Gǔlín Qīngmào chánshī yǔlù 古林清茂禪師語錄
Five-juan Yuán yǔlù of Gǔlín Qīngmào 清茂 古林清茂 (zì Gǔlín 古林; hào Jīngāngchuáng 金剛幢; late-life self-style Xiūjūsǒu 休居叟; imperial title Fúzōng Pǔjué Fóxìng chánshī 扶宗普覺佛性禪師; 24 Aug 1262 – 20 Dec 1329), Yángqí-branch Línjì master and principal Jiāngnán dharma-heir of 如珙 Héngchuān Rúgǒng 橫川如珙 (KR6q0344). Xuzangjing X71 no. 1412. Compiled in stages by three xiǎoshī 小師 (junior disciples): 元浩 Yuánhào (abbot of Píngjiānglù Yǒngshòu chánsì 永壽禪寺, for juan 1), 應槐 Yìnghuái (sìfǎ xiǎoshī 嗣法小師 and abbot of Ráozhōulù Chóngbào chánsì 崇報禪寺, for juan 2), and 清欲 Liǎoān Qīngyù 了庵清欲 (1292–1367; DILA A001089 — the later Língyánshān master in his own right, then still among Qīngmào’s xiǎoshī), who between them cover the miscellaneous sections. Juan 1 covers the Píngjiāngfǔ Tiānpíngshān Báiyún chánsì 天平山白雲禪寺 (from Dàdé 2 / 1298) and the twin terms at Píngjiāng Kāiyuán chánsì 開元禪寺; juan 2 the Ráozhōu Yǒngfú chánsì 永福禪寺 (from Yánhòu 2 / 1315); juan 3 the Chéngxuān jí 承宣集 — his reworking of Xuědòu Chóngxiǎn’s sònggǔ as Chóngniān Xuědòu jǔgǔ yībǎi zé 重拈雪竇舉古一百則 — with a self-postface; juan 4 fǎyǔ, xiǎocān, pǔshuō; juan 5 zhēnzàn, zìzàn, jìsòng, and postfaces, closing with a note by 梵僊 Zhúxiān Fànxiān 竺仙梵僊 (1292–1348, who went to Japan in 1329) dated Kōei 1 / 1342 (壬午) at Nánchánsì 南禪寺, Kyōto — recording that the Kyōto edition was cut by the disciple Sēn 森 with assistance from Gǔxiān Yuán 等持古先元 (Kokan Shiren’s circle) and one Pāgōng 葩公.
Abstract
The principal preface is by Féng Zǐzhèn 馮子振 (1257–1337), former Jíxián dàizhì chéngshìláng 集賢待制承事郎 and a leading Yuán literary figure, dated the winter-solstice of Tàidìng 2 / 1325 — when Qīngmào’s fourth abbacy at Jīnlíng Bǎoníng 保寧 was already under way and his reputation across Jiāngnán was at its height. Qīngmào was a native of Lèqīng 樂清 (Wēnzhōu), lay surname Lín 林 (the same as his teacher’s); per the Xíngshí 行實 and bēi 碑 appended to the companion text KR6q0346 Gǔlín Qīngmào chánshī shíyí jìsòng, he left home at ten after hearing the “Miàozhuāngwáng pǐn” 妙莊嚴王品 of the Lotus Sūtra, took the precepts under Wēn Róng 溫容, studied at Jìngcí with Shílín Gǒng 石林鞏 (Nánpíng Shílín), and attained awakening under Rúgǒng at Yàndàng’s Néngrén Fàngmùliáo 能仁放牧寮 on the “Nánshān bamboo-shoots and East-Sea cuttlefish” turn of phrase. His abbatial path — Tiānpíng (1298), Kāiyuán (twice), Yǒngfú (from 1315), and Bǎoníng (the final, and longest, seat, where the imperial bestowal Fúzōng Pǔjué Fóxìng chánshī reached him from Yuán Rénzōng) — was marked by an unusually wide intake of students from across the Yuán and Japan: his named dharma-heirs include 清欲 Liǎoān Qīngyù 了庵清欲, Zhòngmóu Liángyóu 仲謀良猷, Xiǎomào 小茂, Qīnghǎi 清海, Dàfāng Yīn 定慧大方因, and — most consequentially for later Zen history — the Japan-bound monks Zhúxiān Fànxiān 竺仙梵僊 (founder of the Chikusen-ha 竺仙派, one of the 24 Japanese Chán/Zen schools), Shíshì Shànjiǔ 石室善玖, and Yuèlín Dàojiǎo 月林道皎. Qīngmào died at Bǎoníng on the 22nd of the 11th month of Tiānlì / Jǐsì 己巳 (20 December 1329), shìshòu 68, sēnglà 55.
Féng Zǐzhèn’s preface frames the collection in terms familiar from TángSòng patronage literature — invoking Péi Xiū 裴休’s preface to Huángbò Xīyùn 黃蘗希運’s Xīnyào 心要 and Sū Chè 蘇轍’s preface to Zhēnjìng Kèwén 真淨克文 — and declares Qīngmào’s voice to be as the valley-reverberation answering sound and the mirror reflecting form. The specifically Yuán-dynasty feature of the preface is its placement of Qīngmào within a textual genealogy that treats Xuědòu’s bǎizé as still open to creative re-use — as juan 3’s Chéngxuān jí 承宣集 (= Chóngniān Xuědòu jǔgǔ yībǎi zé) would demonstrate.
The Japanese transmission history of the collection is unusually well documented. The Gǔlín Qīngmào chánshī shíyí jìsòng 拾遺偈頌 (KR6q0346), compiled by Qīngmào’s Japanese student Hǎishòu 海壽, is catalogued separately in the Xuzangjing as X71 no. 1413, and the Xíngshí 行實 and bēi 碑 that today stand at the end of the X71 no. 1412 print come originally from that Japanese compilation. Fànxiān’s 1342 Nánchánsì colophon to juan 5 is candid that, as of that year, the Bǎoníng material had not yet been edited in full and only four of the five assemblies went into the first Japanese cutting — the five-assembly form is a later recension.
Translations and research
Coverage in Japanese scholarship is substantial because of Qīng-mào’s centrality to Japanese Gozan bungaku 五山文學 genealogy through Fàn-xiān (Jikushin Bonsen) and his line. In Chinese, see Zēng-jí Xù-chuándēng-lù juan 5; Wǔ-dēng quán-shū juan 52; Nán-Sòng Yuán-Míng chán-lín sēng-bǎo zhuàn; the biographical apparatus in KR6q0346. No substantial secondary literature located in Western languages, aside from surveys of Yuán–Japan Zen transmission.
Other points of interest
The Chéngxuān jí 承宣集 (juan 3) is a substantial doctrinal work in its own right — a re-niāngǔ of Xuědòu Chóngxiǎn’s bǎizé — and circulated separately in Yuán and Japanese Chán networks, parallel to but distinct from the Bìyán lù 碧巖錄 tradition.