Tóuzǐ Yìqīng chánshī yǔlù 投子義青禪師語錄
Two-juan yǔlù of Tóuzǐ Yìqīng 義青 投子義青 (hào Qīng Huáyán 青華嚴; posthumous title Cíjì Miàoxù dàshī 慈濟妙續大師; 1032 – 29 May 1083), Cáodòng 曹洞 master who resurrected the lineage of Dàyáng Jǐngxuán 大陽警玄 (943–1027) through the dharma-transmission entrusted to him by Fúshān Yuánjiàn Fǎyuǎn 浮山圓鑑法遠 — a unique Sòng-dynasty case of cross-school dàifù 代付, in which the Línjì-line Fǎyuǎn, custodian of Dàyáng’s robes and hand-drawn portrait in the absence of a direct dharma-heir, formally transmitted them to Yìqīng (who had trained under him) with the charge to continue the Cáodòng line. Xuzangjing X71 no. 1423. Recompiled (chóngbiān 重編) by Yìqīng’s grand-disciple 自覺 Lùmén Zìjué 鹿門自覺 (d. 1117; dharma-heir of Yìqīng’s senior dharma-heir Fúróng Dàokǎi 芙蓉道楷), who at the time of editing — the colophon identifies him as “zhù Shàngdū Zuǒjiē Shífāng Jìngyīn chányuàn chuánfǎ bǐqiū 住上都左街十方淨因禪院傳法比丘” — was abbot of the imperial-capital Jìngyīn chányuàn 淨因禪院 (from Dàguān 1 / 1107).
Abstract
Juan 1 carries two abbacy-records and ancillary matter — the Báiyúnshān Hǎihuì chányuàn 白雲山海會禪院 record (from Xīníng 6 / 1073, Yìqīng’s first installation) and the Tóuzǐshān Shèngyīn chányuàn 投子山勝因禪院 record (from which he took his definitive hào), followed by “The Master’s Answers to Tónglín’s Ten Questions” 師答同霖十問 and jìsòng with zhēnzàn. Juan 2 carries the Sònggǔ yībǎi zé 頌古一百則 — an early and influential Cáodòng niāngǔ set that pre-dates the Wànsōng 萬松 tradition and remains a standard reference point for the lineage — followed by the xíngzhuàng 行狀 and a bá 跋.
The preserved textual form is the product of a three-stage transmission. The original Song collection was prefaced by the lay-scholar Lǐ Yuánchōng 李元冲 of Lóngmián 龍眠 on the 15th of the 4th month of Yuánfēng 7 (22 May 1084), less than a year after Yìqīng’s death; this preface, in heavy parallel-prose Chán-lyrical style, alludes to the transmission through Fúshān Fǎyuǎn and dates the opening of the compilation shortly after. Zìjué’s re-editing from the Jìngyīn seat followed at some point between 1107 and his death in 1117; the closing bá in the CBETA text frames the collection explicitly as Zìjué’s recension (“葢原本全稿者。其孫淨因覺公之所編集也”). The text then passed through Japan, where it was nearly lost, but rediscovered (per the 1724 closing postfaces) at an old temple by the Sōtō monk Dàomíng 道明; Kuòmén Guànchè 廓門貫徹, a Sōtō abbot styled Mánlóu 漫樓 and former of Dàxióngsì 大雄寺, had the recension re-cut in Japanese Kyōhō 9 (享保九年 = 1724; two postfaces by Kuòmén and Dàomíng survive in the Xuzangjing edition, dated to the 9th and 10th months respectively, plus a further undated bá by “東都蜃樓居主人”). The Xuzangjing text thus transmits Zìjué’s Northern-Sòng recension via an 18th-century Japanese re-cut.
Yìqīng was a native of Qīngshè 青社 (Shāndōng), lay surname Lǐ 李; tonsured at seven at Miàoxiàngsì 妙相寺, ordained at sixteen; made his scholastic reputation as Qīng Huáyán 青華嚴 as a young Huáyán lecturer before shifting to Chán under Fǎyuǎn at Huìshèngyán 會聖巖. He held only two abbacies: Báiyúnshān Hǎihuì (from 1073) and Tóuzǐshān Shèngyīn. Died on the 4th of the 5th month of Yuánfēng 6 (29 May 1083), súshòu 52, sēnglà 37. Named dharma-heirs — “ten-odd persons” per the xíngzhuàng, including Fúróng Dàokǎi (1043–1118, DILA A001539), Bàoēn 報恩 (A011155), Dòngshān Yún 洞山雲, Fúyīng Wén 福應文, Tánguǎng 曇廣 — are the principal figures of the Northern-Sòng Cáodòng revival. Through Fúróng Dàokǎi — and then Dānxiá Zǐchún 丹霞子淳 and Zhēnxiē Qīngliǎo 真歇清了 — Yìqīng’s line became the main surviving Cáodòng channel, the “dormant” lineage that flowered again under Hóngzhì Zhèngjué 宏智正覺 and, much later, transmitted into Japanese Sōtō via Dōgen 道元’s teacher Rújìng 如淨.
Translations and research
Substantive partial English translations exist of the Sòng-gǔ yī-bǎi zé within Thomas Cleary’s anthology work on Cáo-dòng niān-gǔ literature. The text is central to Japanese Sōtō-shū 曹洞宗 historiography — the Kyōhō 9 (1724) Japanese recension was produced precisely because the collection was understood as indispensable for tracing the Sōtō line back through Rú-jìng → Zhēn-xiē Qīng-liǎo → Zǐ-chún → Dào-kǎi → Yì-qīng → Fǎ-yuǎn → Dà-yáng Jǐng-xuán. See also Bǔ-xù gāo-sēng zhuàn, Wǔ-dēng huì-yuán, and the xíng-zhuàng preserved in juan 2 as primary Chinese sources.
Other points of interest
The dàifù 代付 circumstance — Fǎyuǎn holding Dàyáng’s relics and portrait “as trust” and handing them to Yìqīng, who thus received dharma-transmission from a master he had never met — is exceptional in Chán genealogical practice and has been the subject of considerable later debate (including a well-known Dōngshān Liángjiè 洞山良价-style challenge to its validity by Línjì polemicists, and equally a strong Sōtō-school vindication of it through Dōgen’s Shōbōgenzō “Menju” 面授).