhú lǎorén 南湖老人. Qing LínjìYángqí Chán monk, dharma-heir of Fèiyǐn Tōngróng 費隱通容 (1593–1661). Native of Quánzhōu fǔ 泉州府 (Fújiàn), lay surname Wú 吳. Tonsured at 28; met Jīnsù Róng (= Tōngróng) at Jīnsù shān and received dharma-transmission with a sudden awakening.
Abbot of the Huìyún sì 慧雲寺 as the 32nd-generation Línjì zhèng zōng 臨濟正宗 patriarch. During the Shùnzhì period Xíngshèng composed the niān sòng on 42 of the classical Chánlín bǎoxùn passages, producing 74 verses. His disciple Chāojì 超記 recorded the verses and preserved the text.
Also wrote prefaces to KR6q0154 Chánlín bǎoxùn hé zhù and to the Guān wú liàng shòu fó jīng tú sòng 觀無量壽佛經圖頌.
Dharma-heirs include Jīxiōng Nián 機玄年, Kēyuè Liǎn 珂月璉, Yīzhēn Ēn 一真恩.
Died Kāngxī 辛亥 (1671/2 Gregorian). Dating bracket: notBefore 1650 (Xíngshèng’s active post-transmission period), notAfter 1671 (death).
Translations and research
- Yifa. 2002. The Origins of Buddhist Monastic Codes in China. Hawai’i.
- Jiang Wu. 2008. Enlightenment in Dispute. Oxford.
Other points of interest
The niān sòng genre — selecting short source-text passages and composing verse-commentary on them — is the classical Chán verse-commentary format developed originally by Xuědòu Chóngxiǎn in his Sòng gǔ bǎi zé (KR6q0074) that became the template for KR6q0078 Bìyán lù and KR6q0079 Cóngróng lù. Xíngshèng’s application of this format to the pastoral-admonition Chánlín bǎoxùn — rather than to the classical gōng’àn material — represents a generic adaptation of the Chán verse-commentary template to the ethical-admonition content.