Pòān Zǔxiān chánshī yǔlù 破菴祖先禪師語錄
Sayings-Record of Chán Master Pòān Zǔxiān — a one-juan Southern-Sòng yǔlù of Pòān Zǔxiān 祖先 破菴祖先 (1136 – Jiādìng 4.6.9 / 27 July 1211), Yángqí-branch Línjì master, dharma-heir of Mìān Xiánjié 咸傑 and senior brother-in-dharma of 崇岳 Sōngyuán Chóngyuè. Editor byline names the cānxué bǐqiū 參學比丘 圓照 Yuánzhào “and others” as compilers.
About the work
One-juan yǔlù in Xuzangjing X70 n1381, opening with a preface by the layman Yáng Zǐ 楊子 (hào Hàozhāi 浩齋居士) dated Jiādìng rénshēn mid-summer (1212). The table of contents gives five abbacy records: Kuífǔ Wòlóngshān Xiánpíng chányuàn 夔府臥龍山咸平禪院, Píngjiāng fǔ Xiùfēng chányuàn 平江府秀峰禪院, Lín’ān fǔ Guǎngshòu Huìyún chányuàn 臨安府廣壽慧雲禪院, Píngjiāng fǔ Qiónglóngshān Fúzhēn chányuàn 平江府穹窿山福臻禪院, and Húzhōu fǔ Fèngshān Zīfú chányuàn 湖州府鳳山資福禪院. These are followed by bǐngfú 秉拂, pǔshuō 普說, fǎyǔ 法語, jìzàn 偈讚, the xíngzhuàng 行狀 (“Record of Conduct”) by his dharma-heir Zōngxìng 宗性 (then abbot of Zhāoqìng 昭慶 in Zhènjiāng) dated Jiādìng 5.5 (May 1212), and a closing bá by the “dharma-nephew” Dàoyán 道巖 of Fúzhēnsì dated Jiādìng rénshēn New Year (January 1212).
Abstract
The 行狀 is the main biographical source. Pòān (諱 Zǔxiān, hào Pòān 破菴, surname Wáng 王) was a native of Xīnmíng 新明 in Guǎngān jūn 廣安軍 (modern Sìchuān). Orphaned early and tonsured at Luóhànyuàn under the monk Déxiáng 德祥, he soon moved to Zhāojuésì 昭覺 in Chéngdū — the great Yuánwù Kèqín 圓悟克勤 seat in Shǔ — where he served as caretaker of the Yuánwù memorial cell under the elder Yuán 緣; a fist-blow to the chest (“You!”) from the elder elicited an initial xǐng 省. After Yuán’s death he left the peaks, received the full precepts from Juān 涓 of Déshān in Lǐzhōu 澧州, and travelled the monasteries: Wéishān Xíng 溈山行 (the wú gōng’àn); Hǔqiū Xiātáng Yuǎn 虎丘瞎堂遠; Jìngcí Yuètáng Chāng 淨慈月堂昌; Shuǐān Yī 水菴一 at Shuānglín. A breakthrough came at Pingjiāng Wànshòusì on a snowy night when, on his way past the jītáng, he happened to look up and see the two-character signboard 照堂 — “all doubts suddenly fell away.” His final and decisive awakening came at Wūjùshān 烏巨山 under Mìān Xiánjié when Mìān, addressing another monk, cited the Huìnéng case “it is not the wind that moves, not the banner that moves.” He served under Mìān as diǎnkè 典客, following him five years to Jiāngshān and receiving his teacher’s parting poem on returning to Shǔ (“Ten thousand lǐ from the south you come, a bamboo-splinter borne downstream — a diamond eye has been pierced through your forehead, comings and goings now like a pearl rolling on a tray”).
Pòān’s abbacies then ran: Guǒzhōu Qīngjū 清居 and Zǐzhōu Wàngchuān 望川 (in Shǔ); the Wòlóng 臥龍 seat at Kuímén at the invitation of Yáng Fǔ 楊輔 (three years); Huázàng in Chángzhōu (as fēnzuò under Dùnān Yǎn 遯菴演); then successive head-seat invitations at Jīnshān (under Tuìān Qí 退菴奇), Língyǐn (under Xiàoān Wù 笑菴悟), and Jìngshān (under Méngān Cōng 蒙菴聰); abbacies at Chángzhōu Jiànfú 薦福, Zhēnzhōu Língyán 靈岩, Píngjiāng Xiùfēng 秀峰; then as opening abbot of Guǎngshòu Huìyún chánsì 廣壽慧雲 in Lín’ān (founded on the site of the mansion donated by Zhāngxúnwáng 張循王, i.e. Zhāng Jùn 張俊, d. 1164); and finally Píngjiāng Qiónglóng 穹窿 and Fèngshān Zīfú 鳳山資福 in Húzhōu. An invitation from the Minister Fù 傅 to Gānlù 甘露 was declined on grounds of age and illness. He died seated in meditation at Fèngshān Zīfú on Jiādìng 4.6.9 (27 July 1211) after composing a four-line farewell verse (“The final word is already a lament; / to show it in front of others is ten-thousand-fold wrong”); cremated three days later, his relics were enshrined by Shíqiáo chánshī 石橋禪師 in a pagoda on Língxiāofēng 凌霄峰, aged seventy-six, with forty-nine monastic summers.
Pòān’s principal dharma-heirs named in DILA (A004696) are Wújùn Shīfàn 無準師範 (1178–1249), Shítián Fǎxūn 石田法薰 (1171–1245), Jíān Cíjué 即菴慈覺, and Dúān Dàochóu 獨庵道儔 — the first two of whom became the most influential second-generation Línjì masters in the Southern Sòng and the roots of many subsequent Chinese and Japanese lineages. The Pòān line (the brother-branch of 松源派) thus accounts for the greater part of the Yángqí Línjì transmission on the continent. The dharma-nephew Dàoyán 道巖 who signs the bá is, per context, the senior disciple at Fúzhēnsì who inherited the Qiónglóng abbacy — not to be confused with Yúncháo Dàoyán 雲巢道巖 of the 松源 line (cf. KR6q0311).
Translations and research
No complete English translation of the yǔlù located. The Pò-ān line is treated extensively in Ishii Shūdō’s studies of late-Sòng Chán and in Morten Schlütter’s work on the Línjì sectarian identity; Pò-ān is also discussed in T. Griffith Foulk’s treatment of Song-dynasty Chán monasticism (see Foulk, “Myth, Ritual, and Monastic Practice in Sung Ch’an Buddhism”, 1993). The Chinese-language Fó-guāng dà cí-diǎn and Zhōngguó fójiào rénmíng dà cí-diǎn both carry detailed entries.