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古瓶山牧道者究心錄

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Text ID
KR6q0202
Date
1650–1680
Dynasty
明

Gǔpíngshān Mùdàozhě jiū xīn lù 古瓶山牧道者究心錄

Investigation-of-Mind Record of the Herdsman-Daoist of Old-Bottle Mountain

A three-juan late-Míng / early-Qīng Chán yǔlù by Xiàng Zhēnběn 項真本 (b. 1618; lay name Xiàng Qiān 項謙; hào Mùdàozhě 牧道者 “Herdsman Daoist”, Mùgōng 牧公 “Herdsman Duke”, Cìān 次庵, Cíān 茨庵). A lay-practitioner Chán master — one of the distinctive late-imperial lay-Chán teachers who achieved institutional recognition on par with ordained monks. Compiled by disciples including Jījùn 機峻. Collection-site: Gǔpíngshān 古瓶山 (“Old-Bottle Mountain”).

The same Xiàng Zhēnběn appears as a harmonizing-verse contributor in the ox-herding compilations KR6q0161 and KR6q0163 (under the designation Mùgōng dàorén Xiàng Zhēnběn 牧公道人項真本) and in the later Kāngxī synthesis KR6q0164.

About the work

A three-juan lay-practitioner Chán yǔlù, J28 B207. Non-commentary; commentedTextid omitted.

The text opens unusually with a xiǎo yǐng 小影 (“small portrait”) — a textual self-image of the layman-teacher — and an accompanying zì tí 自題 (self-inscription), which serves as Zhēnběn’s programmatic self-presentation: “Dàosēng bù sēng, dào sú bù sú” 道僧不僧道俗不俗 (“A Daoist-monk who is not [fully] a monk, a Daoist who is not [fully] a layman”) — a self-identification as neither fully ordained nor fully secular, but a recognized hybrid Chán-teacher. The self-inscription closes with the assertion that he produces chuán bù chuán zhī xīn yìn 傳不傳之心印 (“the mind-seal of transmission-and-non-transmission”) — the classical Chán paradox articulated in the voice of an exceptional lay practitioner.

The three juan contain: shàng táng 上堂 sermons, xiǎo cān 小參 small-group talks, niān gǔ 拈古 and sòng gǔ 頌古 case-commentaries, letters of guidance, and related teaching materials gathered from Zhēnběn’s instructional career at Gǔpíngshān.

Abstract

Xiàng Zhēnběn 項真本 (b. 1618/1/17 = Wànlì 45 / 12 / 21 / Noon — per the biographical chapter in the Jiū xīn lù juan 1). Lay name Xiàng Qiān 項謙. Hào Mùdàozhě 牧道者, Mùgōng 牧公, Cìān 次庵, Cíān 茨庵. Death year unrecorded.

Zhēnběn was active in the late-Míng / early-Qīng lay-Buddhist intellectual circuit. His participation in the ox-herding harmonizing-verse compilations (in KR6q0161, KR6q0163, KR6q0164) demonstrates his integration into the broader Línjì-Yángqí master-lineage network around Yán Dàcān 嚴大參 and the 1660s Pǔmíngsì revival. As a lay Chán teacher, he held no ordained-monastic titles but taught with institutional seriousness, producing the present yǔlù as a permanent teaching-record.

Jījùn 機峻: one of Zhēnběn’s disciples and co-compiler of the present yǔlù. The catalog gives děng biān 等編 (“et al., edited”), indicating multiple disciple-editors.

Dating: notBefore c. 1650 (Zhēnběn’s mature career begins; he would have been in his early 30s); notAfter c. 1680 (reasonable outer bound given his 1618 birth and the late-17th-century publication milieu). The specific preface-date is not clearly preserved in my examined materials.

Translations and research

  • Jiang Wu. 2008. Enlightenment in Dispute. Context on the late-Míng / early-Qīng Chán network.
  • No substantial Western-language monographic study located specifically on J28 B207.

Other points of interest

The Jiū xīn lù is a distinctive document of late-imperial lay Chán practice: a layman-teacher publishing a genuine yǔlù, complete with sermons, gōng’àn commentary, and disciple-compiled paratexts. Xiàng Zhēnběn’s self-designation “a Daoist-monk who is not a monk, a Daoist who is not a layman” articulates the distinctive hybrid position that lay Chán teachers of his generation negotiated, caught between the institutional privilege of monastic status and the personal continuity of lay life.

The text’s preservation alongside proper monastic yǔlù in the Jiāxīng Canon reflects the late-Míng / early-Qīng Buddhist establishment’s recognition of serious lay teachers as legitimate transmitters of Chán wisdom. Similar cases within the Kanripo corpus include Xú Chāngzhì’s Wúyī dàorén lù KR6q0192 and Bào Zōngzhào’s Tiān yuè míng kōng jí KR6q0185.

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