聞分館君 Ask BunKanKun

大溈密印寺養拙明禪師語錄

10 min read

Text ID
KR6q0401
Date
1649–1660
Dynasty
清

Dàwéi Mìyìnsì Yǎngzhuō Míng chánshī yǔlù 大溈密印寺養拙明禪師語錄

Recorded Sayings of Chán Master Yǎng-zhuō Míng of Dà-wéi Mì-yìn-sì by 正明 (說), 智海 (編), 通雲 (序), 陶之典 (序)

About the work

Single-juan yǔlù of the Míng–Qīng transitional Línjì (Yángqí-branch) master Yǎngzhuō Zhèngmíng 正明 養拙正明 (? – 1649), abbot of Dàwéi Mìyìnsì 大溈密印寺 on Dàwéishān (Níngxiāng, Húnán) from Chóngzhēn 10 dīngchǒu (1637) until his death in Shùnzhì 6 jǐchǒu (1649), and sole dharma-heir of Wǔfēng Rúxué 如學 五峰如學 (1585–1633). Compiled (biān 編) by Zhèngmíng’s own dharma-heir Huìshān Zhìhǎi 智海 慧山智海 at Mìyìnsì in the early Qīng, with a front 序 by Zhèngmíng’s dharma-uncle Shíqí Tōngyún 通雲 石奇通雲 (1594–1663, a fellow dharma-heir of Mìyún Yuánwù 密雲圓悟) and a closing 敘 by the Níngxiāng yímín scholar Táo Zhīdiǎn 陶之典 陶之典 (b. 1622, son of Táo Rǔnài 陶汝鼐), dated Shùnzhì 17 gēngzǐ Buddha’s-birthday (4/8 = 17 May 1660). A 塔銘 by the Míng–Qīng official-patron Zhōu Kāngēng 周堪賡 周堪賡 (1592–1654) is embedded between the xíngshí 行實 and the Táo 敘. Preserved in the Jiāxīng zàng 嘉興藏 as J25 no. B176. The text is the direct companion of its grandfather-volume KR6q0400 — the same editor, Zhìhǎi, “re-cut” (chóngkè 重刻) Rúxué’s yǔlù at the same Mìyìnsì in the same years. Non-commentary; commentedTextid omitted.

Abstract

Author and textual stratigraphy. Zhèngmíng, biéhào Yǎngzhuō 養拙, thirty-sixth-generation heir of Cáoqī 曹谿 by the reckoning of the yǔlù itself, was a native of Púzhōu 蒲州 in Hédōng (southwest Shānxī), lay surname Cháng 常 and the second son of one Cháng Lùshān 祿山; his mother, née Zhāng, is said in his own xíngshí 行實 to have dreamt at his birth of a numinous stranger promising a “precious son.” He tonsured at twenty sùi under Tiānyī Rúxiù 天衣如繡 at Pǔtuóshān 普陀山 (Nánhǎi), trained as kitchen-xià and gardener (not as a literary monk), and at twenty-five entered the Jīnsù 金粟 community under Mìyún Yuánwù 密雲圓悟, from whom he received his decisive awakening on the water-carrying assignment (the “smashed water-pail” episode at Jīnsù under Mìyún’s staff-blow, a set-piece in the volume). He then became the disciple of Wǔfēng Rúxué on Rúxué’s return to Nánjīng Hóngjìsì and subsequently at Dàwéi Tóngqìngsì, was formally charged with the Dàwéi community in Chóngzhēn 6.1.15 (1633) when Rúxué departed for Běijīng and Wǔtái, and — on Rúxué’s sudden death in Nánjīng later that summer (1633.7) — was sent the Láiyuán fúzǐ 來源拂子 (the transmission-whisk) by Zhìlóng 智隆 with instructions to continue the line. Zhèngmíng then withdrew to the Dàwéishān jungles for three years; in Chóngzhēn 10 dīngchǒu (1637) he accepted the qǐng of the elder Dàyuán 大圜 and took the abbacy of the long-ruined Mìyìnsì, sister-temple to Rúxué’s Tóngqìng. He held the abbacy through the dynastic change and died in Shùnzhì 6 jǐchǒu (early 1649), having in advance sent his hand-written summons and sēngjiālí robe to his own heir Huìshān Zhìhǎi on Héngshān; Zhìhǎi was retrieved by the community and installed, and he buried Zhèngmíng’s stūpa on the southern hill of Dàwéi.

