雪關禪師語錄

Xuěguān chánshī yǔlù 雪關禪師語錄

Recorded Sayings of Chán Master Xuě-guān by 智誾 (說), 成巒 (等錄), 開詗 (編)

About the work

Thirteen-juan yǔlù of Xuěguān Zhìyín 智誾 雪關智誾 (1585–1637) — principal dharma-heir of Bóshān Wúyì Yuánlái 博山無異元來 (1575–1630, cf. KR6q0417) in the Shòuchāng Wúmíng Huìjīng 壽昌無明慧經 line, and the immediate successor to Yuánlái at the Bóshān seat from 1632. 31st-generation Cáodòng in the Wúmíng Huìjīng → Yuánlái → Zhìyín transmission-chain. Fǎhuì 法諱 Zhìyín 智誾 (later changed to Dàoyín 道誾 after his pagoda-sweeping visit to Wúmíng Huìjīng’s Shòuchāngsì tomb, to mark formal succession of the Shòuchāng sub-line); hào Xuěguān 雪關 (“Snow-Pass”, from a Xuěguān gē 雪關歌 he composed during his six-year bìguān 閉關 after returning from Yúnqīsì). Lay surname Fù 傅 (in the zhuàn written 傳, a common orthographic variant), of Shàngráo 上饒 (Jiāngxī). Recorded (lù 錄) by his shìzhě 侍者 Chéngluán Chuánshàn 成巒 成巒傳善 and edited (biān 編) by his dharma-grandson Kāixuàn 開詗 開詗. Non-commentary; commentedTextid omitted. Printed as Jiāxīng Canon J27 B198.

Abstract

Author. Xuěguān Zhìyín was born 萬曆 13 乙酉 9.1 (= ~20 September 1585), lay surname Fù 傅 of Shàngráo (Jiāngxī), father Fù Chóngjiǎn 傅公崇儉, mother Zhèngshì 鄭氏. His father died when Zhìyín was 8; his widowed mother sent him to Jǐngdésì 景德寺 as a tóngzǐ 童子 under an elder named Fùgōng (possibly a relative). Vision-narrative: one night dreamed of Guānyīn touching his head with her hand (“yè mèng dàshì shǒu mó qí dǐng 一夕夢大士手摩其頂”), after which “zhīgǔ jiàn qiáng, fànlǎn qúnshū shìrán yì jiě 肢骨漸疆泛覽群書奭然意解” (“bones grew firm, widely read, effortlessly comprehended”). First Chán-questioning on the Tánjīng huǒ shāo hǎidǐ 壇經火燒海底 (“Platform Sutra ‘fire burns the sea-floor’”) passage. Went to Bóshān Wúyì Yuánlái 博山無異元來 for training; set to the chuánzǐ cángshēn 船子藏身 (“Boatman hides his body”) gōngàn. First awakening on entering the grain-mill-shed and seeing a millstone’s grinding-nose pulled loose (“ǒu rù cáochǎng, xíng jiàn móbí zhuàituō yǒu xǐng 偶入槽廠行見磨鼻拽脫有省”), with verse “zhíxià xiāngféng chù, yóu lái jué fùcáng; shétóu yuán shì ròu, bù yòng gèng shāngliàng 直下相逢處由來絕覆藏舌頭元是肉不用更商量”. Yuánlái was pleased. Presented a further five-verse set requesting the Shòuchāng nàyī 壽昌衲衣 (the Shòuchāng monastic robe transmitted from Wúmíng Huìjīng to Yuánlái). Yuánlái responded: “zōngmén yǔjù rú mǎnkǒu hán bīng, bù céng dào chū shuǐ zì; zǐ fēnggǔ tài lù, gèng xū sǐxīn yī fān shǐ dé 宗門語句如滿口含冰不曾道出水字子風骨太露更須死心一番始得” (“Your Chán-phrases are like a mouth full of ice — you haven’t uttered the single word ‘water.’ Your spirit-bones show too much; you must die once, fully, first”). Zhìyín returned to his home cloister via Yúnqī 雲棲 and entered a six-year bìguān 閉關, sitting on a fire-box with a mirror-reflection training-device (“wùzuò huǒxiāng shàng xuán jìng fǎncān 兀坐火箱上懸鏡返參”). Composed the Xuěguān gē 雪關歌 from which the hào derives; Yuánlái approved and opened the retreat with the verse “shǐ xíng dàshì liùnián xuě, dùn rù yuánmíng yī piàn shuǐ 始行大事六年雪頓入圓明一片水”. Installed as shǒuzuò 首座.

