Jiànfú Chénggǔ chánshī yǔlù 薦福承古禪師語錄
Single-juan Northern-Sòng yǔlù of Jiànfú Chénggǔ 承古 薦福承古 (d. 4 December 1045; lunar 慶曆 5.11.4), Yúnménzōng 雲門宗 master known in the tradition as “Gǔ tǎzhǔ 古塔主” (“Old Stupa-Keeper”) for his long retreat in the stupa of Yúnjū Hóngjué 雲居弘覺禪師 before his public career. Xuzangjing X73 no. 1447. Compiled by his disciple 文智 Wénzhì (Yùzhāng cānxué ménrén 豫章參學門人).
Abstract
The text opens with two prefaces. The first, Qiánxù 前序, is by Língyuán Sǒu Wéiqīng 靈源叟惟清 (Língyuán Wéiqīng, 1037–1117, a major Yúnmén / Jiāyánpài Chán figure of the late Northern Sòng), dated the mid-autumn of Shàoshèng 4 (1097) — over fifty years after Chénggǔ’s death. Wéiqīng’s preface is an apologia for Chénggǔ’s lineage claim: “Gǔ tǎzhǔ … took up as his own the two-part judgement, laid out the three essentials and three mysteries, classified and categorised yīnyuán 因緣 material, arranged the zīsù 緇素 (monastic and lay) ranks; and though he never met Yúnmén [Wényǎn 文偃] himself, the lineage claims him as a legitimate direct heir” 與夫不見雲門。而公稱嫡嗣。Some qíngcāi 情猜 critics (those disposed to suspicion) had questioned this; Wéiqīng argues that the critics are “measuring emptiness by the container, or carving the boat to find the sword.” The preface records that the monks Dàoxuān 道宣, Sǒngwén 竦聞, and Tōngbiàn 通辯 had requested the printing and asked Wéiqīng for the preface.
The second preface — signed Yúnmén cūnsǒu Miàoxǐ Zōng 雲門村叟妙喜宗 — opens with a strong doctrinal statement (“Chán has nothing to transmit; what can be transmitted is only jiàoshèng 教乘 letters and the words of earlier masters — not the supreme subtlety of the mind”) and then, polemically, attacks contemporary Chán teachers for their attachments to wǔwèi gōngxūn 五位功勳 (Cáodòng 曹洞 doctrine) and zhīlǚ xīguī 隻履西歸 (the “single-sandal return” legend of Bodhidharma) — “like lice hiding in the seams of trousers.” Internal evidence — the Yúnmén rhetorical framing, the explicit pro-Yún-mén / anti-Cáo-dòng polemic, and the Miàoxǐ 妙喜 signature-style — strongly suggests this preface is by Dàhuì Zōnggǎo 大慧宗杲 (1089–1163), whose chief hào was Miàoxǐ; if so, the preface dates to the mid-12th century, representing Dàhuì’s appropriation of the Chénggǔ corpus as a weapon in his ongoing controversies with the Cáodòng establishment (see KR6q0359 for the parallel polemical context).
Chénggǔ was a native of Xīzhōu 西州; as a young man a scholar of wide reading and high reputation; left home to study under Jǐngxuán 警玄 and then under Nányuè Yǎ 南嶽雅 (who took him as rùshì 入室 disciple); had his awakening “on reading the Yúnmén chánshī’s responses-to-situations” 覽雲門禪師對機. Took up residence in the stupa of Yúnjū Hóngjué at Yúnjūshān, where students came from all quarters — the origin of his nickname Gǔ tǎzhǔ. Opened public teaching at Zhīshān 芝山; in Jǐngyòu 4 (1037) Fàn Zhòngyān 范仲淹 (then zhī Póyáng jūn 守鄱陽) invited him to Jiànfúsì 薦福寺, where he taught until his death.
Eight named dharma-heirs per Jiànzhōng jìngguó xùdēnglù 建中靖國續燈錄: Hóngzhōu Guānyīn Xuǎn 觀音選, Hézhōu Jìngjiè Shǒumì 淨戒守密 (also 守蜜), Kāifú Cóngshòu 開福從受, Shòuníng Zhìyuán 壽寧智源, and others.
Date bracket: 1037 (Jiànfú installation, first recorded content) through 1097 (Wéiqīng preface); the second preface, if by Dàhuì, extends the textual completion into the mid-12th century.
Translations and research
Chéng-gǔ is treated in standard Chán lineage scholarship as a key Yún-mén-zōng figure (though one whose transmission is retrospective and contested); see the entries in Wǔ-dēng huì-yuán 五燈會元 and Jiàn-zhōng jìng-guó xù-dēng-lù. The “bù-jiàn Yún-mén ér chēng dí-sì 不見雲門而稱嫡嗣” issue is a classic problem in Sòng-era transmission ideology.