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高峰龍泉院因師集賢語錄

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Text ID
KR6q0165
Date
1276–1287
Dynasty
元

Gāofēng lóngquán yuàn Yīn shī jí xián yǔlù 高峰龍泉院因師集賢語錄

The Recorded Sayings and Assembled Worthies of Master Yīn of Lóngquán Cloister on Gāofēng

A 15-juan Yuán-dynasty comprehensive Buddhist liturgical compendium preserving the collected ritual speech (yǔlù 語錄, here in its extended sense: not Chán sermons but ceremonial spoken language) of the otherwise-obscure Yuán monk Déyīn 德因 (self-designation Gāofēng Yīnshī 高峰因師, hào 野釋比丘 “Wild Buddhist Bhikkhu”), abbot-reviver of Lóngquányuàn 龍泉院 on Gāofēng 高峰, compiled by his junior-disciple Rú Yīng 如瑛 at the affiliated Liùzǔyuàn 六祖院 (Sixth Patriarch Cloister). Prefaced by the Daoist-Buddhist syncretic ritual master Shěn Shìchāng 沈世昌 in Zhìyuán 24 (1287).

About the work

A 15-juan ritual-language compendium, X65 n1277. Non-commentary; commentedTextid omitted. The text is not a Chán yǔlù in the usual sense (records of awakening dialogues and sermons) but a compendium of practical monastic ritual language — a handbook for performing the full range of Chinese Buddhist liturgical occasions. Its fifteen juan are organised by mén 門 (“gates”) covering:

  • Juan 1 — Rù tán xù shí jǐng mén 入壇敘時景門: altar-opening narration-of-the-time speeches, keyed to each lunar month, seasonal festival (立春 Lìchūn, 元旦 Yuándàn, 上元 Shàngyuán, 清明 Qīngmíng, 端午 Duānwǔ, 重陽 Chóngyáng, 除夜 Chúyè etc.), time of day (dawn, noon, dusk, night), weather condition (sunny, rainy, snowy, frosty), and Buddha / Bodhisattva birthday.
  • Juan 2 — Rù tán fó shì mén 入壇佛事門: altar-opening Buddha-affair texts (purification of the three karmas, incense-praise, pacification, water-purification, pollution-removal, etc.).
  • Juan 3 — Yīn shēng fó shì mén 音聲佛事門: Buddha-inviting and Three-Jewels-inviting texts, six-offering / seven-offering / twelve-offering liturgies (incense, flower, lamp, water, tea, fruit, food, treasure, rice, clothing, medicine).
  • Juan 4 — Gē yáng zàn fó mén 歌揚讚佛門: praise-hymns (zàn 讚) set to classical SòngYuán cí 詞 melodic patterns — Dà sān guī yī 大三皈依, Gǔ Yángguān 古陽關, Qiáo gǔ shè 喬鼓社, Liǔ hán yān 柳含烟, Hè chōng tiān 鶴冲天, Qiān qiū suì 千秋歲, Wǔ fú jiàng zhōng tiān 五福降中天, Lín jiāng xiān 臨江仙, Hè shèng cháo 賀聖朝, Wǔ léi zǐ 五雷子, Qiǎo sǔn bā 巧笋笆, Mǎn tíng fāng 滿庭芳, Shuǐ diào gē 水調歌, Xiáng mó zàn 降魔讚, Wàng Jiāngnán 望江南, Shēngshēng màn 聲聲慢.
  • Juan 5 — Chén yì fú gù mén 陳意伏顧門 and Zhū bān chàng zàn mén 諸般倡讚門: intention-statements for life-cycle and calendrical rituals (birthday, seven-year, birth, blood-bowl, star-offering, vow-fulfilment, praying for male heir, pregnancy-protection, illness, safety, calamity-warding [fire, water], crop-protection, silkworm-protection, construction [house, tomb], knot-loosening, weather-supplication and thanks [rain, sun, snow]); praise-hymns to specific Buddhas and Bodhisattvas (Bhaiṣajyaguru Yàoshī, Amitābha Mítuó, Tējas Chìshèngguāng, Avalokiteśvara Guānyīn, Kṣitigarbha Dìzàng, Mahāmaudgalyāyana Mùlián, Sìzhōu Fó 泗洲佛, Dìng-guāng Fó 定光佛, Huìnéng 六祖).
  • Juans 6–14 — continuation of ritual-speech genres.
  • Juan 15 — Zì chén qíng cí mén 自陳情詞門: the master’s own zì xù 自敘 (autobiographical declaration) and temple-inauguration proclamation.

