Mùān Wénkāng chánshī yǔlù 穆菴文康禪師語錄
Single-juan late-Yuán / early-Míng yǔlù of Mùān Wénkāng 文康 穆菴文康, Yángqí-branch Línjì dharma-heir of 清欲 Liǎoān Qīngyù (1292–1367; KR6q0347) and thus, via Qīngyù, 清茂 Gǔlín Qīngmào and 如珙 Héngchuān Rúgǒng, in the fourth Sōngyuán generation down. Xuzangjing X71 no. 1415. Compiled by three disciples: the sìfǎ ménrén 嗣法門人 清逸 Qīngyì (abbot of Tāizhōufǔ Huángyán Guǎngxiào chánsì 台州府黃巖廣孝禪寺, named in the editorial byline of the first section and the text’s principal editor), the sìfǎ 智辯 Zhìbiàn, and the cānxué 寶日 Bǎorì. The text is short — one juan — and organises Wénkāng’s career across three abbacy-records plus bǐngfú 秉拂 and jìzàn 偈贊: Tiāntáishān Míngyán Dàfàn chánsì 天台山明巖大梵禪寺 (from Zhìzhèng 17 / Dīngyǒu 1357), Hángzhōu Lónghuá Bǎochéng chánsì 龍華寶乘禪寺 (from Zhìzhèng 24 / Jiǎchén 1364), and Zhènjiāng Jīnshān Lóngyóu chánsì 金山龍游禪寺 (from Míng Hóngwǔ 7 / Jiǎyín 1374).
Abstract
Wénkāng’s first-abbacy incense-lighting expressly names Qīngyù — “abbot formerly of Kāifú, latterly of Língyán, fifth generation of Sōngyuán, Liǎoān Yù héshàng” 前住開福後住靈巖松源第五世了庵欲和尚 — as his dharma-master, a precise lineage-statement that places him as the fifth generation of the Sōngyuán Chóngyuè 松源崇嶽 branch of the Yángqí school counted from Sōngyuán. The three abbacy-records together cover the transition from late Yuán (1357) through the early Míng (1374), and Wénkāng’s career — like his teacher’s — accordingly straddles the dynastic divide.
The final folio of the printed edition carries a postscript entitled Fùjì 附記, reproducing two entries from the Rìgōng jí 日工集 (Nikkūshū) — the diary of the Japanese monk Yìtáng 義堂 (Gidō Shūshin 義堂周信, 1325–1388) — dated Eitoku 2 (壬戌 / 1382) and Eitoku 4 (甲子 / 1384). The first entry preserves a direct remark by Wénkāng himself on a verse transmitted by Gǔjiàn 古劍 and misquoted at Wénkāng’s seat; the second preserves a conversation at the Nánchāngān 南昌菴 in which the Japanese monk Chūntíng Kaiju (= 海壽) explained to Yìtáng the provenance of the style “Jiāotái” 郊臺 attached to one of Wénkāng’s colophons — namely that Wénkāng’s Hángzhōu Lónghuá seat was close to the ancient Southern-Sòng jiāo 郊 sacrificial altar. These entries confirm that the text circulated at the Japanese Gozan temples in the 1380s — and that Wénkāng was then still a live reference for their abbots’ doctrinal memory — giving the collection a notAfter window extending into the 1380s rather than ending with the last dated content in 1374.
Wénkāng was a native of Cíxī 慈溪 (Míngzhōu). Trained under Qīngyù at Běnjué (co-editing juan 2 of KR6q0347); subsequently an independent abbot. It was at his repeated request that Sòng Lián 宋濂 finally drafted Qīngyù’s Xíngdàojì in Hóngwǔ 3 (1370) — a request Sòng Lián honoured “because Wénkāng was about to install at Fúzhōu Kāiyuánsì and needed the text to accompany him.” Principal biographical source: the DILA extensive notice at A000177, drawing on Zēngjí Xùchuándēnglù juan 1.
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language secondary literature located. The text is chiefly discussed in Japanese Gozan bungaku studies in connection with Yì-táng Shūshin’s diary, and in lineage-histories for its precise dating of the Mù-ān / Sōng-yuán succession in the Yuán–Míng transition.