Tiānrú Wéizé chánshī yǔlù 天如惟則禪師語錄
Nine-juan Yuán-dynasty yǔlù of Tiānrú Wéizé 惟則 天如惟則 (1286 – Zhìzhèng 14 / 1354, shì 69), Yángqí-branch Línjì master, principal dharma-heir of 明本 Zhōngfēng Míngběn. Xuzangjing X70 n1403 (and Jiāxīng canon). Compiled by the xiǎoshī 小師 善遇 Shànyù. Preface by Yáng Zōngruì 楊宗瑞 (Hànlín xuéshì) dated Zhìzhèng 9.4.8 (Buddha’s birthday, 8 April 1349).
Abstract
Per DILA and the preface: Wéizé (hào Tiānrú 天如 “Heaven-Like”; posthumous title Fóxīn Pǔjì Wénhuì Dàbiàn chánshī 佛心普濟文慧大辯禪師), native of Jíānlù 吉安路 in Jiāngxī. The preface places him in the explicit Línjì succession from Címíng Yuángōng 慈明圓公 ten generations down to Xuěyán Zǔqīn 雪巖祖欽, two more to Pǔyìng Guóshī Běngōng (i.e. Zhōngfēng Míngběn), and thence to Wéizé. He became the master-founder of Shīzǐlín 獅子林 (“Lion Grove”) at Sūzhōu — the seat that survived into the MíngQīng as a famous garden and continues as such today. Wéizé’s most important work, beyond the yǔlù preserved here, is the Jìngtǔ huòwèn 淨土或問 (extensively translated into modern Chinese and English), a defense of Pure-Land practice from a Chán standpoint that continued the Zhōngfēng fusion and powerfully shaped late-Míng and Qīng Pure-Land-Chán apologetic. The yǔlù is accordingly a key source for the doctrinal landscape of YuánMíng transition Chán.
Translations and research
English-language work focused primarily on Wéi-zé’s Jìng-tǔ huò-wèn (see Charles B. Jones, Chinese Pure Land Buddhism: Understanding a Tradition of Practice [University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2019], and various translations of the Huò-wèn). The yǔlù itself is less translated. Japanese scholarship on the Zhōng-fēng → Tiān-rú line is extensive.