Zǐbǎi zūnzhě quánjí 紫柏尊者全集
Twenty-nine-juan complete collected works (quánjí 全集) of Zǐbǎi Zhēnkě 真可 紫柏真可 (zì Dáguān 達觀; later-life hào Zǐbǎi 紫柏; 23 July 1543 – 17 January 1604, shìshòu 61, sēnglà 41), one of the Wànlì Four Great Masters 萬曆四大師 (alongside 袾宏 Yúnqī Zhūhóng 蓮池, 德清 Hánshān Déqīng 憨山, and Ǒuyì Zhìxù 蕅益智旭). Xuzangjing X73 no. 1452. Reviewed (yuè 閱) — in editorial oversight capacity — by his lifelong friend and dharma-brother 德清 Hánshān Déqīng 憨山德清 (1546–1623).
Abstract
Zhēnkě was a native of Jùqū 句曲 (Wújiāng, Sūzhōu), lay surname Shěn 沈. Tonsured at seventeen at Hǔqiūshān under Míngjué 明覺; took the precepts at twenty; spent three years in shut-retreat at Wǔtáng Jǐngdésì 武塘景德寺. His decisive awakening came on hearing another monk recite Zhāng Zhuō 張拙’s “jiàndào jì 見道偈” at the line “to cut off deluded thoughts is only to increase the sickness; to tend toward thusness is itself wrong” 斷除妄想重增病，趨向真如亦是邪 — the great doubt that arose resolved spontaneously during a later meal-time.
Zhēnkě’s principal public contribution — which the 29-juan quánjí documents comprehensively — was the initiation, at Wǔtáishān in Wànlì 17 (1589), of the Jiāxīng dàzàng jīng 嘉興大藏經 project (the Fāngcè dàzàng 方冊大藏經), a new printing of the Chinese Buddhist canon on portable, inexpensive, bound-book-sized folios — based on collation of the Míng-dynasty Běizàng and Nánzàng as source-texts. Zhēnkě and his associates raised the funds and established the editorial board; the project continued past Zhēnkě’s death and eventually produced the most widely-accessible Chinese canon of the late Míng and Qīng periods. He also joined with Déqīng in a planned but unrealised revision of the Míng-dynasty Chuándēng lù.
Zhēnkě led a wide reform-program for Ming Buddhism: advocated the unity of the three teachings 三教合一 (Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism); personally led the restoration of fifteen derelict temple sites; moved in the high political circles of the Wànlì court as a reformist voice — which directly caused his downfall. In the autumn of Wànlì 31 (1603) his enemies at court used an incident (the so-called yāoshū 妖書 case) to implicate him falsely; he was imprisoned on the 5th of the 12th month and, after calling for a bath on the 17th and reciting a parting jì, passed away in prison on 17 January 1604. His quánshēn 全身 stupa was placed on the Wénshūtái 文殊臺 at Jìngshān by the left side of Hánshān Déqīng’s.
The 29-juan quán-jí is structured across: (1) shàng-táng 上堂 / fǎ-yǔ 法語 — Zhēn-kě was not an abbot of any major seat but lectured widely as a guest on multiple seats; (2) extensive correspondence (shū 書) with Ming court officials, literati, and fellow-monks — an invaluable source for late-Míng literary-Buddhist networks; (3) doctrinal essays and commentaries on the Leng-yán, Prajñāpāramitā, and other sūtras; (4) jì-sòng 偈頌 and literary miscellany; (5) memorial prose for temples he restored; and (6) biographical apparatus — the xíng-zhuàng and tǎ-míng by Dé-qīng and others. The quán-jí also carries — in juan 1 — Dé-qīng’s extensive posthumous preface, one of the most substantial late-Míng Chán-literary documents.
Date bracket: Zhēnkě’s recorded material begins in the 1570s (earliest letters and sermons) and closes in 1604; Déqīng’s reviewing / biographical frame extends into the early Tiānqǐ era (before Déqīng’s own death in 1623).
Translations and research
Zhēn-kě is a central subject in Ming Buddhist studies: Araki Kengo 荒木見悟, Zhēn-kě 紫柏, 1989 (Japanese monograph); Chün-fang Yü, The Renewal of Buddhism in China (1981, treating Zhū-hóng) and associated articles on the Wàn-lì Four Great Masters; Greg Foxx and others in late-Míng cultural history; Jiang Wu, Enlightenment in Dispute (OUP, 2008). Zhēn-kě’s role in the Jiāxīng canon project is treated in specialized bibliographical studies.