Tiān yuè míng kōng jí 天樂鳴空集
Heaven-Music Sounding-Emptiness Collection
A three-juan late-Míng lay-Buddhist doctrinal-devotional miscellany by the Shāoxīng-area lay Buddhist Bào Zōngzhào 鮑宗肇 (zì Xìngquán 性泉, hào Tiāngǔ jūshì 天鼓居士 “Heaven-Drum Layman”; dates unrecorded, active Wànlì era). Originally composed with a self-preface dated Wànlì gēngxū shàngyuán qián èr rì 萬曆庚戌上元前二日 = Wànlì 38 = 1610/1/13; edited and doctrinally certified (dìng 定 “fixed”) by Ǒuyì Zhìxù 蕅益智旭 with his own lengthy preface dated guǐsì 癸巳 = Shùnzhì 10 = 1653 (more than four decades after the author’s death in the community of Yúnqī Zhūhóng).
About the work
A three-juan lay-Buddhist doctrinal-devotional miscellany, J20 B097. Non-commentary; commentedTextid omitted.
The title Tiān yuè míng kōng 天樂鳴空 derives from the Avataṃsaka Sūtra’s figure of the heavenly drum (tiān gǔ 天鼓) that sounds from empty space without a player, proclaiming the message of impermanence and dependent-origination to the gods — which in the preservation-lineage of Bào Zōngzhào’s mountain (the É-bí shān 鵝鼻山 / Dà-yán 大巖 near Shàoxīng, traditionally said to produce “heavenly music” audible at its summit) gave rise to the local place-name Tiān yuè 天樂 (“Heaven-Music”). Bào uses this layered imagery as a sustained metaphor for the Buddhist teaching as the non-origin-bound sounding of the inconceivable Dharma.
The contents distribute across three juan into systematic doctrinal exposition (juan 1), practical devotional-meditative instructions (juan 2), and collected Chán-Pure Land integrative discussion (juan 3), with various included episodes from Bào’s encounters with the major late-Míng masters Zǐbǎi Zhēnkě 紫柏真可, Zhànrán Yuánchéng 湛然圓澄, and Yúnqī Zhūhóng 雲棲袾宏.
Abstract
Bào Zōngzhào 鮑宗肇 (DILA A037255). Zì Xìngquán 性泉 (“Nature-Spring”); hào Tiāngǔ jūshì 天鼓居士 (“Heaven-Drum Layman”). Native of Shānyīn 山陰 (Shàoxīng, Zhèjiāng). Lifedates unrecorded (active Wànlì era, died seated-meditation [zuò tuō 坐脫] in Yúnqī Zhūhóng’s community probably between 1615 and 1635).
Bào was a merchant-origin lay Buddhist — “originally merely a market-trader” (bù guò yī shì gǔ ěr 不過一市賈耳), in Zhìxù’s phrase, selling paper in the Zuì-lǐ 檇李 (Jiāxīng) market district. At age 20 he gave up meat and alcohol and began daily recitation of the Lotus and Śūraṅgama sūtras. His Buddhist training took him successively to the three great late-Míng masters: first Zǐ-bǎi Zhēn-kě 紫柏真可 (who commissioned him to write out the Śūraṅgama and Lotus in a fine block-printing-style hand for woodblock carving and circulation); then Zhàn-rán Yuánchéng 湛然圓澄 (with whom Bào maintained a sustained correspondence); and finally Yúnqī Zhūhóng 雲棲袾宏 (in whose community he died seated-meditation and, by the community’s understanding, was reborn in the Pure Land).
Editorial-transmission history (per Zhìxù’s 1653 preface):
- 1610: original composition and self-preface.
- Manuscript held and annotated by Táo Shíliáng 陶石梁 居士 (“Rock-Bridge Layman” Táo), Bào’s contemporary.
- At Bào’s death-before-1635: the Táo-annotated manuscript passed to the elder Qián Yǒngmíng 錢永明.
- At Qián’s deathbed transmission: the manuscript passed to Wáng Zhǐān 王止菴 居士 (“Halting-Hermitage Layman” Wáng) of Zuìlǐ.
- 1647 autumn (丁亥秋 Dīnghài autumn): Wáng Zhǐān presented the manuscript to Zhìxù at Wú 吳 (Sūzhōu).
- 1653 spring: Zhìxù finalised his editorial certification (dìng 定) and added the 1653 preface.
Zhìxù’s editorial position: the text is “an acupuncture-needle for the crown of the head of wild Chán” (kān yǔ mòshì kuáng chán wéi dǐngmén zhēn 堪與末世狂禪為頂門針), positioning Bào’s integrative doctrinal work against the excessive Chán-rhetorical self-certainty of late-Míng Chán publishing culture. The work’s doctrinal focus — “taking unity-of-practice-and-understanding as school, taking post-awakening cultivation as correct” (yǐ xíng jiě hé yī wéi zōng, yǐ wù hòu xiūxíng wéi zhèng 以行解合一為宗以悟後修行為正) — aligns with Zhìxù’s own integrative position in works like the Zhōu yì chán jiě KR6q0184.
Dating: notBefore 1610 (Bào’s self-preface, Wànlì gēngxū shàngyuán qián èr rì chūn Tiāngǔ jūshì Bào Zōngzhào zì xù yú Wúàigé zhōng 萬曆庚戌上元前二日春天鼓居士鮑宗肇自序於無礙閣中); notAfter 1653 (Zhìxù’s certification-preface, Guǐsì chūn zhòng Fó rì Ǒuyì dàorén Zhìxù shū yú Yíngquán zhàngshì 癸已春仲佛日蕅益道人智旭書於營泉丈室). The received text represents the 1653 Zhìxù-certified recension of the 1610 original.
Translations and research
- Shèng-yán 聖嚴. 1975. 《明末佛教研究》. Includes discussion of Bào Zōngzhào within the lay-Buddhist network of Zǐ-bǎi, Yúnqī, and Zhìxù.
- Brook, Timothy. 1993. Praying for Power. Background on late-Míng lay-Buddhist culture and mercantile-elite religious participation.
- Eichman, Jennifer L. 2016. A Late Sixteenth-Century Chinese Buddhist Fellowship. Brill. Detailed treatment of lay-Buddhist fellowships in the late Míng, including the kind of circle Bào Zōngzhào participated in.
Other points of interest
The Tiān yuè míng kōng jí is a distinctive late-Míng lay-Buddhist contribution: written by a merchant-origin layman who had achieved serious doctrinal competence through long association with the leading monastic masters, certified by a fourth master (Zhìxù) a generation later, and transmitted through an unbroken lay-Buddhist chain before finalisation. This transmission-history itself is a remarkable document of the late-Míng lay-Buddhist textual culture, showing how serious doctrinal works could circulate in manuscript among interested laymen for decades before reaching print.
Zhìxù’s sustained endorsement — he is responsible for the text’s eventual publication in the Jiāxīng Canon — places Tiān yuè míng kōng jí within the integrative-doctrinal lineage Zhìxù himself championed. The preface is accordingly valuable as a late document of Zhìxù’s mature doctrinal position and of his critical assessment of contemporary Chán.