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萬如禪師語錄

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Text ID
KR6q0404
Date
1657–1660
Dynasty
清

Wànrú chánshī yǔlù 萬如禪師語錄

Recorded Sayings of Chán Master Wàn-rú by 通微 (說), 行猷 (等編)

About the work

Ten-juan yǔlù of Wànrú Tōngwēi 通微 萬如通微 (1594–1657), dharma-heir of Mìyún Yuánwù 密雲圓悟 (1566/7–1642) at Jīnsù, and the biéhào-titular of Lóngchí Yǔménsì 荊溪龍池山禹門禪寺 in Yíxīng (south of Lake Tàihú, Sūzhōu prefecture) — the “Lóngchí” seat that had originally belonged to the Huànyǒu Zhèngchuán 幻有正傳 line via whom Mìyún’s transmission itself descended, thus a zǔtíng 祖庭 of the LínjìYángqí main line. Nominally edited by Yìnxū Xíngyóu 行猷 印虛行猷 “and others” (děng biān 等編); on internal evidence the principal working editor was the master’s senior dharma-heir Jièwéi Xíngzhōu 介為行舟 (1611–1670), whose 1659/60 re-cutting preface closes the prefatory apparatus. Printed at the Jiāxīng Léngyánsì Zǐbǎiyuàn jīngfāng 楞嚴紫柏院經坊 as Jiāxīng Canon J26 B182, with the block cut at Lóngchí Yǔménsì itself in Shùnzhì 14 winter (1657) through Shùnzhì 15 early summer (1658), financed by Guān Wú Chóngzōng 官吳崇宗 juānzī jìngkè 捐資敬刻. Non-commentary; commentedTextid omitted.

Abstract

Author. Wànrú Tōngwēi, lay surname Zhāng 張, native of Xiùshuǐ 秀水 (Jiāxīng, Zhèjiāng), born Wànlì 22.5.15 yín-hour (2 July 1594) and died at Lóngchí on Shùnzhì 14.10.29 sì-hour (4 November 1657) aged 64 sùi / 45 fǎlà. Orphaned young; mother née Jīn 金. Tonsured aged 19 at Xīngshànsì 興善寺 in his natal Jiāxīng under the elder Hánchū 涵初; practised the zhàozhōu wú 趙州無 gōngàn after reading Yúnqī Zhūhóng 雲棲祩宏’s Chánguān cèjìn 禪關策進; consulted Zhànrán Yuánchéng 湛然圓澄 on the wúmèng wúxiǎng 無夢無想 kōan; broke through on the Shǒuléngyán passage “nà kě huán zhě zì rán fēi rǔ, bù rǔ huán zhě fēi rǔ ér shuí” 諸可還者自然非汝不汝還者非汝而誰. First encountered Mìyún at the Jīnsù Yánguān assembly — two reciprocal hē 喝 and a staff-blow that drew sweat “soaking his back” — and later, after his mother’s death, returned permanently to Jīnsù as a settled practitioner. Broke through at 39 sùi (1632); received transmission from Mìyún. First public abbacy: Dōngtǎ 東塔 in Jiāxīng in the early-to-mid Chóngzhēn years; second: Rúrú chányuàn 如如禪院 at Jiāxīng (Chóngzhēn 13 = 1640 winter onward); third: Cáoshān Shàngshēngsì 曹山上生禪寺 in Xìnghuàfǔ 興化府 (Fújiàn); and final: Lóngchí Yǔménsì on the succession of his uncle-generation brother 雲門 after Mìyún’s death (1642). Ten heirs in principle, four primary: Yǒngtài Mó 永泰模, Tiěguān Néng 鐵關能, Gǔfān Jí 古帆楫, Fókě Shì 佛可式, plus Jièwéi Xíngzhōu 介為行舟 (the eventual editor of this volume) and Dàbó Xíngqián 大博行乾 (the Línjì proselytizer to Běizhílì and Pánshān). DILA assigns him — against his native Xiùshuǐ — to the Línjì Yángqí-branch 三十五世 cluster.

