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無幻禪師語錄

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Text ID
KR6q0395
Date
1580–1615
Dynasty
明

Wúhuàn chánshī yǔlù 無幻禪師語錄

Recorded Sayings of Chán Master Wú-huàn by 性沖 (說), 慧廣 (編集)

About the work

Two-juan recorded-sayings of the late-Míng Línjì Yángqí 臨濟楊岐 Chán master Wúhuàn Gǔzhàn Xìngchōng 性沖 (1540–1612), direct dharma-heir of Wúqù Rúkōng 無趣如空 (1491–1580) and principal teacher at Chēxīān 車溪庵 in the Sūzhōu region (jìjì 寄跡 for over twenty years) and at Jìngshān 徑山 near Hángzhōu. Compiled (biānjí 編集) by his direct disciple Nánmíng Huìguǎng 慧廣 (1576–1620) and printed through the patronage of Chéng Shàngfǔ 程尚甫. Preserved in the Jiāxīng zàng as J25 no. B156. The text is framed by three prefaces — by Zhànrán Yuánchéng 湛然圓澄 (1561–1626, dated Wànlì 42 = 1614), by Càí Shànjì 蔡善繼 (Xiàxiūshēng 夏休生) of Wúxìng, and by Yúnqī Zhūhóng 雲棲袾宏 (1535–1615) — and closed by Xìngchōng’s xíngzhuàng 行狀 signed by the editor Huìguǎng and fellow disciples (ménrén Huìguǎng děng qǐshǒu shù 門人慧廣等稽首述). This is the companion volume to the yǔlù of Xìngchōng’s master in KR6q0394. Non-commentary; commentedTextid omitted.

Abstract

Author. Xìng-chōng, styled Gǔ-zhàn 古湛 (“Ancient Deep Stillness”) and epithet Wú-huàn 無幻 (“Without Illusion”), was a native of Hé-jùn Xiù-shuǐ 禾郡秀水 (= Jiā-xìng Xiù-shuǐ, Zhèjiāng), lay surname Zhāng 張, lay name Qiáo 橋 (given from his mother’s dream of a rooster flying up from a bridge). His early Buddhist formation came under the layman Fāng Yàn-shān 方硯山, who directed him to read the scriptures; when Xìng-chōng concluded that “the Tripiṭaka and twelve-fold corpus are but fish-traps and rabbit-snares” (sān-zàng shí-èr-bù dà-yuē zhǐ-shì quán-tí ěr 三藏十二部大約秪是筌蹄耳), Fāng sent him to Wú-qù Rú-kōng with the endorsement that this was “a Línjì child in truth, an authentic figure of the Way.” On first meeting Rú-kōng rebuked him — “remembering this tangle fouls a single pure-white inch of you” (jì cǐ yī luò-suǒ wū rǔ yī piàn qīng-bái dì 記此一絡索汙汝一片清白地) — and set him to investigation. Xìng-chōng could not take the tonsure immediately because of his mother; he served her while practising at Yuán-míng-sì 圓明寺 and was yìnkě’d only after she died. On his announced intention to retire to Jìng-shān, Rú-kōng pronounced the cryptic: “your karmic connection lies at the water’s edge” (zǐ yuán zài shuǐ biān 子緣在水邊). The transmission verse was delivered in connection with a striking incident: Rú-kōng was about to burn his accumulated verses and jì-sòng 偈頌; Xìng-chōng begged to rescue and anthologise them, and brought the completed anthology back as a gift — presenting it as “some farmland and its original title-deed, requesting the Master’s signature.” Rú-kōng opened it: “This is mine — where is yours?” Xìng-chōng replied, “Master, do not grasp at the market.” Rú-kōng threw down the manuscript; Xìng-chōng turned to leave, then submitted four verses of his own. Rú-kōng conferred robe-dharma with the verse Shī chuán niān-huā zōng, shì wǒ wēi-xiào fǎ, qīn shǒu zhǎn fù rǔ, chí-fèng biàn chén-shā 師傳拈花宗／示我微笑法／親手展付汝／持奉遍塵剎. After Rú-kōng’s 1580 death Xìng-chōng stayed at Jìng-shān three years, then sealed himself into door-closed bì-guān at Yuán-míng-sì for another three. On opening the gate he accepted the invitation of the monk Zhèng-chuān 證川 of Chē-xī-ān and made his principal residence there for more than twenty years (ca. 1589–1611), fulfilling the “water’s edge” prediction (Chē-xī = “stream-cart” referring to the adjacent stream). In spring Wàn-lì 38 gēng-xū (1610) Jìng-shān established a chán-period and requested him as leader; he refused; the following spring (1611) he accepted reluctantly, served half a year, fell ill with pí-jí 脾疾 (spleen disorder), and returned to Chē-xī; on Wàn-lì 39.12.4 (= 6 January 1612) he arranged final matters, sat upright, and died, aged 72 with 30 là (ordained years). His relic-bones were enshrined in a stūpa at Jìng-shān. Dharma-heir and compiler: Huì-guǎng.