Abstract

Déyīn 德因 (DILA A022331), otherwise unknown from the main monastic-biographical sources, is identified from his juan-15 self-narrative as a Southern-Sòng–Yuán transitional monk of humble origins — orphaned of father at ten, abandoned by his remarrying mother at fifteen, he took ordination and wandered the southern Chinese Chán monasteries for years before discovering the abandoned and ruined Lóngquányuàn 龍泉院 on Gāofēng 高峰 and resolving to restore it. His self-narrative gives his birth horoscope as bǐngshēn year / yǐwèi month / guǐyǒu day / guǐhài hour — bǐngshēn = 1236 in the relevant sexagenary cycle (consistent with the 1287 preface-date and the narrative’s stated age of “four decades” attained at the time of writing). The narrative describes his rebuilding of Lóngquányuàn: dilapidated dharma-hall restored (nine-truss, five-bay), sleeping-quarters newly built (seven-bay, five-truss), gatehouse erected, side-corridors renewed, seventy-three Buddha-statues installed in the central hall, eighty-four saints painted on the walls, books and implements added, bridges built, wells and ponds dug, six hundred-odd units of tax-land acquired for the monastery’s perpetual endowment, total cost “over three thousand strings of cash.”

Rú Yīng 如瑛 (DILA A000350), Déyīn’s junior-disciple (xiǎo shī 小師), identified in the compilation as “abbot of the Sixth Patriarch Cloister” (Liùzǔyuàn zhùchí 六祖院住持). Beyond his editorial role in compiling the present work, he has no independent biographical record.

The preface by Shěn Shìchāng 沈世昌, dated Zhìyuán dīnghài shàngsì qián sān rì 至元丁亥上巳前三日 (= the third day before shàngsì 上巳 of Zhìyuán 24 = 1287), is unusual in identifying the writer as a Daoist-Buddhist ritual syncretist — Língbǎo fǎshī jiān xíng liù tōng yíjiào fǎ shì 靈寶法師兼行六通遺教法事 (“Língbǎo [Daoist] Dharma-Master, also practising the Six Penetrations and the bequeathed-teaching dharma-affairs”). This syncretic preface-author is itself a valuable witness to the Yuán-period integration of Daoist and Buddhist popular-ritual practice.

Dating: notBefore 1276 (the narrator’s stated age of “four decades” places the self-narrative’s composition around this date, giving the compilation’s lower bound); notAfter 1287 (Shěn Shìchāng’s preface dated Zhìyuán 24, the compilation’s presentation date). The compilation was assembled within the late-Sòng–Yuán transitional period following the Mongol conquest of Southern Sòng (1279) — a period of intense Buddhist popular-ritual activity amid the dislocations of dynastic change.

Translations and research

  • The text has received little sustained Western scholarship. It is occasionally cited in studies of Yuán-period popular Buddhism and in musicological studies of Buddhist cí-hymn repertoires (Juan 4).
  • No substantial secondary literature located specifically on X65 n1277.

Other points of interest

The work is an irreplaceable source for several research programmes:

  1. Yuán-period popular Buddhism: the text documents in unprecedented detail the full range of ceremonial language Chinese Buddhist monks used for lay-patron services — birthday blessings, pregnancy protection, illness rites, weather-supplication, tomb-construction liturgy, silkworm and crop blessings, fire and flood warding. This corpus has no comparably complete predecessor in the canonical literature.

  2. Buddhist cí-hymnody (Juan 4): the liturgical mapping of specific Buddhist praise-hymn texts onto SòngYuán secular cípái 詞牌 (song-tune patterns) — Gǔ Yángguān 古陽關, Mǎn tíng fāng 滿庭芳, Shuǐ diào gē 水調歌, Wàng Jiāngnán 望江南, Shēngshēng màn 聲聲慢 — is one of the earliest sustained witnesses to the monastic adaptation of the secular cí song-tradition for devotional purposes.

  3. Buddhist-Daoist ritual syncretism (preface and textual cross-references): Shěn Shìchāng’s Línbǎo-Daoist-Buddhist syncretic self-identification in the preface, and the compilation’s coverage of ritual occasions traditionally shared between Buddhist and Daoist ritual specialists (star-offerings, weather-supplication, tomb-rites), makes the text an important witness to the Yuán-period integration of the two ritual traditions in popular-cultic practice.

  4. Biographical reconstruction: Déyīn’s juan-15 self-narrative is a rare first-person prose autobiography from the late-Sòng–Yuán transitional monastic community, providing personal testimony to the conditions of temple-revival (i.e., the specific material costs and labour involved in restoring a ruined monastery) that more formal gazetteer sources elide.

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