Abbacies. (1) Yíngshān 瀛山 — 己巳 1629, on petition after the six-year bìguān; “Yíngshān gǔ chà sìbì xiāorán 瀛山古剎四壁蕭然” (Yíngshān’s ancient seat — four walls bare). Composed the famous Pòyuàn gē 破院歌 (“Broken-Monastery Song”) to which the grand secretary Zhèng Fāngshuǐ 鄭方水 (Zhèng Yǐwěi 鄭以偉, the late-Wàn-lì grand secretary 大學士) responded with consoling poem “Tàijiǎ zhī xià shì Yíngshān, yīxī pòwū liǎngsān jiān; wén shī zhīsǎn guò tiānlòu, pì sì Yángqí xuě mǎn guān 太甲之下是瀛山依稀破屋兩三間聞師支傘過天漏譬似楊岐雪滿關”. The Yíngshān toponymic gave Zhìyín his extended hào 瀛山雪關智誾. (2) Xīnzhōu Bóshān Néngrénsì 信州博山能仁寺 — succeeded Yuánlái after Yuánlái’s 1630 death, formally entered the seat 崇禎 5 壬申 孟夏朔旦 = 19 May 1632. The Bóshān seat is the central abbacy of his career (j.1 of the present yǔlù). (3) Fúzhōu Gǔshān Yǒngquánsì 福州鼓山湧泉禪寺 — rénshēn chūn 壬申春 (= 1632 spring, essentially simultaneous with or just after the Bóshān entry), petitioned by the famous Fújiàn bibliographer Cáo Xuéquán 曹學佺 (1574–1646, guāncháshǐ 觀察使). At Gǔshān Zhìyín “xíng sǎo Shòuchāng Jīng héshàng tǎ, gèng míng Dàoyín shào Shòuchāng zōngpài yě 行掃壽昌經和尚塔更名道誾紹壽昌宗派也” — performed the pagoda-sweeping ritual at Wúmíng Huìjīng’s Shòuchāngsì tomb and changed his name from Zhìyín to Dàoyín to formally succeed the Shòuchāng lineage. (4) Hang-zhōu Hǔpáosì 虎跑寺 — bǐngzǐ 丙子 spring (= 1636 spring), jointly petitioned by zhōngchéng 中丞 Yú Dàchéng 余大成 (the same Yú Dàchéng who wrote the tǎmíng for Ruìbái Míngxuě at KR6q0410) and Hang-zhōu tuīguān Huáng Duānbó 黃端伯 (the Jiāngyīn loyalist-martyr, c. 1585–1646, who would write Zhìyín’s tǎmíng in j.13 of the present yǔlù). (5) Hang-zhōu Miàoxíngsì 妙行寺 — re-founded 1636, Great Hall completed 1637. Zhìyín declared “wú jīn kěyǐ xiè yù Mítuó yǐ 吾今可以謝喻彌陀矣” (“I may now take my leave of Mítuó [= Amitābha]”). (6) Final return to Yíngshān in dīngchǒu 丁丑 autumn (= 1637 autumn) after illness. Died 崇禎 10 丁丑 10.11 (= 26 November 1637) aged 53 suì; monk-age 31 夏 per the zhuàn / 37 夏 per the tǎmíng (the discrepancy reflects two different “count-from” dates — presumably from age-8 child-entry versus post-tonsure formal summer-retreat counting). Last-exchange with the Shòuchāng Mìgōng 壽昌闃公 (= Yǒngjué Yuánxián 永覺元賢 1578–1657, the dharma-uncle who had come from Bóshān to check on Zhìyín): Mìgōng asked “mòhòujù yě xū fēnfù 末後句也須分付” (“the last word — you must impart it”); Zhìyín responded “qiě dào wǒ shēng yē sǐ yē 且道我生耶死耶” (“tell me — am I alive or dead?”) and died smiling. Disciples Hóngēn 弘恩, Chéngxǔ 成許 carried the body back to Bóshān for burial at the western ridge of Lotus-Flower Peak.

