Zōngmén bǎojī lù (xù, fánlì, mùlù) 宗門寶積錄（序．凡例．目錄）
Record of the Treasury-Accumulation of the [Chán] School (prefaces, guidelines, table of contents only) by 本晳 (輯)
About the work
Kanripo’s Zōng-mén bǎo-jī lù entry preserves only the front matter of the full 93-juan Bǎo-jī lù: four prefaces, the ten-point fán-lì 凡例 (editorial guidelines), and the table of contents. The 93-juan body proper is not transmitted through Xùzàngjīng X73 no. 1458. The compiler is Shān-xiǎo Běn-xī 本晳 (Xī-shǔ Zhǐ-lǐ bǐ-qiū 西蜀枳里比丘, = “Bhikṣu from Zhǐ-lǐ of Western Shǔ”), dharma-heir of Hóng-jué Dào-mǐn 道忞 (1596–1674), the imperially-recognised Chán master of the Tiāntóng line summoned by the Shùnzhì emperor to the capital in 1660.
Abstract
The Zōngmén bǎojī lù was conceived by Hóngjué Dàomǐn as a comprehensive anthology to supplement the Gǔzūnsù yǔlù 古尊宿語錄 (X68 no. 1315) by rescuing the scattered or surviving yǔlù of 88 masters, Southern-Sòng through early-Qīng, who had otherwise been fading from the transmission record. Dàomǐn began the work but was unable to complete it before being summoned to Beijing; on his deathbed he transferred the project to Běnxī with the charge to finish it. Běnxī took up the work in spring 1676 (丙辰春) and completed it in three years, yielding 88 masters in 93 juan, organised by generation (shì 世) below the Sixth Patriarch (Dàjiàn xià dìyī shì 大鑑下第一世 etc.).
The four prefaces preserved in the Kanripo entry are of considerable late-Kāngxī literary-historical interest:
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Xú Yuánwén 徐元文 (1634–1691), Hànlín academician and Confucian classicist from Kūnshān, cousin of 顧祖禹 Gù Zǔyǔ — preface dated middle third of spring-month, Kāngxī jǐwèi (= 1679). Xú frames the project as parallel to the Confucian anthology tradition (ZhōuChéngZhāngZhū hòu rú), invoking Tàijí tōngshū, Zhèngméng, Dōngxī èrmíng, Zhūzǐ yǔlèi as analogies — then warning against the Táng zhèngyì / Míng dàquán model of compilation by one editor’s taste as having destroyed the diversity of Hàn and Sòng scholarship. Xú endorses Běnxī’s method of preserving each master’s work as a separate biān 編 so that “the face of each person is preserved complete, the spirit fully revealed.”
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Wáng Xī 王熙 (1628–1703) of Wǎnpíng, Grand Secretary under the Kāngxī emperor — preface dated middle-winter Kāngxī guǐhài = 1683. Wáng recalls his personal contact with Hóngjué Dàomǐn during the latter’s 1659 imperial summons and frames the Bǎojī lù as Dàomǐn’s dying yízhǔ 遺囑 to Běnxī; Wáng’s commendation draws on the Bǎojījīng 寶積經’s doctrine that the Buddha’s spoken word is merely “text” (wén 文) whose meaning lies only “in the absence of word-path.”
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Lǐ Yèsì 李鄴嗣 (1622–1680), the Ningbo scholar-poet known as Gǎotáng 杲堂, survivor of the Ming fall and central figure in Zhōushān yímín circles. Lǐ’s preface offers a remarkable parallel history of Confucian and Chán flourishings — he argues that Confucian-Buddhist “rising and falling” do not run counter to each other (as Tang Yúquán had proposed) but are simultaneous, with the Tang Hán Yù revival and the Chán flourishing from Bodhidharma to Huìnéng coinciding; the Sòng ZhūZhāng recovery coinciding with Mǎzǔ / Fényáng / Xuěfēng / Yántóu; the Yáojiāng and Jìshān 蕺山 schools (Wáng Yángmíng’s legacy, Liú Zōngzhōu’s school) flourishing simultaneously with the Cáodòng Hóngshānlái / Xiǎnshèngchéng and Línjì Tiāntóngwù / Qìngshānxiū / Jìngshānxìn recoveries. Lǐ’s paralleism is valuable primary evidence for the late-Míng / early-Qīng literati perception of the Three Teachings as co-flourishing.