Contents. Juan 1 (shàng): three prefaces → 住車溪庵語 (Zhù Chēxīān yǔ — record of his Chēxī abbacy, xiǎocān 小參, niānxiāng 拈香 dedications including the anniversary-jìchén 忌辰 of Rúkōng, jīyuán 機緣 dialogues with Xiùzuòzhǔ 秀座主 and other interlocutors) → 徑山語 (Jìngshān yǔ — the brief but dense half-year teaching at Jìngshān in 1611, opening with his pronouncement that he had come because “Wúqù lǎorén left an unfinished gōngàn that this old man came out to conclude”) → 示禪人 (shì chánrén — dharma-instructions to named and unnamed practitioners) → 機緣 (jīyuán — extended encounter-dialogues) → 拈古 (niāngǔ — comments on classical cases) → 頌古 (sònggǔ — twenty-five verses on set cases, from Huánglóng’s abbacy-selection to Lǔzǔ 魯祖’s wall-facing, Mùzhōu’s 喪考妣, the Qīngzhōu bùshān 青州布衫, Zhàozhōu’s chīchá qù 喫茶去, Yúnmén’s rìlǐ kànshān 日裏看山, the Sixth Patriarch’s búhuì fófǎ 不會佛法, Déshān’s alms-bowl, Yǎngshān’s yīèrsān verse, and others) → 讚 (zàn — encomia on Guānyīn images of several types: 水月, 魚籃, etc.). Juan 2 (xià): 偈頌 (jìsòng — extensive verse corpus), opening with the remarkable Jí Wúqù héshàng yǔ jì ǒuchéng sān shǒu 集無趣和尚語偈偶成三首 (three verses spontaneously produced while anthologising Rúkōng’s sayings — the very anthology that triggered Rúkōng’s robe-transmission); then Cānchán jì shíyī shǒu 參禪偈 (11 pieces), Shì chánrén liù shǒu (6), occasional verses of place and travel (Shānlóu jì Huàn 山樓寄幻, Dēng Wūzhānshān 登烏瞻山, Jìngshān huí zhì Yuánmíng chányuàn guānjū èr shǒu 徑山回至圓明禪院關居二首, Zháxī dàozhōng 霅溪道中), exchanges with lay interlocutors (including the jūshì Shěnyuán 靜源, Chōngxuán Jì 沖玄計 jūshì, Méicūn 梅村, Xīguīzǐ 西歸子), seasonal meditations (Shānjū shí shǒu 山居十首, Xuězhōng jíshì 雪中即事), and extended niànfó sòng 念佛頌, zhǐxīn sòng 指心頌, and the Mùniú tú sòng 牧牛圖頌 (verses on the 10-frame Ox-Herding picture sequence). The juan closes with the xíngzhuàng.

