溈山警策註

Guīshān jǐng cè zhù 溈山警策註

Annotated Commentary on the Admonitions of Guīshān

A one-juan late-Míng prose commentary on the famous Guīshān jǐng cè 溈山警策 (Admonitions of Guīshān) attributed to Guīshān Língyòu 溈山靈祐 (771–853), the founding master of the Guīyǎng 溈仰 school of Chán and one of the most venerated Chán texts of the classical monastic training canon. Commentator: Dàxiāng 大香 (dates unrecorded), a Míng-period monk of Jīnshān 金山. Prefaced by Dàxiāng himself at the Jìngyèlóu 淨業樓 of Tángxī 棠溪 on the full moon of autumn in the jiǎxū year of the Chóngzhēn 崇禎 reign = Chóngzhēn 7 = 1634.

About the work

A one-juan line-by-line prose commentary on a parent Chán text, X65 n1294. Commentary on the Guīshān dà yuán chánshī jǐng cè 溈山大圓禪師警策.

The commentary’s structure: Dàxiāng opens with a brief biographical note on Guīshān Língyòu, then proceeds through the Jǐng cè line-by-line, with each fragment of the original text quoted in the source and followed by Dàxiāng’s prose annotation. The annotations typically combine:

• Lexical gloss of unusual terms.
• Doctrinal-historical explanation of Buddhist concepts (e.g., the sì dà 四大 four elements, the wǔ yùn 五蘊 five aggregates, the yè xì 業繫 karmic bondage).
• Cross-references to classical Buddhist texts.
• Occasional Chán-rhetorical commentary.

The opening biographical note on Guīshān Língyòu gives the canonical data: native of Chángxī 長溪 in Fúzhōu 福州, lay surname Zhào 趙; dharma-heir of Bǎizhàng Huáihǎi 百丈懷海; sent to Guīshān 溈山 in Chángshāfǔ Níngxiāng 長沙府寧鄉 on the recommendation of the geomantic seer Sīmǎ Tóutuó 司馬頭陀; there founded the monastic community after a dispute resolved by Bǎizhàng’s famous “kick over the water-pitcher” test; later joined by Yǎngshān Huìjí 仰山惠寂 to form the Guīyǎng school jointly.

Abstract

Dàxiāng 大香 (DILA A000058). Late-Míng Chán monk at Jīnshān 金山 (almost certainly Jīnshānsì 金山寺 in Zhènjiāng 鎮江, one of the Four Sacred Mountains of Chinese Buddhism and a major late-Míng monastic publishing centre). Lifedates, native place, and monastic lineage all unrecorded. The DILA authority record attributes only this single work to him; no other compositions are preserved.

Distinct from a different DILA-recorded 大香 (A015928, lay name Wú Dǐngfāng 吳鼎芳, hào Ǎnlán 唵囕 / 唵囕大香), a Míng layman-scholar who was a different person with a similar monastic sobriquet.

Not to be confused with the parent text’s commentatorial forerunners: the famous earlier annotated editions of the Jǐng cè by Shǒusuì 守遂 and others. Dàxiāng’s 1634 commentary is distinctive within the Jǐng cè commentarial tradition for being a stand-alone late-Míng product rather than part of a larger work; it circulates primarily through the Xùzàngjīng preservation in the twentieth century rather than having had a large independent readership.

Dating: notBefore / notAfter both 1634 (the preface-date, Chóngzhēn suìcì jiǎxū qiū zhōng rì 崇禎歲次甲戌秋中日).

Translations and research

• The parent text Guīshān jǐng cè has been translated and studied extensively; standard references include Dumoulin Zen Buddhism: A History (1988) and Foulk’s studies of classical Chán monastic training.
• No substantial study located specifically on Dàxiāng’s 1634 commentary.

Other points of interest

The Guīshān jǐng cè itself (not the present commentary) is one of the most important classical Chán short texts — a practical-moral admonition to novices on the discipline-based foundation of Chán training, frequently cited alongside the Bǎizhàng guī 百丈規 (Bǎizhàng’s Rules) and the later Chánlín qīng guī 禪林清規 as the doctrinal foundation of Chán monastic discipline. Dàxiāng’s 1634 commentary contributes to the text’s sustained commentarial tradition by adapting it for late-Míng monastic training-needs — glossing archaic vocabulary, explaining doctrinal references, and situating each line within a broader Chán teaching-context.

The Jǐng cè’s attribution to Guīshān Língyòu himself has been traditionally accepted but is not beyond question: the text’s received form may reflect later editorial standardisation of what began as oral admonitions. For the present commentary’s purposes, however, the traditional attribution is assumed throughout.

Links

• CBETA
• Parent text: Guīshān dà yuán chánshī jǐng cè 溈山大圓禪師警策 (T48 n2023; not held as a standalone work in the Kanripo corpus — hence commentedTextid omitted)
• Parallel Jǐng cè commentary in KR6q: KR6q0131 Guīshān jǐng cè zhù (earlier), KR6q0132 Guīshān jǐng cè jù shì jì 溈山警策句釋記
• 大香 DILA
• Kanseki DB