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牧雲和尚嬾齋別集

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Text ID
KR6q0212
Date
1635–1659
Dynasty
明

Mùyún héshàng Lǎnzhāi bié jí 牧雲和尚嬾齋別集

Idler-Studio Supplementary Collection of Chán Master Mùyún

A fourteen-juan literary-collection of Mùyún Tōngmén 牧雲通門 (1599–1671; catalog-spelling 通明 is likely a transcription error for 通門, the canonical DILA form), the Línjì-lineage Chán master and dharma-heir of Mìyún Yuánwù 密雲圓悟 (1566–1642). Hào Wòān 臥菴 (“Reclining Hermitage”); abbacy-associated names Gǔnánmén 古南門 (for Gǔnánsì 古南寺), Chùsǒu 樗叟. Compiled and edited by the famous late-Míng book-publisher Máo Jìn 毛晉 (1599–1659) of Jígǔ gé 汲古閣, Chángshú 常熟. Mùyún appears as a harmonizing-verse contributor in KR6q0164.

About the work

A fourteen-juan “supplementary literary collection” (bié jí 別集) of a Chán master’s writings, J31 B267. Non-commentary; commentedTextid omitted.

The title Lǎnzhāi 嬾齋 (“Idler-Studio”) is Mùyún’s self-deprecating hermitage-name. The bié jí form supplements his formal yǔlù: where the yǔlù preserves his Chán-teaching sermons and gōng’àn commentary in institutional form, the bié jí collects his broader literary output — poetry, prose essays, letters, miscellaneous writings — that lay outside the strict yǔlù genre. The unnamed preface-writer compares Mùyún’s bié jí explicitly to several historical models: Yǒngmíng (= Yánshòu 延壽)‘s Zhèng lù, Juéfàn Huìhóng (德洪) ‘s chuán (i.e., his biographical-literary work), and Hánshān 寒山 (preface attributed to Lǘqiū Yìn 閭丘胤) and Shíwū Qīnggǒng 石屋清珙’s poetry — positioning Mùyún’s corpus as a continuation of the classical Chán-literary tradition from KR6q0193 and earlier models.

The preface also documents the unusual transmission-history of the collection: the preface-writer (likely a local literatus-disciple) encountered the compiled manuscript during a visit to Mùyún’s Hèlín 鶴林 residence at Jīngkǒu 京口; rather than an already-published text, the manuscripts were found guī rán 巋然 (towering) on Mùyún’s bookshelf, still in disorder.

Abstract

Mùyún Tōngmén 牧雲通門 (canonical name 通門, catalog-form 通明 — the characters 門 and 明 differ only in the presence/absence of a small stroke and are often conflated in late-imperial Chinese manuscript transmission): 1599/1/27 – 1671/12/15 (Wànlì 27 – Kāngxī 10/11/15, age 73, per Tiāntóngsì zhì 天童寺志 juan 3). Lay surname Zhāng 張. Native of Chángshú 常熟 (Jiāngsū). Dharma-heir of Mìyún Yuánwù 密雲圓悟, 31st-generation Línjì descendant.

Abbacies: Sìmíng Qīzhēn 四明棲真, Jiāhé Méixī 嘉和梅溪, Pòshān 破山, Jīngjiāng Hèlín 鎮江鶴林, Tiāntóng 天童, and Xiùfēng 秀峯 — a substantial set of major Chán monastery-abbacies across the mid-17th century. Died at Gǔnán 古南 in Shíhú 石湖 seated-meditation (zuò tuō 坐脫) retreat, Kāngxī 10 / 11 / 15 (1671/12/15), aged 73.

Dharma-heirs: ten named masters including Yúnxíng Wěi 雲行瑋, Chóngyǐ Jùn 崇已峻, Nányīn Yán 南音言.

Reputation: “Good at calligraphy, skilled in poetry and prose” (shàn shū, gōng shīwén 善書工詩文). Works include the Qī huì yǔ lù 七會語錄 (his formal yǔlù, from seven successive abbacies) and the present Lǎnzhāi bié jí.

Máo Jìn 毛晉 (1599–1659): the major late-Míng book-publisher of Chángshú, founder of the famous Jígǔ gé 汲古閣 publishing house that issued hundreds of major Chinese literary and scholarly works across the Wànlì-through-Shùnzhì period. A close friend of Mùyún (they were both Chángshú natives and exact contemporaries), Máo Jìn’s editorial hand on this collection brought it to publication-ready form. Máo’s death in 1659 provides the notAfter bound for the initial editorial work, though the final published form might be slightly later.

Dating: notBefore c. 1635 (Mùyún’s mature abbacy period begins); notAfter 1659 (Máo Jìn’s death, the outer bound for the editorial compilation). The Jiāxīng-Canon publication would have followed shortly after both men’s deaths.

Translations and research

  • Jiang Wu. 2008. Enlightenment in Dispute. Extensive treatment of the Mìyún-lineage of which Mùyún is a central member.
  • Studies on Máo Jìn and the Jígǔ gé publishing house provide context on the text’s production.
  • No substantial Western-language monographic study located specifically on J31 B267.

Other points of interest

The Lǎnzhāi bié jí is notable as a literatus-collaborative Chán monastic literary production: the close partnership between Mùyún the Chán master and Máo Jìn the literatus-publisher exemplifies a distinctive mode of late-Míng / early-Qīng Buddhist publishing, in which the monastic author’s literary output was brought to publication-form through the expertise of a secular publisher-editor. Máo Jìn’s Jígǔ gé, arguably the most prestigious non-governmental publishing enterprise of the late Míng, lent institutional respectability to Mùyún’s collected literary corpus.

The collection’s structure as bié jí (supplementary collection outside the formal yǔlù) reflects the late-Míng pattern of Chán masters publishing in multiple canonical and non-canonical genres: formal yǔlù for institutional-canonical readership, bié jí for broader literary circulation. Together with the Bù shuǐ tái jí of Dàomín KR6q0200 and the Shímén wénzì chán of Huìhóng KR6q0193, the Lǎnzhāi bié jí is part of the substantial Chinese-Buddhist literary tradition that preserves Chán masters’ creative literary output alongside their doctrinal-teaching corpus.

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