Compositional apparatus. The final juan 13 preserves two independent biographical pieces:

1. 《博山雪關智誾禪師傳》 zhuàn by Cáo Xuéquán 曹學佺 (1574–1646, hào Mǐnzhōng Xīfēng jūshì 閩中西峰居士, the late-Wàn-lì Fújiàn bibliographer, compiler of the Shícāng lìdài shīxuǎn 石倉歷代詩選 and the Nánjīng zhì 南京志). Cáo was Zhìyín’s lay-patron at the Gǔshān 1632 appointment and also wrote prefaces for multiple Gǔ-shān-line texts. Undated.
2. 《信州博山能仁寺雪關大師塔銘(有序)》 tǎmíng (yǒu xù) by Huáng Duānbó 黃端伯 (c. 1585–1646, Hang-zhōu tuīguān 推官 at the time of composition, fǎdì 法弟 of Zhìyín through the post-1636 Hǔpáo patronage), signed “Hang-zhōu tuīguān fǎdì Huáng Duānbó qǐshǒu zhuàn 杭州推官法弟黃端伯稽首撰”. Undated, but must be pre-1646 (Huáng’s execution at Jiāngyīn by the Qīng). Given that Huáng’s Hǔpáo petition is 丙子 1636, and the tǎmíng must be post-1637 (death), the likely composition window is 1638–46, probably in the early 1640s before Huáng’s political career at Jiāngyīn took precedence.

notBefore = 1632 (崇禎壬申 孟夏朔旦 = first Bóshān shàngtáng on 19 May 1632). notAfter = 1645 (conservative upper bracket: Huáng Duānbó’s tǎmíng is definitively pre-1646, and the cutting is unlikely to postdate Huáng’s 1646 execution by much).

Contents by juan. (j.1) Xīnzhōu Bóshān yǔlù 信州博山語錄; (j.2) Fúzhōu Gǔshān yǔlù 住鼓山語錄 + Hang-zhōu Hǔpáo yǔlù 住虎跑語錄; (j.3) Hang-zhōu Miàoxíng yǔlù 住妙行語錄 + Yíngshān yǔlù 住瀛山語錄 (with appended fǎyǔ 附各剎法語); (j.4) dáwèn 答問 + Chánjìng fāyǐn 禪淨發隱 (a Chán–Pure Land syncretic essay — an unusual inclusion for a Shòu-chāng-line Cáodòng master) + Guīyún yèhuà shì chánrén 歸雲夜話示禪人; (j.5) niāngǔ 拈古; (j.6) niānsòng 拈頌 + sònggǔ 頌古; (j.7) Chánjìng yǔ (fù Chánjìng jì) 禪鏡語(附禪鏡偈) — the Chánjìng yǔ 禪鏡語 (“Chán Mirror-Words”) is Zhìyín’s signature pedagogical genre, parallel to his master Yuánlái’s Chán jǐngyǔ 禪警語 but reframed in “mirror” rather than “warning” idiom; (j.8) wén 文 + fù 賦 + jì 記 + xù 序 + tí 題 + bá 跋 + shū 疏 + shuō 說; (j.9) qǐ 啟 + chǐdú 尺牘; (j.10) chǐdú 尺牘 continued; (j.11) jì 偈; (j.12) jìsòng 偈頌 + zànshī 贊詩; (j.13) shīgē 詩歌 + zázhù 雜著 + tǎmíng 塔銘 + xíngzhuàn 行傳.

