曹溪一滴

Cáoxī yī dī 曹溪一滴

One Drop from Cáoxī

A one-juan late-Míng Yúnnán Chán anthology compiled by Chèyōng Zhōulǐ 徹庸周理 (1591–1647), hào Chèyōng 徹庸 (“Thoroughly-Ordinary”), shì Mèngān 夢庵 (“Dream Hermitage”); Yúnnán-county native and prominent Línjì-lineage master of the Kuīzúshān 鷄足山 (Jīzúshān, “Chicken-Foot Mountain”) community at Miàofēngsì 妙峰寺 in Yúnnán. The title Cáoxī yī dī (“One Drop from Cáoxī [= the Sixth Patriarch’s Guǎngdōng seat]”) presents the anthology as a drop from the stream of the classical Chán transmission transported to the Yúnnán frontier. Prefaced by the layman Gǒng 珙 (hào Wúxué jūshì 無學居士 “Unlearned Layman”, then serving as Nán shuǐbù láng 南水部郎) at the Míngshènghú 明聖湖 in the spring third month of Chóngzhēn 9 = 1636.

About the work

A one-juan late-Míng Chán regional anthology, J25 B164. Non-commentary (a compilation of multiple sources); commentedTextid omitted. The text assembles Yúnnán regional Chán materials that Zhōulǐ had collected and preserved:

1. Materials on Pánlóng Gǔtíng 盤龍古庭 (i.e., Gǔtíng Shànzūn 古庭善堅, the founding patriarch of the Yúnnán Chán lineage): his dharma-transmission story from Zhōngfēng 中峰 and his emergence as a teaching master.
2. The Shān yún shuǐ shí yí jí 山雲水石遺集 (“Remaining Collection of Mountain Clouds and Water Rocks”) — a lost-and-rediscovered collection of Gǔtíng’s works, selected and edited by the Míng-era tàishǐ Huáng Shènxuān 黃慎軒 and further revised by Lǎngmù héshàng 朗目和尚, which Zhōulǐ had recovered from a friend’s bookshelf in xīnyǒu 辛酉 = Tiānqǐ 1 = 1621.
3. The Zhú shì jí 竹室集 (“Bamboo Chamber Collection”) by Dàwēi 大巍 — a dharma-disciple of Gǔtíng.
4. The Fúshān fǎ jù 浮山法句 (Dharma-Verses of Fúshān) by Lǎngmù héshàng 朗目和尚.
5. A prefatory section on “Chán-school responsive-incarnation sages and worthies” covering the Yúnnán-specific Buddhist traditions: the Arhat Kāśyapa’s golden-robe samādhi at Huā-shǒu 華首 Peak awaiting Maitreya’s advent; the Ashoka legend of his eighth son Méng-jū 蒙苴 who ruled at Dà-lǐ with Three Pagodas (三塔); the Huā-yán xuán tán huì xuán jì 華嚴懸談會玄記 by Cāng-shān Zài-guāng-sì Pǔ-ruì 蒼山再光寺普瑞 (i.e., Miào-guān chánshī 妙觀禪師) — the Yúnnán-specific Buddhist-historical sources that establish the region’s Buddhist credentials.

The thematic unity of the collection: the Yúnnán Chán tradition, though peripheral to the Chinese heartland, descends directly from the classical Cáoxī 曹溪 (Sixth Patriarch) stream — through the two-generation line Zhōngfēng Míngběn 中峰明本 → Gǔtíng Shànzūn → Lǎngmù, Dàwēi, and others — and so represents a legitimate branch of the main Chán transmission. The Yunnan-regionalist patriotism of the collection (demonstrated especially in the prefatory sections invoking local sacred-geography and Ashoka-legend) anchors Zhōulǐ’s compilation as a self-conscious act of constructing Yúnnán Buddhist identity.