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Běnxī’s own preface, dated New Year’s Day (元旦) of Kāngxī jǐwèi = 1 January 1679, composed at the Dàjiàntáng 大鑑堂 at Tiāntóng. This is the crucial source for the Bǎojī lù’s editorial history.
The fánlì 凡例 specifies: (a) the work is modeled on the Gǔzūnsù lù; (b) it includes only shàngtáng 上堂, shìzhòng 示眾, xiǎocān 小參, jīyuán 機緣, niānsòng 拈頌, fǎyǔ — miscellaneous writings are excluded; (c) the Five Houses are not separately branched, only the generation-number is given; (d) works already in the Zūnsù lù are not re-collected (exceptions: Nányuè Huáiràng, Qīngyuán Xíngsī, Xuěfēng Yìcún — to show the transmission); (e) the yǔlù of Yuánwù Kèqín, Dàhuì Zōnggǎo, and Zhōngfēng Míngběn are excluded as already circulating; (f) coverage closes with the generation of Yúān Zhìjí 愚菴智及, Juélàng Dàoshèng 覺浪道盛, and Běnxī’s own master Hóngjué Dàomǐn and contemporaries.
The 88 masters covered include: Xuěfēng Yìcún 雪峯義存, Xuánshā Shībèi 玄沙師備, Báiyún Shǒuduān 白雲守端, Hóngzhì Zhèngjué 宏智正覺, Hǔqiū Shàolóng 虎丘紹隆, Yìngān Tánhuá 應菴曇華, Mìān Xiánjié 密菴咸傑, Pòān Zǔxiān 破菴祖先, Wúzhǔn Shīfàn 無準師範, Yuánsǒu Xíngduān 元叟行端, Xuěyán Zǔqīn 雪巖祖欽, Chǔshí Fànqí 楚石梵琦, Yúān Zhìjí 愚菴智及, Xiàoyǐn Dàxīn 笑隱大訢, Gāofēng Yuánmiào 高峯原妙, Zhōngfēng Míngběn’s teacher Gāofēng, Gǔlín Qīngmáo 古林清茂, Lǜxián Xùrán 呆菴普莊, Wànfēng Shíwèi 萬峯時蔚, Déshān Fǎzhōu 法舟道濟, Xiàoyán Débǎo 笑巖德寶, Huànyǒu Zhèngchuán 幻有正傳, Mìyún Yuánwù 密雲圓悟, Tiānyǐn Yuánxiū 天隱圓修, Wúmíng Huìjīng 無明慧經, Hànyuè Fǎzàng 漢月法藏, Pòshān Hǎimíng 破山海明, Fèiyǐn Tōngróng 費隱通容, Mùyún Tōngmén 牧雲通門, Hóngjué Dàomǐn 弘覺道忞 (juan 67–69), Juélàng Dàoshèng 覺浪道盛, Wèilín Dàopèi 道霈 (juan 89–90 — the same late-Ming/early-Qīng master whose Shèngjiàntáng shùgǔ is KR6q0385), Yǒngjué Yuánxián 永覺元賢, Wúyì Yuánlái 無異元來, Zhànrán Yuánchéng 湛然圓澄, Màilàng Mínghuái 明懷… etc.
Dating. Běnxī’s preface is 1 January 1679; Wáng Xī’s is 1683. notBefore 1676 / notAfter 1683 brackets the compilation and the prefatory closure.
Other points of interest
- The full 93-juan body of the Bǎojī lù is not in Kanripo’s X1458 entry — only the preface matter. For actual encounter-dialogue content of the 88 masters, consult the individual yǔlù entries (many of which appear elsewhere in Kanripo KR6q, e.g. KR6q0385, KR6q0386, KR6q0387).
- The table of contents is valuable in itself as evidence of what Hóngjué Dàomǐn’s Tiāntóng-line considered the canonical Chán genealogy at the moment of compilation — effectively a Chán “minor canon” designed to supplement the Zūnsù lù.
- Lǐ Yèsì’s preface is of independent Ming-Qing intellectual history interest: his “three-fold co-flourishing” thesis of Confucian-Chán history anticipates later comparative schema in the work of Huáng Zōngxī and Sūn Xīdàn.
Translations and research
No substantial English-language translation located. The Bǎo-jī lù is discussed briefly in Jiang Wu, Enlightenment in Dispute (2008) and in Yang Zhaohua’s work on the Tiāntóng lineage; the fuller study in Chinese is by Chen Yuyan 陳玉女 on late-Míng Chán canon-formation.