Contents. The juan opens with a front 序 by Shíqí Tōngyún 通雲 (a dharma-brother of Rúxué under Mìyún, abbot of 雪竇山資聖寺 and numerous other major Línjì seats; the xù is present in the Jiāxīng block but attested only via the catalog meta — see the dating note below) and proceeds through: (1) a long sequence of shàngtáng 上堂 sermons from Zhèngmíng’s first assembly at Mìyìnsì in Chóngzhēn 10 (1637), intensively jīyuán 機緣 in style (frequent bàng 棒, hē 喝, liángjiǔ 良久, staff-pointing and circle-drawing — the late-Míng Mìyún idiom); (2) an extended jīyuán 機緣 section of brief encounter-dialogues with monks and lay visitors; (3) three shì chántú sān jì 示禪徒三偈 verses (“shānsēng bùhuì wénzhāng…”); (4) the zèng Huìshān Hǎi jiānyuàn 贈慧山海監院 — Zhèngmíng’s verse to his successor Zhìhǎi while the latter was still prior (jiānyuàn) of Mìyìn, a documentarily decisive piece because it fixes Zhìhǎi’s pre-1649 position in the Mìyìn hierarchy; (5) two self-inscription zìtí 自題 verses on the master’s portrait; (6) a funerary verse for one layman Wèi 魏 居士; (7) two letters to Mìyún Yuánwù 密雲圓悟 at Tiāntóng (the first of which gives a precise year-by-year training chronology 1625–1637 invaluable for reconstructing the Jīnsù–Huángbò–Jīnlín–Hóngjì–Dàwéi transitions); (8) a fù Jiǎnyú Zhōu jūshì 復簡予周居士 letter; (9) the master’s own first-person 行實 xíngshí, dictated to Zhìhǎi and the community in Chóngzhēn 16 guǐwèi winter (1643 – six years before his death); (10) the 塔銘 tǎmíng by Zhōu Kāngēng 周堪賡, signed zīzhèng dàfū zhèngzhì shàngqīng Hùbù shàngshū (thus post-Shùnzhì-4 1647 rank); (11) the closing 敘 by Táo Zhīdiǎn 陶之典 of Níngxiāng, dated Shùnzhì 17.4.8 (17 May 1660); (12) four substantial appended 碑記 on the DàwéiMìyìn site — by Zhèng Yú 鄭愚 (Táng, 865–866 — the Tóngqìng chánsì bēijì from the founder-generation), Shì Juéfàn Hóng 釋覺範洪 (i.e. Juéfàn Huìhóng 覺範惠洪, Sòng, Dàwéi Mìyìnchánsì bēijì for the 1109-era Kōngyìn rebuild), Guō Dūxián 郭都賢 of Zīyáng (Mìyìnchánsì sēngtián jì, late Míng – early Qīng on the sēngtián tenure question), and Táo Júyán 陶菊延 (the poet Táo Rǔnài’s literary hào; the Mìyìnchánsì bēijì recording the Shùnzhì-wùxū 1658-summer completion of Zhìhǎi’s rebuild of the temple); these four together function as a mini-gazetteer of the site, incorporated by Zhìhǎi into his teacher’s yǔlù as a historical-legal dossier for the chóngxìng of Mìyìnsì.

Dating. The core materials are Míng (the training-chronology and letters: 1625–1637; the first sermons at Mìyìn: 1637; the xíngshí: 1643). The posthumous apparatus is Qīng: the Zhōu Kāngēng tǎmíng was written between Zhèngmíng’s death (spring 1649) and Zhōu’s own death (1654 per CBDB, citing Qīngdài rénwù shēngzú niánbiǎo #15346 — the previous edition of the companion work note KR6q0400 used Zhōu’s dates as 1585–1663, which should be corrected to 1592–1654 on this external authority); the Táo Zhīdiǎn 敘 is dated Shùnzhì 17.4.8 (1660.5.17); the four appended bēijì include one (Táo Rǔnài’s) explicitly datable to the summer of Shùnzhì wùxū (1658). The received recension accordingly postdates 1658–1660 and thus cannot predate 1660 as a finalized dossier. notBefore = 1649 (Zhèngmíng’s death, terminus post quem for the Qīng editorial layer and the Zhōu tǎmíng); notAfter = 1660 (date of the Táo Zhīdiǎn front-敘 and terminus ante quem for the Jiāxīng block of B176). The catalog meta’s assignment of dynasty 清 tracks the Qīng imprint and is retained here, even though the authorial voice is a Míng-educated monk who lived into the Qīng.

