Cónglín gōng lùn 叢林公論
Public Discourse of the Cónglín
A Southern-Sòng short pastoral-polemical treatise on the state of the Chán monastic forest, by Zhěān Huìbīn 者菴惠彬; preface by Zōnghuì 宗惠 dated Chúnxī 16 (1189)
About the work
A one-juan Southern-Sòng Chán pastoral-polemical essay, X64 n1268. Non-commentary; commentedTextid omitted.
Tiyao
Not a WYG text; no 四庫 tíyào exists. The preface by Zōnghuì 宗惠 of Yùkuí yán 芋魁巖 dated Chúnxī jǐyǒu 淳熙己酉 季春 (1189 late spring) opens with a musical-instrumental metaphor: “Bells and drums are not the root of music, but the instruments cannot be discarded; discourse is not the root of the Way, but speech cannot be abolished. If one preserves the instrument while forgetting the root, music has been lost; if one establishes speech while forgetting the root, the Way has been lost.”
Abstract
Zhěān Huìbīn 者菴惠彬 (DILA A013249), hào Zhěān 者菴. Southern-Sòng monk of Nándàng 南蕩; lifedates unrecorded. His only surviving work is the Cónglín gōng lùn. No independent biographical material.
Dating bracket: notBefore 1180, notAfter 1189 (preface date).
Translations and research
- Foulk, T. Griffith. 1987. The “Ch’an School”. Diss., Michigan.
Other points of interest
The gōng lùn 公論 (“public discourse”) title positions the text within the Chinese literati-polemical genre, importing secular-intellectual discursive-public vocabulary into the monastic-pastoral setting. The text reflects the late-12th-century critical-reflective mood in Chán about the state of its own institutional forms.