Wúyì Yuánlái chánshī guǎnglù 無異元來禪師廣錄
“Extensive Record” (guǎnglù 廣錄) of Wúyì Yuánlái 元來 無異元來 (zì Wúyì 無異; hào Dàyǐ 大艤; best known as Bóshān Yuánlái 博山元來 from his principal abbacy at Xìnzhōu Bóshān Néngrén chánsì 信州博山能仁禪寺; 9 January 1576 – 23 October 1630, shìshòu 56, sēnglà 41), dharma-heir of 慧經 Wúmíng Huìjīng (1548–1618) in the Shòuchāng 壽昌 Cáodòng 曹洞 revival and, alongside 元賢 Yǒngjué Yuánxián, its most widely-read public voice. Xuzangjing X72 no. 1435. Compiled by two of his fǎsūn 法孫 (dharma-grandsons), 弘瀚 Sùrú Hónghàn 粟如弘瀚 (1630–1706, himself the 6th abbot of Bóshān after Yuánlái’s line continued) and 弘裕 Yuánzuò Hóngyù 元祚弘裕 (dharma-heir of Xuějiàn Dàofèng 雪磵道奉, one of Yuánlái’s heirs); the byline gives Hónghàn as huìbiān 彙編 (“compiled”) and Hóngyù as tóngjí 同集 (“co-edited”). The Xuzangjing catalogue gives the guǎnglù as 33 juan; the Kanripo source reflects 35 preserved files, matching the DILA notice of “35 juan,” with the Xuzangjing count probably counting only the core yǔlù portion and excluding some supplementary juan.
Abstract
The collection is front-loaded with three notable prefaces. The first, Wúyì chánshī yǔlù xù 無異禪師語錄序, is by Zhào Shìzhēn 趙士禎 (1553–1612, the well-known late-Míng military-technology writer and sīlǐ 司理 of Xìnzhōu) — a preface thus datable to the first decade of Yuánlái’s career, describing Zhào’s four-year effort to meet the master at Bóshān and the decisive encounter-meeting there (a mid-summer conversation on a pútuán 蒲團 in which Yuánlái’s mere question, “have you understood yet or not?” 還會也未 left Zhào speechless and shook him into awareness). The second, Xīlèi fǎtán xù 錫類法檀序, is by Wú Yìngbīn 吳應賓 (Guǎngruò jūshì 廣瀹居士, 1563–1634, a jinshi of 1586), framing Yuánlái as the paradigm of “worldly filiality fulfilled through world-transcending practice” — he had lost his mother as a child and his father while on the road to official service, and had carried both attachments into his Chán training. The third, Shènglù xù 賸錄序, is by Huáng Duānbó 黃端伯 (fǎdì 法弟 — the Míng-loyalist martyr, d. 1645; the same figure whose preface opens KR6q0364), describing his own encounter with Yuánlái at Shòuchāng and endorsing the posthumous “supplementary record” (shènglù 賸錄) portion.
Yuán-lái was a native of Shū-chéng 舒城 (Ān-huī), lay surname Shā 沙. Resolved at sixteen to leave home; went to Jīn-líng Wǎ-guān-sì 瓦棺寺 to hear the Tiāntái master Xuě-làng Hóng-ēn 雪浪洪恩 expound the Lotus; was tonsured at Jiàn-wǔ under Wǔ-tái Jìng-ān Tōng 五臺靜菴通. Five years of śūnyatā-contemplation; then went to Chāo-huá-shān under Hóng Fǎ-shī 洪法師 for the full precepts; at last went to Shòu-chāng and received dharma-transmission from Huì-jīng. At twenty-seven went to É-hú 鵞湖 to receive the bodhisattva-precepts.
Abbatial sequence: Xìnzhōu Bóshān Néngrén 博山能仁 (his defining seat, from which he takes his most frequent style Bóshān), Jiànzhōu Dǒngyán 董巖, Jiànzhōu Yǎngshān 仰山, Fúzhōu Gǔshān 鼓山, Jīnlíng Tiānjiè 天界. Died on the 18th of the 9th month of Chóngzhēn 3 (23 October 1630). Named dharma-heirs: 智誾 Xuěguān Zhìyín 雪關智誾 at Yíngshān 瀛山 — editor of the short yǔlù (KR6q0366); Zōngbǎo Dàodú 長慶宗寶道獨; Gǔháng Dàozhōu 迴龍古航道舟; Dúfēng Zhúshān Dàoyán 獨峯竹山道嚴; Xuějiàn Dàofèng 博山雪磵道奉; Yěfǔ Xīnglǎng Dàoxióng 冶父星朗雄; and the lay fǔ 府 official Kāifǔ Jíshēng Yú Dàchéng 開府集生余大成 居士. His line — the “Yuánlái branch” of the Shòuchāng revival — extended into the Qīng through Hónghàn (the compiler) and became the continuing Bóshān Cáodòng tradition.
The structure of the 33-juan guǎnglù: multiple abbacy-records spread across juan 1–9; shàngtáng, xiǎocān, wèndá, jǔgǔ, niāngǔ, sònggǔ (juan 10–20); fǎyǔ, shūwèn, jìsòng (juan 21–30); and — in the closing juan — the Bóshān héshàng zhuàn 博山和尚傳 and the Zhōngxīng Xìnzhōu Bóshān Néngrén chánsì Wúyì dàshī tǎmíng 中興信州博山能仁禪寺無異大師墖銘. Yuánlái’s famous Bóshān cānchán jǐngyǔ 博山參禪警語 (“Bóshān’s Monitory Words for Chán Training”) — a widely-circulated Cáodòng manual for kànhuà practice (dated c. 1611) — is transmitted separately (X63 n1257) and is not included in the guǎnglù; the Bóshān Wúyì dàshī yǔlù jíyào 博山無異大師語錄集要 (6 juan) is a further short-form derivative.
Date bracket: approximate first abbacy c. 1603 (Zhào Shìzhēn’s four-year effort culminates at Bóshān before his own death in 1612) through the editorial work of Hónghàn at Bóshān, completed by the time of his death in 1706.
Translations and research
The Bó-shān cān-chán jǐng-yǔ has been translated into English — most influentially in Jeff Shore, trans., Zen Classics for the Modern World: Translations of Chinese Zen Poems — and partially into Japanese. Yuán-lái is a major subject in Jiang Wu’s Enlightenment in Dispute (OUP, 2008) and in the subsequent secondary literature on 17th-century Cáo-dòng. Chinese biographical apparatus: the tǎ-míng in juan 35; Bǔ-xù gāo-sēng zhuàn (X77); Wǔ-dēng huì-yuán xù-lüè (X80); Wǔ-dēng yán-tǒng (X81); Wǔ-dēng quán-shū juan 63; Xù-zhǐ-yuè lù (X84).
Other points of interest
Zhào Shìzhēn’s preface — by the same Ming-dynasty cannon-engineer who authored Shénqì pǔ 神器譜 on firearms technology — is an unusual cross-sectoral document, demonstrating that Yuánlái’s circle drew in literati of technical and military-scientific as well as purely literary background. Yuánlái’s lineage through Hónghàn positions him as “Qīngyuán 33 shì 青原三十三世” — a figure claiming direct continuity to the 6th patriarch through Qīngyuán Xíngsī 青原行思, counter-balancing the Mìyún Yuánwù 密雲圓悟 Línjì establishment of the same decades.