Shítián Fǎxūn chánshī yǔlù 石田法薰禪師語錄
Sayings-Record of Chán Master Shítián Fǎxūn — a four-juan Southern-Sòng yǔlù of Shítián Fǎxūn 法薰 石田法薰 (1171 – Chúnyòu 5.1.11 / 16 February 1245, shì 75), Pòān branch Línjì master and dharma-brother of 師範 Wújùn Shīfàn. Compiled děngbiān 等編 by his ménrén 了覺 Liǎojué and 師坦 Shītǎn.
About the work
Four-juan yǔlù in Xuzangjing X70 n1386. Prefaces by Chéng Gōngxǔ 程公許 (Cāngzhōuzǐ 滄洲子) dated Chúnyòu 6.9.20 (10 October 1246) and by Xīnyuè 心月 dated Chúnyòu dīngwèi jiézhì (1247, summer retreat). Five successive abbacy records: Píngjiāng Gāofēng 高峰 → Píngjiāng Féngqiáo Pǔmíng 楓橋普明 → Jiànkāng Jiāngshān Tàipíng Xīngguó 蔣山太平興國 → Lín’ān Jìngcí Bàoēn Guāngxiào 淨慈報恩光孝 → Lín’ān Língyǐn Jǐngdé 景德靈隱. Followed by qǐng yīnyuán pǔshuō, niāngǔ, xiǎocān, fǎyǔ, zàn, jìsòng, xiǎo fóshì, and a xíngzhuàng.
Abstract
Per DILA A-entry for 法薰 and the xíngzhuàng appended: Fǎxūn (hào Shítián 石田 “Stone-Field”), native of Méishān 眉山 in Shǔ (modern Sìchuān — the same region that produced the Sū 蘇 family a century earlier), received decisive dharma-transmission from 祖先 Pòān Zǔxiān (1136–1211) — thus a senior brother-in-dharma of Wújùn Shīfàn. Served abbacies at the five major Jiāngnán seats listed above, ending at Língyǐn. Died at Jìngcí on Chúnyòu 5.1.11 (16 February 1245), aged seventy-five. Chéng Gōngxǔ’s preface — the same scholar-official who wrote the preface to Wújùn’s yǔlù (KR6q0315) a few years later — frames Fǎxūn as the “elder brother” (師兄) of Wújùn and as Pòān’s direct heir. The second preface by Xīnyuè describes Fǎxūn’s early years at the remote Gāofēng mountain-temple, where he preached opening-day sermons to an empty hall “wishing for mud-people to listen,” and traces the circulation of his niāngǔ verses through the surrounding Chán network (Yúncháo, Chījué, Zhèwēng). The yǔlù was thus compiled quickly, within a year or two of Fǎxūn’s death, by his disciples and with paratextual support from the Chán-literary intelligentsia of the Jìngshān circle.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located in English. Treated in passing in Japanese scholarship on the Pò-ān branch and on Yuán Línjì lineage-histories, and in Chinese-language gazetteer work on Líng-yǐn and Jìng-cí.