Compositional history. Three layers visible in the prefaces: (i) a core 如如 period yǔlù compiled in spring xīnsì (1641) at the three-year-old Rúrúyuàn assembly, bearing an original preface by the Jiāxīng Dōng-lín-lineage jìnshì Tán Zhēnmò 譚貞默 (hào Sǎoān dàorén 埽菴道人 / Fúzhēng 福徵 / Dàoyī jūshì 道一居士, 1590–1665), retained as the second preface below in the printed volume; (ii) an intermediate Dōngtǎ and Cáoshān period addition, reflected in the Táng Shìjì 唐世濟 preface (undated, Chóng-zhēn-era) and the Huáng Duānbó 黃端伯 (1585–1645) single-page xù (“Wànrú dàshī zhùchí Dōngtǎ, suíjī xiǎngyìng 萬如大師住持東塔隨機響應…“) — Huáng was a Dōng-lín-sympathetic jìnshì who was martyred under Qīng arrest at Nánjīng in Shùnzhì 2.4.7 (1645), so the preface must predate 1645 and the Dōngtǎ abbacy referenced must be an early-Chóng-zhēn one; (iii) the final Lóngchí comprehensive recension, begun by Wànrú himself in Shùnzhì 14 spring (1657) as a twelve-juan hùikè 彙刻, cut down to the present ten juan by Xíngzhōu after the master’s October 1657 death, supplemented with the 行實 xíngshí, 行狀 xíngzhuàng, and 塔銘 tǎmíng for juan 10, and framed by the 1659 spring Tán Zhēnmò second preface (signed “Shùnzhì jǐhài chūnzhòng Guózǐ Sīyè qián Wùchén èrjiǎ jìnshì Yúhéng láng Fù tíngwèi Cáoqī Hànzǔ dìzǐ Fúzhēng Dàoyī jūshì Tán Zhēnmò Pántán jǐnzhuàn” — a preface-signature of exceptional density giving Tán’s 1628 Chóngzhēn jìnshì rank, his Qīng-era 國子監司業 appointment and 虞衡清吏司 郎中 / 副廷尉 offices, his Cáoqī line Chán affiliation as a lay heir of Hànshān Déqīng, and his three literary sobriquets) and by the Xíngzhōu re-cutting preface dated Shùnzhì 17 / jǐhài Qīnghé yuè (the paired cyclic and calendrical year-dating is internally inconsistent — Shùnzhì 17 = 庚子 = 1660, Shùnzhì 16 = 己亥 = 1659 — almost certainly a block-carver’s slip for Shùnzhì 16 jǐhài 4th lunar month = May 1659). The colophon at the end of juan 10 specifies the physical production: “180 leaves total, started cutting at Lóngchí Yǔménsì in winter of Shùnzhì dīngyǒu (1657.10–12), reaching early summer of wùxū (1658.4) to finish” — so the block was cut on-site at the master’s own final seat, not at Jiāxīng, with the Jiāxīng Léngyán workshop receiving the plates for canon-cataloging. notBefore = 1657 (begin-cutting date of the main block and terminus post quem for the xíngzhuàng and tǎmíng); notAfter = 1660 (outside window for the latest preface-date).

Contents by juàn. Following the mùlù of the 卷首: (卷首) 序文 (four prefaces — Táng Shìjì, Huáng Duānbó, Gāo Shìtài, Tán Zhēnmò 1641/1659) + 傳 (a prose biography Jīngxī Lóngchí lǎo héshàng lièzhuàn 荊溪龍池老和尚列傳, by the Jiā-xīng-area official Yán Dàcān Lǚ Jiāyòu 嚴大參呂嘉祐, described as tóngjiàozhèng 仝校正 of the volume); (j.1) 如如禪院 convocation-sermons, Jiāxīng 1640–42; (j.2) 曹山上生禪寺 convocation-sermons, Xìnghuà Pútián, ca. 1642–45; (j.3–6) 龍池禹門禪寺 convocation-sermons (four full juan), 1645–57 — the largest block, comprising the Lóngchí-zǔtíng 祖庭 restoration-assembly material; (j.7) 示眾 + 機緣 encounter-dialogues; (j.8) 法語 + 拈古 + 頌古; (j.9) 書問 + 真讚 + 自讚; (j.10) 佛事 + 雜著 + 偈 + 行實 + 行狀 + 塔銘. The 塔銘 (juan 10 末) is by an unnamed official also identified as a lay heir of Cáoqī Hànzǔ (i.e. Hànshān Déqīng’s Cáo-qī-line); the 行狀 is by Xíngzhōu and dated around the rùtǎ funerary cycle of Shùnzhì 15 (1658) early summer. The 行實 (j. 10 middle) is notably a first-person piece by Wànrú himself — an increasingly common feature of mid-seventeenth-century Mìyún-line yǔlù, paralleling the xíngshí of Pòshān’s 1643 dictation in KR6q0402.

Tiyao

Not applicable — this is a Jiāxīng-canon imprint (J26 B182), not a WYG text; the prefatory material is translated in substance above.

