Liǎoān Qīngyù chánshī yǔlù 了菴清欲禪師語錄
Nine-juan Yuán-into-early-Míng yǔlù of Liǎoān Qīngyù 清欲 了菴清欲 (1292 – 1367; zì Liǎoān 了菴, hào Nántáng 南堂; imperial title Cíyún Pǔjì chánshī 慈雲普濟禪師), principal dharma-heir of 清茂 Gǔlín Qīngmào (1262–1329; KR6q0345) and — with his own dharma-heir 文康 Mùān Wénkāng — the link that carries the Gǔlín line from Qīngmào into the early Míng. Xuzangjing X71 no. 1414. Compiled collaboratively by twenty named cānxué bǐqiū 參學比丘, xiǎoshī bǐqiū 小師比丘 and shīzhí bǐqiū 師姪比丘 (nephew-disciples), each pair taking responsibility for a juan: 一志 and 元皓 (juan 1 — Jíqìnglù Zhōngshān Kāifú chánsì 集慶路中山開福禪寺, 1329); 可興 and 文康 (juan 2 — Jiāxīnglù Běnjué chánsì 嘉興路本覺禪寺, 1333); 祖運 and 志道 (juan 3 — Píngjiānglù Língyán chánsì 平江路靈巖禪寺, 1345); 祖杲 and 得度 (juan 4 — jǔgǔ 舉古); 文煥, 克明 and 宗成 (juan 5 — sònggǔ 頌古 + zànyǔ); 汝現, 元寶 and 慧朗 (juan 6–7 — jìsòng 偈頌); 景毅 and 大圓 (juan 8 — fǎyǔ 法語); 海壽 and 祖灊 (juan 9 — tíbá 題䟦, plus the collection’s three closing biographical pieces). The Kanripo catalog additionally lists 宗胤 and 起宗 in the collective editorial line.
Abstract
The collection is framed by Sòng Lián 宋濂 (1310–1381), court historian-in-chief of the newly-founded Míng and compiler of the Yuánshǐ 元史 — whose long preface (dated the 1st of the 2nd month of Hóngwǔ 3 / 1370) recalls his youth at Pǔyángjiāng 浦陽江 reading Qīngyù’s jìzàn at the instance of Qiānyán Yuáncháng 千巖元長 and travelling widely, always asking visitors “have you seen Nántáng?” The same Sòng Lián also supplies the Xíngdàojì 行道記 that closes juan 9 — written at the repeated urging of Qīngyù’s dharma-heir Wénkāng (then about to install at Fúzhōu Kāiyuánsì 福州開元寺 and requesting Sòng Lián’s authorizing hand), and delayed by Sòng Lián’s duties editing the Yuánshǐ. Juan 9 further carries a tíbá by 正印 Yuèjiāng Zhèngyìn 月江正印 (who styles himself “the former Āyùwáng elder and older brother in the dharma” 前育王老師弟) dated Zhìzhèng 6 / Bǐngxū 丙戌 (1346), confirming direct intergenerational contact between the Hǔyán / Gǔlín and Liǎoān lines; and a Xùjí xù 續集序 by Zhìrén 至仁 (Dōngzhōu Zhìrén 東洲至仁, his later-life contemporary and dharma-associate), followed by the Xùjí 續集 and a xíngzhuàng 行狀.
Qīngyù was a native of Línghǎi 臨海 (Táizhōu), lay surname Zhū 朱; born on the 1st of the 5th month of Zhìyuán 29 (1292). Orphaned at nine, he was taken to Shuāngjìngshān 雙徑山 (Jìngshān) by his uncle Mào Shàngrén 茂上人 as a tóngzǐ; took the precepts at sixteen under 淨伏 Hǔyán Jìngfú. After study with Xībái Míngzàngzhǔ 希白明藏主, who had come from Āyùwáng and recognised his potential, Qīngyù went to Sūzhōu Kāiyuánsì to meet Qīngmào (“Fóxìnggōng” 佛性公), whose classic Chán exchange with him — on “the ship route or the land route” / the carp on the mountain and the dust in the well — broke him through and established the dharma-transmission. He served subsequently at the Kāiyuán and Bǎoníng seats of Qīngmào, and then held three successive abbacies: Lìshuǐ Kāifú 溧水開福 (from Tiānlì / Jǐsì 1329, the year of Qīngmào’s death), Jiāxīng Běnjué 本覺 (from Yuántǒng / Guǐyǒu 1333, ten years), and Sūzhōu Língyán 靈巖 (from Zhìzhèng / Yǐyǒu 1345, three years); his late years, after Língyán burned in the mid-Zhìzhèng wars, were spent at the Cíyún stupa-hermitage 慈雲塔院 built for him by his nephew-disciple 祖灊 Zǔqián north of the Zuìlǐ 欈李 pavilion. He died on the 25th of the 8th month of Zhìzhèng 27 (27 September 1367), aged 76, sēnglà 60 — the xíngdàojì’s reading “至正癸卯” (= Zhìzhèng 23 / 1363) is a well-known textual crux, disagreeing with the standard biographical lifedates carried forward in Wǔdēng quánshū, Zēngjí Xùchuándēnglù and DILA; followed here, with a note of the divergence.
The text has an unusually complex printing history. The colophon at the head of juan 9 — “緣入梓。日東比丘海壽書。天台周東山刊。時至正已亥春起手。明年庚子春畢工。應安戊申重刊京臨川禪寺” — makes clear that an initial Japan-side cutting was executed by the Japanese monk 海壽 Hǎishòu as calligrapher and one Zhōu Dōngshān 周東山 as cutter, started in the spring of Zhìzhèng 19 / 1359 and completed in the spring of Zhìzhèng 20 / 1360; a second cutting at Kyōto’s Rinsen-ji 臨川禪寺 followed in the first year of the Japanese era Ōan 應安 (戊申 / 1368). The Xuzangjing base text includes material (notably Sòng Lián’s preface of 1370 and xíngdàojì) later than either of these printings, which means the Xuzangjing form is a post-1370 consolidated recension — the dated date-bracket of the content is thus 1329 (first installation at Kāifú) to 1370 (Sòng Lián’s preface).
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language secondary literature located. Qīng-yù’s mò-jì / bokuseki in Japanese temple collections are a substantial secondary subject; see Japanese bokuseki studies, as well as the biographical apparatus transmitted in Zēng-jí Xù-chuándēng-lù juan 6, Wǔ-dēng quán-shū juan 52, and the Xíng-dào-jì by Sòng Lián (whose preface-writing for a Chán master also figures in Sòng Xué-shì wén-jí 宋學士文集).
Other points of interest
Qīngyù figures prominently in the biography of his teacher 清茂 and of his own dharma-heir 文康 (Mùān Wénkāng, KR6q0348); the present collection is read by Japanese specialists for its prefaces, which together trace an arc from the late-Yuán Jiāngnán literary elite (via 正印 Yuèjiāng Zhèngyìn and Zhìrén) into the newly-founded Míng court (via Sòng Lián, 1370), and in fact constitute one of the earliest Hóng-wǔ-era testimonies to how the old Yuán Chán-hierarchy was being re-positioned vis-à-vis the new state.