Dāiān Pǔzhuāng chánshī yǔlù 呆菴普莊禪師語錄
Eight-juan early-Míng yǔlù of Dāiān Pǔzhuāng 普莊 呆菴普莊 (zì Jìngzhōng 敬中; 25 September 1347 – 16 November 1403), Yángqí-branch Línjì dharma-heir of 惟一 Liǎotáng Wéiyī (KR6q0350) and — from Hóngwǔ 26 / 1393 until his death — the 60th abbot of Jìngshān Xīngshèng Wànshòu chánsì 徑山興聖萬壽禪寺. Xuzangjing X71 no. 1418. Compiled by six named ménrén 門人 led by 慧啟 Huìqǐ (DILA A001722), with 智粵, 智勝, 德琇, 曇頓 and 道哲. Juan 1 covers the Nánkāng Yúnjū Zhēnrú chánsì 雲居真如禪寺 abbacy; juan 2 the Jìngshān seat; juan 3 xiǎocān 小參; juan 4 thirty-eight niāngǔ 拈古; juan 5 forty-seven sònggǔ 頌古; juan 6 twenty-nine jì 偈, six gē 歌 and one yín 吟; juan 7 twenty-four seven-character octaves 七言八句 and sixty-five seven-character quatrains 七言絕句; juan 8 twenty-one five-character octaves, twenty-seven fózǔzàn, six zìzàn, and a closing tǎmíng 塔銘.
Abstract
Pǔ-zhuāng was a native of Xiān-jū 仙居 in Tái-zhōu, lay surname Yuán 袁. His career is exceptionally well documented by the standards of early-Míng Chán — thanks to the tǎ-míng preserved in juan 8, and to his position as the first major Jìng-shān abbot of the Hóng-wǔ era. The tǎ-míng’s account, concordant with DILA A001222: ordained at thirteen in Zhì-zhèng 19 (1359) under Zuǒ-ān Yuán-liáng 左菴原良 at Tiān-tóng; awakening under 惟一 Wéi-yī at Tiān-níng on the “cypress tree in the courtyard” huà-tóu after Wéi-yī struck him across the mouth; return to Tiān-tóng as diǎn-zàng-yào 典藏鑰; in Hóng-wǔ 10 (1377) invited by Xìng-yuán Huì-míng 性原慧明 of Jīn-shān to expound the three imperially-mandated sūtras (Heart, Laṅkāvatāra, Diamond); in Hóng-wǔ 11 (1378) debating with the court monks Quán-shì Zōng-lè 全室宗泐 and Mǎn-ān Wén-wén 滿菴文文 at Tiān-jiè-sì 天界寺, with both elders conceding that he had “truly got Mù-wēng’s 暮翁 marrow and that the Línjì line had a successor worthy of trust.” First abbacy Fǔ-zhōu Běi-chán-sì 撫州北禪寺 in 1379; next at Yún-jū Zhēn-rú 雲居真如, where he undertook the near-total rebuilding of the ruined monastery over five years; in Hóng-wǔ 26 (1393) summoned in response to an edict calling for eminent monks, dispatched to Lú-shān for an imperial sacrifice and stele-erection (accompanied by reported auspicious omens), and in the winter of that year installed as Jìng-shān abbot — the tǎ-míng describes the appointment as acknowledging his “supreme position within the teaching” 致崇極於師道. Deep relations with princes and high officials are noted. He died on the 23rd of the 10th month of Yǒng-lè 1 (16 November 1403) with the enigmatic parting words “Hard, hard — a sixteen-year-old beauty on a mountain too high for this old monk to carry her up” 難難二八嬌娘上高山老僧扶不得, aged 58, sēng-là 45. The tǎ-míng — damaged at points, as the Xuzangjing edition notes by leaving boxed lacunae — was composed shortly after.
The tǎmíng’s verse places him squarely alongside 無慍 Shùzhōng Wúyùn as one of the two great post-Zhú-yuán masters of late-Yuán / early-Míng Línjì (“了堂恕中同出台岫難弟難兄更唱迭奏元季宗工道德實茂維呆菴師幼而騫鴝師資稔緣遇于古鄮”); his own lineage-placement is as fourth-generation Yángqí descendant of Wúyùn and Wéiyī’s shīzǔ 師祖 Zhúyuán Miàodào.
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language secondary literature located. Pǔ-zhuāng is treated in biographical compendia — Wǔ-dēng quán-shū juan 58 (X82), Zēng-jí Xù-chuándēng-lù juan 6 (X83, compiled by 居頂, thus Pǔ-zhuāng’s cousin-in-the-dharma), Bǔ-xù gāo-sēng zhuàn juan 15 (X77) — and in the Jìng-shān abbot-lists (Jìng-shān zhì), where he is the 60th liè-zǔ.
Other points of interest
The tǎmíng in juan 8 carries evidence of significant damage in its original stone-inscription source — multiple graphs preserved only as boxed lacunae in the Xuzangjing reproduction — and thus transmits not a full official biography but the editorial record of what could still be read off a deteriorating carving. The damaged text nonetheless remains the principal source for his imperial-commission mission to Lúshān in 1393.