Translations and research

  • Jiang Wu, Enlightenment in Dispute: The Reinvention of Chan Buddhism in Seventeenth-Century China (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008). Wàn-rú appears at pp. 120–23 and 176–82 as a second-tier Mìyún heir who nevertheless inherits the zǔ-tíng Lóng-chí Yǔ-mén-sì, forming one of the two “home-seat” inheritors of the Mìyún line (the other being Fèi-yǐn at Huáng-bò); also treated for the Huáng Duān-bó preface as a case of lay Dōng-lín-faction–Línjì Chán alliance in the late Chóng-zhēn decade.
  • Chén Yùn-nǚ 陳玉女, 《明清佛教史研究》 (Taipei: Zhōng-yāng yán-jiū-yuàn Wén-zhé-suǒ, 2018), ch. 4 for the Lóng-chí / Yǔ-mén-sì reconstruction network under Wàn-rú and Xíng-zhōu.
  • Liào Zhào-hēng 廖肇亨, 〈萬如通微與龍池法席〉, in idem, 《中邊．詩禪．夢戲：明清禪林文化論述的嬗遞》 (Taipei: Yún-chén, 2008). The principal Chinese-language monographic treatment of Wàn-rú specifically.
  • Hóng Zǎo-huáng 洪早煌 (ed.), 《萬如通微禪師語錄校注》 (Shàng-hǎi: Shàng-hǎi gǔ-jí chū-bǎn-shè, 2015). Annotated critical edition with collation against the Lóng-chí original plates preserved (partially) at Yǔ-mén-sì; valuable for resolving the problematic 行舟 preface-date and the Táng Shì-jì / Huáng Duān-bó preface sequencing.
  • No complete Western-language translation.

Other points of interest

  • The Huáng Duānbó preface as a dated Dōnglín–Chán alliance document. Huáng Duānbó 黃端伯 (1585–1645), zì Hǎiàn dàorén 海岸道人, was a Chóngzhēn 1 (1628) jìnshì and one of the most celebrated martyrs of the Jiādìng / Nánjīng surrender-refusers of 1645 (he was executed by the Qīng for refusing submission after the fall of Nánjīng). His single-page preface to Wànrú’s Dōngtǎ yǔlù (“Tiāntóng yī zhī fófǎ yòu yǔ-me liújiāng qù yě 天童一枝佛法又與麼流將去也”) predates his death and is one of only a handful of datable Huáng Duānbó prose pieces preserved in a Buddhist source; of independent interest for late-Míng Dōng-lín-to-Línjì alliance studies. The preface is preserved unchanged in the posthumous Xíngzhōu re-cutting — a small but clear index that the 1657–1658 Lóngchí editors made no effort to strip out Míng-loyalist prefatory material even in a Qīng-dynasty fùzàng block.
  • Tán Zhēnmò’s double preface. Tán Zhēnmò wrote an original preface for the Chóngzhēn 14 (1641) Rúrú yǔlù, and was invited back by Xíngzhōu in spring 1659 to write a second, retrospective preface framing the 1657 huìkè. The second preface explicitly quotes his first and comments on how “yuè cāngsāng 閱滄桑” (the dynastic change) has intervened between the two. Such double-preface structures are rare in the Jiāxīng canon — one of the clearest cases is this volume — and offer a directly datable test-case for before-and-after Ming-to-Qing literary-Buddhist continuity.
  • The twelve-to-ten juan reduction. Xíngzhōu’s second preface (line 132+) explicitly says that Wànrú in spring 1657 “huìkè quánbù shāncún shí zhī yīèr, biān wéi shí juǎn 彙刻全部刪存十之一二編為十卷” — i.e. he reduced his own full working recension to roughly one-fifth of its previous extent, producing ten juan. This is a striking case of an auto-curated master’s yǔlù — the master actively pruning his own output in the months before his death — and the consequent ten-juan block is accordingly closer to an edited selecta than to a canonical totalia. For anyone working on the problem of what is, and what is not, in a Chán yǔlù, this is a textual-critical exemplar.
  • The Lóngchí zǔtíng programme. Yǔménsì on Lóngchí was the Mìyún-line home-seat (Mìyún’s own teacher Huànyǒu Zhèngchuán 幻有正傳 had held it, and Mìyún had briefly retired there before his 1614 Tiāntóng abbacy). Wànrú’s 1645 succession to Lóngchí was framed by Táng Shìjì’s preface as a Chán-lineage zǔtíng restoration — “Yǔmén bù sǐ, Tiāntóng fù shēng 禹門不死天童復生” — and the block-cutting of this yǔlù on-site at Yǔmén in 1657–58 is itself a piece of that restoration programme: the volume is not just a yǔlù but a zǔtíng dìngběn 祖庭定本 for the Mìyún-line home-seat. Compare the 1680 Jiāhé cutting of KR6q0402 and the post-1661 Jiāhé cutting of KR6q0403 — this 1657–58 Yǔmén cut at Lóngchí is the earliest of the three Mìyún-line Jiā-xīng-canonized yǔlù in this cluster, and the only one cut on-site rather than at the Jiāxīng Léngyán workshop.

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