Catalog-vs-external note. The DILA Buddhist person authority gives A000266 for Zhèngmíng, confirming his 蒲州 origin, lay surname 常, tonsure under 天衣如繡 at Pǔtuó, and Shùnzhì-jǐchǒu (1649) date of death. DILA’s assignment of 1583–1631 for his master Wǔfēng Rúxué is, however, demonstrably at variance with the internal xíngshí + tǎmíng evidence of the companion volume KR6q0400 (Chóngzhēn 6 = 1633 death at age 49, thus b. 1585); the present note retains 1585–1633 for Rúxué, following the internal stratigraphy over the DILA concise note. The catalog meta assigns Zhèngmíng dynasty 清; the DILA note assigns 明 to his master but gives his own period markers implicitly in the Qīng (Shùnzhì jǐchǒu). The dynasty = 清 of the catalog is retained here as tracking the imprint.

Translations and research

No substantial Western-language monograph on Yǎng-zhuō Zhèng-míng located. For the Mìyún Yuánwù line in Hú-nán and the Dà-wéi Tóng-qìng / Mì-yìn 兄弟-temple complex, Jiang Wu, Enlightenment in Dispute (Oxford, 2008), esp. ch. 4–5. For the local-history dossier of the site, 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) and 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). On Táo Rǔ-nài and his son Táo Zhī-diǎn as Míng-yí-mín poet-writers in the Níng-xiāng Buddhist–literary network, Wáng Fàn-sēn 王汎森, 《權力的毛細管作用》 (Taipei: Lián-jīng, 2013) and Yán Zhì-xióng 嚴志雄 on late-Míng yí-mín literary Buddhism. On Shí-qí Tōngyún see the primary Xuědòu Shí-qí chán-shī yǔlù 雪竇石奇禪師語錄 (X82n1571) and Zhèng-yuán lüè-jí 正源略集 juan 6.

Other points of interest

  • Training chronology of a Mìyún heir’s heir. The first letter to Mìyún (《上天童密老和尚書》, dated post-1637 spring) gives a calendar-dated chronology — Tiānqǐ 5 (1625) arrival at Jīnsù; Tiānqǐ 7.1.2 (1627) entering the xītáng liáo and first qǐngyì to Wǔfēng; Chóngzhēn 1.10.30 (1628) “struck dead and revived” under Mìyún’s staff; Chóngzhēn 2.8.12 (1629) departure for Huángbò at Mǐn; Chóngzhēn 3.9.2 (1630) return to Jīnsù, 9.5 Mìyún’s resignation, 9.7 pursuit to Jiāxìng; Chóngzhēn 4.4.12 (1631) journey from Nánjīng with Rúxué to Héngyuè, 10.16 arrival at Dàwéi; Chóngzhēn 6.1.15 (1633) Rúxué’s commission to Zhèngmíng, 6.7 Rúxué’s death in Jīnlíng; Chóngzhēn 10.dīngchǒu spring (1637) the qǐng from 大圜 and Mìyìn abbacy — giving the densest dated sequence of any of the Mìyún-line yǔlù in this cluster.
  • Lay patronage through the dynastic change. Both the Zhōu Kāngēng tǎmíng and the Táo Zhīdiǎn 敘 are by figures whose Míng careers (Zhōu as Nánjīng Gōngbù shàngshū; Táo Rǔnài, Zhīdiǎn’s father, as Chóngzhēn-era Hànlín) carried over into Qīng service or yímín retirement in the Níngxiāng 寧鄉 area — in which Dàwéishān lies. The Mìyìnsì rebuild under Zhìhǎi (wùxū / 1658) was politically possible precisely because of this Níngxiāng local-elite continuity across the dynastic change; the yǔlù of Zhèngmíng, as finalized in 1660, is thus also a documentary monument of that local post-1644 recovery.
  • The Shíqí Tōngyún front 序, invisible in the plain-text witness. The opening 14-line run of <img:> placeholders in the block-scan (before the first readable line at p. 760a) corresponds, as in the paired KR6q0400, to a calligraphic front-plate preface — on the catalog-meta evidence this is 通雲’s 序. The textual content of this preface is not recoverable from the Dropbox plain-text source and would need to be consulted in Jiāxīng-canon facsimiles (J25 B176, plate-pages 759a–760a). Flagged as a caveat for any citation of the Tōngyún 序 from the present plain-text witness.
  • Title slip in the block-head. Line 63 of the plain text gives the work’s title as Dàwéi Mìyìn chánsì Yǎngzhuō Míng chánshī yǔlù 大溈密印禪寺…, whereas the Jiāxīng-canon catalog title reads Dàwéi Mìyìnsì Yǎngzhuō Míng chánshī yǔlù 大溈密印寺… . Both titles name the same monastery — Mìyìnsì on Dàwéishān — and the chánsì form simply expands the conventional abbreviation. Retained as transmitted; not corrected.

Graph View

Backlinks