Císhòu Huáishēn chánshī guǎnglù 慈受懷深禪師廣錄
Four-juan late-Northern-Sòng / early-Southern-Sòng “extensive record” (guǎnglù 廣錄) of Císhòu Huáishēn 懷深 慈受懷深 (zì Císhòu 慈受; hào Pǔzhào 普照; also styled Huìlín Shēn 慧林深 for his imperial tenure at Huìlín; 1077 – 14 May 1132, shìshòu 56, sēnglà 36), Yúnménzōng 雲門宗 master and — for a short tenure — abbot of the imperial-court Huìlín chányuàn 慧林禪院 in the Sòng capital, in direct succession to 宗本 Yuánzhào Zōngběn. Xuzangjing X73 no. 1451. Compiled by four of Huáishēn’s shìzhě 侍者: 善清 Shànqīng, 善隨 Shànsuí, 宗先 Zōngxiān, and 普紹 Pǔshào (the latter a named dharma-heir, styled Chuící Pǔshào 垂慈普紹).
Abstract
The preface is by Hán Jū 韓駒 (1080–1135, the late-Northern-Sòng / early-Southern-Sòng poet and official, Yòucháosǎnláng chōng Huīyóugé dàizhì tíjǔ Jiāngzhōu Tàipíngguàn), dated the 1st of the 11th month of Shàoxīng 3 (27 November 1133) — a year after Huáishēn’s death. Hán’s preface is a characteristic Sòng-era meditation on the paradox of Chán textualisation: “The ancients, when teaching, always used words and letters; only with Bodhidharma did the ‘not-establishing of letters’ begin. But as soon as we speak of ‘not-establishing,’ letters are already manifest; how much more for everything else. Since Bodhidharma, those who teach — their students everywhere secretly record their sayings, and call them yǔlù; so that today the Chán discourse current in the empire runs to no fewer than several thousands of myriads of words; in what sense is this ‘not-establishing’? But if one recognises that the nature of letters is empty, and that speaking has no speaking in it, then though the words be thousands of myriads they still count as ‘not-established.‘”
Huáishēn was a native of Liùān 六安 (Shòuchūn), lay surname Xià 夏. Tonsured at fourteen; four years later set out on dharma-wandering. At the start of Chóngníng (1102–1106) he consulted Jìngzhào Chóngxìn 淨照崇信 at Jiāhé Zīshèngsì 嘉禾資聖寺; broke through on Jìngzhào’s question about Liángsuì seeing Mágǔ 良遂見麻谷 — received dharma-transmission. When Jìngzhào moved to Chánglú, Huáishēn accompanied him as shǒuzhòng 首眾.
Held six successive abbacies (as Hán Jū’s preface specifies): Zīfú chánsì 資福禪寺 (at city-south Yízhēn 儀真, from the beginning of Zhènghé 政和 era c. 1111, installed by the Yízhēn magistrate Jìgōng Fǔ 吏部季公釜); Jiāoshānsì 焦山寺 (by imperial edict, four years); Dōngjīng Huìlín 慧林 at the capital (by imperial edict, direct succession to Zōngběn and Wénhuì Chányuàn’s tradition); Língyán 靈巖; Jiǎngshān 蔣山 (briefly, by imperial edict — sān fèng tiānzǐ zhī mìng 三奉天子之命 “three-times receiving imperial command”); then retirement to Dòngtíng Bāoshān 洞庭包山; and finally, at the invitation of the Wáng 王 family, inaugural abbot of Yuánjué 圓覺. Died on the 20th of the 4th month of Shàoxīng 2 (14 May 1132).
Seven named dharma-heirs per Jiātài pǔdēnglù: Jìshì Huìguāng 寂室慧光, Chuící 普紹 Pǔshào (the editor), and five others.
Date bracket: 1111 (Zīfú installation as first recorded content) through Hán Jū’s preface of 1133.
Translations and research
Huái-shēn is studied in Sòng Yún-mén historiography as a late Yún-mén-zōng figure whose work straddles the Jiàn-yán-Shào-xīng transition; see Jiā-tài pǔ-dēng-lù juan 9 (X79) and the Hán Jū preface for biographical detail. The six-temple-abbacy pattern and the three-times imperial appointment make him one of the most institutionally-mobile Sòng Chán masters on record.