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大溈五峰學禪師語錄

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Text ID
KR6q0400
Date
1644–1654
Dynasty
明

Dàwéi Wǔfēng Xué chánshī yǔlù 大溈五峰學禪師語錄

Recorded Sayings of Chán Master Wǔ-fēng Xué of Dà-wéi by 如學 (說), 智海 (重刻), 周堪賡 (序)

About the work

Single-juan yǔlù of the late-Míng Línjì (Yángqí) master Wǔfēng Rúxué 如學 五峰如學 (1585–1633), principal revivalist of Dàwéi Tóngqìngsì 大溈同慶寺 on Dàwéishān 大溈山 (Níngxiāng, Húnán) and dharma-heir of Mìyún Yuánwù 密雲圓悟. Re-cut (chóngkè 重刻) in the early Qīng by Rúxué’s dharma-grandson Huìshān Zhìhǎi 智海 (abbot of Dàwéi Mìyìnsì 大溈密印寺 from ca. 1649), with a front 序 (presented only as a calligraphic image in the Jiāxīng block) by the Níngxiāng MíngQīng transitional official Zhōu Kāngēng 周堪賡 (1592–1654 per CBDB 83561, citing 《清代人物生卒年表》 #15346; a looser local-history figure of 1585–1663 is superseded), Shùn-zhì-era Hùbù shàngshū. Preserved in the Jiāxīng zàng as J25 no. B175. The text is the companion volume to the yǔlù of Rúxué’s sole dharma-heir Yǎngzhuō Zhèngmíng 正明 at Mìyìnsì (KR6q0401, J25 B176). Non-commentary; commentedTextid omitted.

Abstract

Author. Rúxué, zì Wúwéi 無為, was a native of Líntóng (Xīān), lay surname Rèn 任. His internally-preserved autobiographical xíngshí 行實 (the central document of the present volume) and the tǎmíng by Táo Rǔnài 陶汝鼐 (dated Chóngzhēn 16.8.8 = 20 September 1643) place his 1604 tonsure at Wǔtáishān’s Dàlǐngsì 大嶺寺 under the elder Tiānqí 天齊; his pilgrimage through Xióngěrshān, Hǔpáo, Fúniú (including the famous week-long dǎqī out-of-body episode), Zhōngnán, Jīngāngtái, Yúnmén (Zhànrán Yuánchéng), Kuānglú (Hánshān Déqīng), Huángbò, and Jīngshān; his meeting with Mìyún Yuánwù at Lóngchí and the final transmission-verse at Tōngxuán (Tiāntāi) in 1627; the Nánjīng Hóngjìsì bìguān of 1627–1631; the arrival at Dàwéi Tóngqìng in 1631 and the reconstruction of the community under harsh conditions; and the 1633 journey to Jīnlíng that ended in his death on Chóngzhēn 6.7.22 (26 August 1633) at the Jítuólín of Yú Jíshēng 余集生, aged 49. Refer to 如學 for a full biographical digest.

Contents. The juan opens with the Wǔfēng chánshī yǔlù xù 五峰禪師語錄敘 (the Zhōu Kāngēng preface, present here only as calligraphic block-plates). The main body opens abruptly with the 重刻 colophon — “大溈密印寺住持孫智海重刻” — and proceeds through an extended sequence of jīyuán 機緣 encounter-dialogues, most of them sharp one-or-two exchange pieces in the late-Míng Mìyún style (frequent liángjiǔ 良久, dāngtóu yībàng 當頭一棒, staff-pointing, and extempore verse) — recording Rúxué’s exchanges with monks, lay visitors (including Xú Qiáogǔ 徐喬谷, Liú Xīxuán 劉錫玄, and the Shūzhī jūshì 淑之居士), and members of his own community at Dàwéi (the Míng wéinuó 明維那 in a kitchen-stall verse-duel, the Yùshì 玄侍者 in a niànzhū 念珠 transmission episode, and the Bǎoyuè shìzhě 寶月侍者). The text closes with the first-person autobiographical 行實 xíngshí (dictated Chóngzhēn 6.6.30 = 5 August 1633 at the community’s request, just three weeks before his death) and the 塔銘 tǎmíng by Táo Rǔnài of Yángchéng wàishǐ 羊城外史 (Nánxiáng 寧鄉), dated Chóngzhēn 16.8.8 (20 September 1643) on the completion of the stūpa at Dàwéi after Rúxué’s remains had been cremated by his disciples Yǐngsù and Fùzhì in 1642 and brought back for enshrinement by Zhèngmíng.

