浮山法句

Fúshān fǎ jù 浮山法句

Dharma-Verses of Fúshān

The preserved late-Míng Chán verse-collection by Lǎngmù Běnzhì 朗目本智 (1555/6–1606), native of Yúnnán but abbot of the Huáyánsì 華嚴寺 at Fúshān 浮山 (more fully Fúdùshān 浮渡山) in Ānhuī — restorer of this important Sòng-era Chán monastery after a century of inactivity. Edited and included by Chèyōng Zhōulǐ 徹庸周理 (one of Běnzhì’s own dharma-heirs in Yúnnán) in his 1636 Yúnnán Chán anthology project (see KR6q0195). The received Jiāxīng-Canon text (J25 B166) preserves what survives: principally the extensive tomb-inscription of Běnzhì and a residual portion of his actual verse-output.

About the work

A one-juan fragmentary collection of a late-Míng Chán master’s verses and associated biographical materials, J25 B166. Non-commentary; commentedTextid omitted.

The received form is essentially juan 7 of an originally-larger collection, preserving:

• Tomb-inscription for Běnzhì by Wú Yīngbīn 吳應賓 (Cì jìn shì chū shēn Hànlínyuàn biānxiū cānxué yōupósāi yì rén 賜進士出身翰林院編修參學優婆塞邑人 — Jìn-shì-graduate, Hànlín editor, lay-Buddhist practitioner, native of Běnzhì’s prefecture), with seal-script title by Hé Rúchǒng 何如寵 (Jìnshì, Hànlín editor, Lóngyǎn jūshì 龍眼居士 “Dragon-Eye Layman”), dated to Běnzhì’s death in 1606.
• A selection of Běnzhì’s verse-output and teaching-materials.
• Editorial-preservation notes and paratexts by Zhōulǐ.

The tomb-inscription is particularly rich as biographical and historical source-material, tracing Běnzhì’s Yúnnán origins, his early ordination, his extensive pilgrim-wandering encounters with the major late-Wànlì Chán masters (Wǔdāng Bùèr 武當不二, Fúniú Dàfāng 伏牛大方, Yìnzōng 印宗, Nányuè Wújìn 南岳無盡, Lúshān Dàān 廬山大菴, Jìmén Biànróng 薊門遍融, Yuèxīn Xìngtiān 月心性天), his eventual dharma-transmission from Tiānmù Lánfēng 天目蘭風, and his restoration of the Fúshān Huáyánsì.

Abstract

Lǎngmù Běnzhì 朗目本智 (DILA A000257, 1555/6–1606). Dharma-name huì Běnzhì 本智 (initially Huìguāng 慧光, later renamed Běnzhì by his fellow-official friend Huáng Dàoyuè 黃道月 who called him Lǎngmù 朗目 “Clear-Eye” after the mountain named thereafter in Qǔyáng 曲陽 — the mountain at which he had taken tonsure). Surname Lǐ 李; native of Qǔjìng 曲靖 (Yúnnán). Died Wànlì 34 / 12 / 24 (Gregorian 1606/2/1), aged “fifty-and-some” (lì wǔ shí mù 歷五十暮), with forty sēnglà (i.e., counting by decades = over 40 years ordained).

Career: Tonsured at Lǎngmùshān 朗目山 in Qǔyáng under Báizhāi héshàng 白齋和尚. After a period in the north, pilgrim-wandering across multiple Chinese Buddhist centres. Eventually received dharma-transmission from Tiānmù Lánfēng 天目蘭風 after their famous “seeing the Buddha — ending birth-death” encounter. Subsequently established in the Língjì lineage as a wǔméi 五眉 (five-brow, i.e., exemplary) master. Held abbacies at various places. Principal achievement: the restoration of the classical Sòng-era Chán monastery Fúshān Huáyánsì 浮山華嚴寺, which had been the original site of the Chán master Yuánjiàn Yuǎn 圓鑑遠 (i.e., Yuánjiàn Fǎyuǎn 圓鑑法遠) and famous for the tenth-century encounter between Yuánjiàn and the literatus Ōuyáng Xiū 歐陽修 at which the master expounded dharma through a game of qí 碁 (Chinese chess). Since the Yúnnán Chán master Gǔtíng Shànzūn 古庭善堅’s departure in the mid-15th century to return to Yúnnán, Fúshān Huáyán had lain dormant; Běnzhì’s arrival a hundred years later marked its zhōng xīng 中興 (“middle-revival”).

Dating: notBefore c. 1590 (Běnzhì’s mature productive period); notAfter 1636 (Zhōulǐ’s editorial recovery and publication). Běnzhì’s own dharma-teaching active years span roughly 1585–1606; Zhōulǐ’s 1636 editorial consolidation produces the received text.

Translations and research

• 《鷄足山志》 Jī-zú-shān zhì — biographical material on Běn-zhì’s Yúnnán connections.
• Jiang Wu. 2008. Enlightenment in Dispute. Broader context for late-Wànlì Chán reorganisation.
• No substantial Western-language monographic study located specifically on J25 B166.

Other points of interest

Běnzhì’s career — a Yúnnán native who travels to the Chinese heartland, receives dharma-transmission from a mainstream Chán master, and ultimately revives a major Sòng-era Chán monastery — exemplifies the Yúnnán-to-heartland-and-back-to-Yúnnán trajectory that characterised several distinguished late-Míng Yúnnán Chán masters (including Zhōulǐ himself, Běnzhì’s eventual editorial-heir). The Fúshān Huáyánsì restoration was a significant event in late-Wànlì Chán institutional history, re-establishing a classical site that had been culturally significant as the venue of the Ōuyáng Xiū / Yuánjiàn Fǎyuǎn encounter-story central to the late-Northern-Sòng Chán-literati integration narrative.

The tomb-inscription by Wú Yīngbīn, with calligraphy by Hé Rúchǒng, demonstrates the high literary-official attention Běnzhì’s memorial received — a level of literary-institutional recognition rarely achieved by Yúnnán-origin Buddhist masters.

Links

• CBETA
• Yúnnán regional Chán anthology: KR6q0195 Cáoxī yī dī (Zhōulǐ’s 1636 compilation).
• Běnzhì’s grand-work Fúshān Huáyánsì: one of the Sòng-era classical Chán monasteries.
• 本智 DILA
• 周理 DILA
• Kanseki DB