Mù rén shèng gǎo 木人剩稿
Leftover Manuscripts of the Wood-Man
A five-juan collected literary work of Zàishēn Hóngzàn 在犙弘贊 (1612–1686), the major Cáodòng-lineage Vinaya master of Dǐnghúshān Qìngyúnsì 鼎湖山慶雲寺 (Guǎngdōng). Compiled by Kāiwéi 開溈 (his disciple). The title Mù rén 木人 (“Wood-Man”) is Hóngzàn’s self-deprecating sobriquet, from his hermitage-name Mùrén jū 木人居 (“Wood-Man Residence”).
About the work
A five-juan bié jí-style literary collection, J35 B326. Non-commentary; commentedTextid omitted.
The preface identifies Hóngzàn as zài Xuěnhé shàng (i.e., Zàishēn héshàng) as tàn kě dài 探可戴 (“searching in vain for its equal”) within the contemporary Chán landscape. The text’s contents — prose essays, letters, poems, miscellaneous compositions — represent the “leftover” (shèng 剩) output from Hóngzàn’s extensive writings, i.e., the material not included in his formal yǔlù or his doctrinal commentaries but preserved for its intrinsic value.
Complete coverage: the Mù rén shèng gǎo complements KR6q0132 (Hóngzàn’s Guīshān jǐng cè jù shì jì commentary) and KR6q0222 (Jiě huò piān apologetic) to provide a fuller picture of Hóngzàn’s literary corpus within the Kanripo collection.
Abstract
See Hóngzàn’s existing person note for biographical details.
Compiler Kāiwéi 開溈: Hóngzàn’s disciple at Dǐnghúshān. Lifedates and biographical details unrecorded.
Dating: notBefore c. 1660 (Hóngzàn’s mature Dǐnghúshān productive period); notAfter 1686 (Hóngzàn’s death).
Translations and research
- Welch, Holmes. 1968. The Buddhist Revival in China. Background on the post-Míng Guǎngdōng Buddhist tradition.
- No substantial study located specifically on J35 B326.
Other points of interest
The Mù rén shèng gǎo complements Hóngzàn’s other Kanripo contributions to constitute a sustained documentary record of the Dǐnghúshān Vinaya-Cáodòng tradition during the mid-to-late Qīng Guǎngdōng Buddhist revival. Hóngzàn’s distinctive combination of Vinaya scholarship and Chán institutional practice makes the corpus particularly valuable for understanding the sophisticated synthesis of precept-observance and meditative-experiential traditions that characterised late-imperial Chinese Buddhist leadership.
Links
- CBETA J35nB326
- Kanseki DB
- Hóngzàn’s other Kanripo works: KR6q0132 Wéishān jǐng cè jù shì jì, KR6q0222 Jiě huò piān.