Dating. The core materials of the yǔlù date from Rúxué’s Hóngjì bìguān years (1627–1631, the source of many of the closed-gate dialogue pieces) and his Dàwéi abbacy (1631.Chóngzhēn 4 – 1633.Chóngzhēn 6). The xíngshí is internally dated 1633.6.30 lunar; the tǎmíng 1643.8.8 lunar. The received recension, however, is the Qīng re-cut (chóngkè) by Zhìhǎi from Dàwéi Mìyìnsì. Zhìhǎi took up the Mìyìn abbacy only after Zhèngmíng’s 1649 death, and the Zhōu Kāngēng front 序 — presented in the block as a calligraphic image — must be dated to Zhōu’s post-Míng tenure, i.e. between the 1644 dynastic change and Zhōu’s death in Kāngxī 2 (1663). notBefore 1644 is accordingly set as the earliest defensible date for the present recension as re-cut and prefaced; notAfter 1654 as the terminus of Zhōu Kāngēng’s life (per CBDB 83561 / 《清代人物生卒年表》 #15346 — the local-history figure of 1663 previously used is superseded). In practice the re-cut almost certainly falls in Zhōu’s retirement at Níngxiāng in the early 1650s. The source materials embedded in the juan — the xíngshí (1633) and the Táo Rǔnài tǎmíng (1643) — are Míng-era compositions by Míng figures, which is why the catalog and frontmatter assign dynasty = 明 to the authorial layer even though the imprint is Qīng.

Translations and research

No substantial Western-language monograph on Wǔ-fēng Rúxué located. For the Dà-wéi Línjì revival in the late-Míng and early-Qīng Hú-nán context, see Hóu Chōng 侯沖 & Liú Zé-liáng 劉澤亮 (eds.), Hú-xiāng fó-jiào rén-wù shǐ-liào huì-biān 湖湘佛教人物史料彙編 (Cháng-shā: Hú-nán Rén-mín, 2011). For the transmission of Mìyún Yuánwù’s line to Hú-nán and the Dà-wéi-Mì-yìn / Dà-wéi-Tóng-qìng divide, Jiang Wu, Enlightenment in Dispute (Oxford, 2008), esp. ch. 4. For the Hán-shān → Mìyún → Rúxué / Yuán-wù → Zhèng-míng transmission chain more broadly, Yǐn Wéng-zhān 尹翁占 et al. (ed.), Dà-wéi-shān Mì-yìn-sì zhì 大溈山密印寺志 (Cháng-shā, 2010). On Táo Rǔ-nài as Ming-loyalist yí-mín poet-writer, Wáng Fàn-sēn 王汎森, 《權力的毛細管作用》 (Taipei: Lián-jīng, 2013); on Zhōu Kān-gēng’s political-administrative career, the Qīng-shǐ gǎo 清史稿 liè-zhuàn.

Other points of interest

  • The yǔlù is structurally unusual: a very brief juan (one juan only) dominated by jīyuán encounter-material and two substantial autobiographical-biographical documents at the close — a pattern closer to the stand-alone single-volume yǔlùpiān genre than to the expanded multi-juan yǔlù common under Mìyún’s other heirs. This reflects Rúxué’s short teaching career (two-and-a-half years at Dàwéi) and his insistence on documentary economy.
  • The 行實 is datable to three weeks before Rúxué’s death (1633.6.30 lunar, with death following on 1633.7.22) and closes with the telling remark “over twenty-six years I endured heat and cold, walked tens of thousands of li — all upside-down dreams and phantoms, vain labour of the mind; what is there worth mentioning?” (jíjīn kànlái mào hánshǔ yú èrshíliù nián shè chéngtú yú shùwànlǐ wài jiēshì diāndào mènghuàn wǎngláo xīnlì yòu hé kān guà chǐ hū 冒寒暑於二十六年涉程途於數萬里外皆是顛倒夢幻枉勞心力又何堪挂齒乎).
  • Rúxué’s sole dharma-heir Yǎngzhuō Zhèngmíng 養拙正明 transmitted the Dàwéi line through Huìshān Zhìhǎi (who edited the present re-cut) and Zhìhǎi’s seven heirs. The textual pair KR6q0400 + KR6q0401 — grandfather and father yǔlù both edited by grandson Zhìhǎi at Mìyìnsì in the early Qīng — is a complete documentary package for the mid-17th-century Húnán Línjì revival.
  • The front 序 appears as calligraphic block-plates (represented in the OCR source only as <img:> placeholders). The textual content of Zhōu Kāngēng’s preface is accordingly recoverable only from the original Jiāxīng-canon facsimiles and is not present in the plain-text witness — a caveat for any future citation.

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