Lay dedications in the prefaces. Càí Shànjì 蔡善繼 (1565–1625) of Wúxìng 吳興, a prominent Míng jūshì known by his hào Xiàxiūshēng 夏休生, writes the middle preface and emphasises the extraordinary coincidence that father-and-son yǔlù — Rúkōng’s KR6q0394 and Xìngchōng’s present KR6q0395 — appeared simultaneously, a pairing he compares to the rare Udumbara-flower re-blooming and to the Yuán-dynasty Gāofēng / Zhōngfēng 高峰 / 中峰 父子 double-transmission. Càí invokes Yúnqī Zhūhóng 雲棲袾宏 as the figure who alone could adjudicate the rarity; and in the third preface, Yúnqī himself (lǎobìng sēng Zhūhóng hénán jǐn zhì 老病僧袾宏和南謹識) modestly declines to expound, saying only that without having met Xìngchōng in person he nonetheless reads the yǔlù “as though seeing the master’s face.”

Dating. notBefore 1580 (Rúkōng’s death; Xìngchōng’s independent teaching career begins). notAfter 1615 (Yúnqī Zhūhóng’s death on Wànlì 43.7.4 = 27 August 1615, terminus for the third preface and hence for the received text as framed). The Zhànrán Yuánchéng preface is explicitly dated to Wànlì 42 jiǎyín (1614) 夾鍾月 (second lunar month) and gives the tightest verifiable pre-publication terminus. The Chēxīān teaching occupies ca. 1589–1611; the Jìngshān half-year is mid-1611; compilation by Huìguǎng falls between 1612 and the 1614 preface.

Translations and research

No substantial Western-language secondary literature located on Xìng-chōng specifically. He appears in Jiang Wu, Enlightenment in Dispute: The Reinvention of Chan Buddhism in Seventeenth-Century China (Oxford, 2008) only as background to the Míng-Qīng transition Línjì revival. The trilateral lay-clerical frame of the present yǔlù (Càí Shàn-jì, Yún-qī Zhū-hóng, Zhàn-rán Yuán-chéng) makes it an excellent primary text for studies of the late-Wàn-lì Jiā-xìng / Sū-zhōu Buddhist network; see Chün-fang Yü, The Renewal of Buddhism in China: Zhuhong and the Late Ming Synthesis (Columbia, 1981) for Yún-qī’s circle, and the collected studies in Timothy Brook, Praying for Power (Harvard, 1993) for the lay-donor pattern. For the Tiān-mù-shān Línjì sub-lineage that Xìng-chōng preserved, see Natasha Heller, Illusory Abiding (Harvard, 2014).

Other points of interest

  • The anecdote of Xìngchōng’s rescue and anthologisation of Rúkōng’s verses — preserved in both the 行狀 at the end of juan 2 and the compressed Jí Wúqù héshàng yǔ jì ǒuchéng sān shǒu 集無趣和尚語偈偶成三首 at the head of juan 2 — is the internal explanation for why Rúkōng’s own yǔlù (KR6q0394) survives at all: its edited form is likely traceable back to this same editorial effort by Xìngchōng. The two yǔlù are thus not just parallel father-and-son records but textually co-dependent.
  • Xìngchōng’s half-year Jìngshān abbacy (1611) is dated in the xíngzhuàng and provides a rare dated glimpse into the state of Jìngshān teaching on the eve of the Mìyún Yuánwù 密雲圓悟 / Hànyuè Fǎzàng 漢月法藏 generation that would reanimate Línjì Chán in the Tiānqǐ and Chóngzhēn eras.
  • The yǔlù closes with a full Mùniú tú sòng 牧牛圖頌 — Xìngchōng’s rendering of the ten-stage Ox-Herding sequence — a late-Míng revival of the classic Pǔmíng 普明 / Kuòān 廓庵 meditative programme.
  • The three-preface opening by a Cáodòng figure (Yuánchéng, self-identifying here as 27th-generation Cáodòng, not as his more usual Yúnmén persona), a Pure Land / syncretist (Yúnqī), and a lay literatus (Càí) gives an unusually rich map of Xìngchōng’s cross-sectarian reception.

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