Abstract

Chèyōng Zhōulǐ 徹庸周理 (DILA A000560, 1591–1647). Lay name Dù Huìjiǔ 杜慧九. Zì Yīchè 一徹; earlier hào Chèróng 徹融, later revised to Chèyōng 徹庸. Native of Yúnnánxiàn 雲南縣 (modern Xiángyún 祥雲, Yúnnán).

Tonsured at 11 at Jīzúshān Dàjuésì 鷄足山大覺寺 under Biànzhōu héshàng 徧周和尚. Attained initial awakening through chanting Guānyīn’s name. Received further Chán guidance from Mìzàngkāi 密藏開 (Mìzàng Dàokāi, see KR6q0189) of Jiāxīng-Canon fame. After widespread study at various monasteries, received dharma-transmission from Lǎngmù Běnzhì 朗目本智 (1556–1606) and later from Fúshān Zhì héshàng 浮山智 (but in the catalog-extended note the DILA gives Mìyún Yuánwù 密雲圓悟 as his final dharma-giver). Returned to Jīzúshān as abbot of Miàofēngsì 妙峰寺.

Zhōulǐ’s editorial projects include:

• Cáoxī yī dī 曹溪一滴 KR6q0195 — this work.
• Gǔtíng chánshī zhú shì jí 古庭禪師竹室集 — his edition of Gǔtíng’s writings.
• Fúshān fǎ jù 浮山法句.

His own authored works: Chèyōng héshàng gǔ xiǎng jí 徹庸和尚谷響集 (The Valley-Echo Collection of Chèyōng héshàng) and the Yúnshān mèng yǔ 雲山夢語 (Dream-Talk of Cloud-Mountain).

Preface-writer Gǒng 珙 (hào Wúxué jūshì 無學居士 “Unlearned Layman”): late-Míng layman from Zhōulǐ’s native region, serving at the time of writing as Nán shuǐbù láng 南水部郎 (Southern Water-Bureau Director). Family connections with the other named Yúnnán lay figures — Shíliáng 石梁 (huì 奭齡, Jìníngzhōu 濟寧州 magistrate) and Jiā bùtuì 家不退 (huì 珽, Guānzhōng xiàn fù 關中憲副). The three laymen apparently collaborated on bringing Zhōulǐ’s collection to print at the Wǔlín 武林 (Hángzhōu) publisher.

Dating: notBefore / notAfter both 1636 (Gǒng’s preface-date, Chóngzhēn jiǔ nián bǐngzǐ suì chūn sān yuè shàng huàn 崇禎九年丙子歲春三月上澣). The compilation had been in progress for some years before this publication.

Translations and research

• Hou Chong 侯沖. Various studies on Yúnnán Buddhist history, particularly the Jī-zú-shān community.
• Walraven, Boudewijn (ed.). Scholarship on peripheral-region Buddhism.
• No substantial Western-language monographic study located specifically on J25 B164.

Other points of interest

The Cáo-xī yī dī is a valuable witness to late-Míng Yúnnán Chán — a regionally-distinct Buddhist tradition developed at the southwestern frontier of the Chinese cultural world. Jī-zú-shān, the mountain believed to house Mahākāśyapa’s preserved body until Maitreya’s future advent, was already by the late Míng one of the most important Chinese Buddhist pilgrimage-sites, and the Miào-fēng-sì community represented a distinctive Chán-lineage tradition integrated with the local Ashoka-Buddhist mythic geography.

Zhōulǐ’s collection exemplifies the late-Míng tendency toward regional Buddhist self-documentation — local communities articulating their own Buddhist identities through the compilation and publication of regional authorial corpora. Similar projects proliferated across late-Míng China, but the Yúnnán case is particularly interesting given the region’s marginal geographic position and the distinctive historical-mythic resources available to its Buddhist elite.

Links

• CBETA
• Jī-zú-shān 鷄足山 in Yúnnán: the Chinese Buddhist pilgrimage site believed to house Mahākāśyapa’s preserved body.
• Zhōulǐ’s related editorial and authorial works, preserved in the Jiāxīng Canon.
• 周理 DILA
• Kanseki DB