Shùzhōng Wúyùn chánshī yǔlù 恕中無慍禪師語錄
Six-juan late-Yuán / early-Míng yǔlù of Shùzhōng Wúyùn 無慍 恕中無慍 (zì Shùzhōng 恕中, self-style Kōngshì dàorén 空室道人; 1309 – 13 August 1386), Yángqí-branch Línjì master, dharma-heir of Zhúyuán Miàodào 竺元妙道 (妙道) and thus — via Miàodào — dharma-grandson of 如珙 Héngchuān Rúgǒng (KR6q0344). Xuzangjing X71 no. 1416. Compiled by eight named sìfǎ cānxué 嗣法參學 disciples: 宗黼 Zōngfǔ (former abbot of Chāngguó Wànshòu chánsì 昌國萬壽禪寺), 道瑄 Dàoxuān (abbot of Chǔzhōufǔ Nánmíng chánsì 處州府南明禪寺), 宗亘, 居頂 Yuánjí Jūdǐng (d. 1404 — later abbot of Hòushùntiān Línggǔsì 順天靈谷寺, Zuǒchǎnjiào 左闡教 of the Míng Sēnglùsī 僧錄司, and author of the 30-juan Xùchuándēnglù 續傳燈錄), 惟寂, 宗寄, 慧浩, and 清歲. Juan 1 contains the Xiàngshān Língyán Guǎngfú chánsì 象山靈巖廣福禪寺 record; juan 2 the Huángyán Ruìyán Jìngtǔ chánsì 黃巖瑞巖淨土禪寺 record (these two together constituting the “two-assembly language” 二會語 referred to in the preface); juan 3 jǔgǔ, sònggǔ, and xiǎo fóshì; juan 4 zàn, míng, jìsòng; juan 5 jìsòng continued and fǎyǔ; juan 6 lǜshī 律詩, juéjù 絕句, tíbá, and a closing xíngyèjì 行業記.
Abstract
The preface is by Sòng Lián 宋濂 (now Hànlín shìjiǎng xuéshì and concurrent Tàizǐ zànshàn dàfū), dated the 22nd of the 10th month of Hóngwǔ 7 (1374) — the year Wúyùn, then sixty-five, was summoned to the Míng capital at Nánjīng in response to a Japanese Ashikaga-court petition (入貢中國兼奏請住持) requesting him for appointment as abbot of a Japanese Zen monastery. Sòng Lián records that Wúyùn “declined because of his age” (力辭其行), that the Hongwu emperor, “pitying his old age,” granted the refusal, and that Jūdǐng then brought the “two-assembly language” to Sòng Lián for his authorising preface before the master withdrew east to 鄞 (Yínjiāng, Níngbō). Wúyùn during his capital residence was lodged at the zhàngshì 丈室 of Quánshì Lègōng 全室泐公 (i.e., Jìtán Zōnglè 季潭宗泐, 1318–1391, then Sēnglù sī zuǒshànshì 左善世), and the early-Míng court establishment is said to have “deeply admired” (敬慕) him.
Wúyùn was a native of Línghǎi 臨海 (Táizhōu), lay surname Chén 陳 (mother Lín 林); tonsured at Jìngshān under Jìzhào 寂照; studied under Língshí 靈石 at Jìngcí and Yìyuán Líng 一元靈 before attaining awakening at Táizhōu Zǐtuòshān 紫籜山 Jiànyán chánsì under Zhúyuán Miàodào on the wúzì 無字 huàtóu, when — the xíngyèjì reports — Miàodào gave him a single shout at the very instant he opened his mouth to speak, and the break-through was complete. His abbacies were Xiàngshān Língyán and Huángyán Ruìyán. Per the DILA extensive notice, from Hóngwǔ 17 (1384) onwards he lived in retirement at Cuìshān 翠山 (Níngbō) under the care of his dharma-heir Jūdǐng, where he died on the 10th of the 7th month of Hóngwǔ 19 (13 August 1386), shìshòu 78, sēnglà 59, leaving a four-line farewell jì: “Seventy-eight years — no dharma at all to speak / My last word — let the pillar do the talking. Tut.” (七十八年無法可說末後一句露柱饒舌咄). A xíngyèbēi 行業碑 was written by the Sìmíng scholar Wū Sīdào 烏斯道 of Níngbō.
The date bracket for the collection’s content is Wúyùn’s two abbacies — mostly concentrated in the years 1357 on — through to the xíngyèjì composed after his death in 1386; a slightly earlier first installation datum in the catalog is possible, but the preserved records themselves do not date earlier than the YuánZhìzhèng late years. Secondary works by Wúyùn include the Shānān zálù 山菴雜錄 (two juan; X87 n1616), the Jìngtǔ shī 淨土詩 (one juan), Chóngniān Xuědòu niāngǔ yībǎi zé 重拈雪竇拈古一百則, and Xùsòng Dàhuì Zhúān sònggǔ yībǎi yīshí zé 續頌大慧竹菴頌古一百一十則.
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language secondary literature located that treats the yǔlù proper. The Shān-ān zá-lù (X87 n1616) is cited in studies of late-Yuán Chán anecdotal literature. Wú-yùn’s biographical record is preserved in Nán-Sòng Yuán-Míng chán-lín sēng-bǎo zhuàn (X79), Wǔ-dēng huì-yuán xù-lüè (X80), Wǔ-dēng yán-tǒng (X81), Wǔ-dēng quán-shū (X82), and Zēng-jí Xù-chuándēng-lù (X83) — the last of which was compiled by Wú-yùn’s own dharma-heir Jū-dǐng, ensuring his line a prominent place in Míng lamp-history.
Other points of interest
Wúyùn is an important datum-point for late-14th-century Sino-Japanese Zen diplomacy: the Japanese request for him to go to Japan, recorded explicitly in Sòng Lián’s 1374 preface, is among the clearest evidence for the continued priority assigned to importing Yángqí-line dharma-heirs by the Ashikaga bakufu and Gozan network in the decades after Zhúxiān Fànxiān’s death (1348).