Tiyao

Not applicable — this is a Jiā-xīng-canon imprint (J27 B198), not a WYG text. The Cáo Xuéquán zhuàn and the Huáng Duānbó tǎmíng in juan 13 provide the principal biographical documentation summarized under Abstract.

Translations and research

• Jiang Wu, Enlightenment in Dispute (2008). Zhì-yín appears in the Shòu-chāng-Bó-shān-line roster; his 1632 succession at Bó-shān and the 1636 Hang-zhōu abbacies are mentioned in the context of the late-Wàn-lì Cáo-dòng expansion.
• Hsuan-Li Wang 王萱立, “Gushan: The Formation of a Chan Lineage during the Seventeenth Century and its Spread to Taiwan” (Columbia Ph.D. diss., 2014). Zhì-yín’s 1632 Gǔ-shān abbacy — the first seat-opening at Gǔ-shān Yǒng-quán-sì under the Shòu-chāng line, before Yǒng-jué Yuán-xián’s more famous later tenure — is the foundational event of the Gǔ-shān Chán school whose trans-Taiwan spread Wang documents.
• Zhāng Shèng-yán 釋聖嚴, 《明末佛教研究》 (1992). Zhì-yín is placed in the Shòu-chāng expansion chapter as Yuán-lái’s principal Bó-shān continuator.
• Liào Zhào-hēng 廖肇亨, 《忠義菩提》 (2013). Huáng Duān-bó’s preserved signed tǎ-míng for Zhì-yín is one of Huáng’s few surviving pre-1646 prose pieces, and belongs to the Jiāng-yīn loyalist-martyr literary corpus (cf. Huáng’s other signed preface in KR6q0410).
• Cáo Xué-quán studies: modern editions of Cáo’s writings (particularly 《石倉詩選》 and its modern reprints) provide biographical context for the zhuàn author. Cáo Xué-quán was a major late-Wàn-lì literary-patron figure whose Chán-patronage records include prefaces for multiple Gǔ-shān-area texts.
• No Western-language translation.

Other points of interest

• Yíngshān and the “broken-monastery song”. Zhìyín’s 1629 Yíngshān abbacy was taken up at a ruined seat with “sìbì xiāorán 四壁蕭然” (four walls bare). The Pòyuàn gē 破院歌 (“Broken-Monastery Song”) he composed in response — preserved in the present yǔlù’s juan 13 poetry — became a widely-circulated late-Wàn-lì Chán-literary piece and attracted a response-poem from the grand secretary Zhèng Fāngshuǐ 鄭方水. The episode crystallizes the restoration-of-ruined-temples trope that would become central to late-Míng / early-Qīng Chán self-presentation.
• Name-change to Dàoyín (c. 1632). The public name-change from Zhìyín to Dàoyín at Gǔshān in 1632, in connection with the pagoda-sweeping at Wúmíng Huìjīng’s Shòuchāngsì tomb, is a lineage-succession ritual documented in Huáng Duānbó’s tǎmíng: the new name 紹壽昌宗派 (succeeding the Shòuchāng sect-line) is a deliberate self-re-identification within the lineage-poem scheme. The present yǔlù’s title retains “Xuěguān” (the hào) and the earlier dharma-name Zhìyín, but references to “Dàoyín” in juan 13 document the change. This is a specific datum for the Shòu-chāng-line naming conventions and for Zhìyín’s deliberate self-positioning as senior successor to Wúmíng Huìjīng through Yuánlái.
• Chán-Pure Land syncretism (j.4 Chánjìng fāyǐn). The juan 4 《禪淨發隱》 禪淨發隱 (“Disclosing the Hidden in Chán and Pure Land”) is an unusually explicit Chán-Pure Land syncretic essay for a Shòu-chāng-line master — comparable to Hànshān Déqīng’s own Chán-Pure Land writings and to Yúnqī Zhūhóng’s synthesis. Zhìyín’s Yúnqīsì retreat-period (referenced in the tǎmíng as the bìguān relocation-site) may have inflected this syncretic stance. The text is worth pairing with Yuánxián’s own 《淨慈要語》 淨慈要語 for a complete Shòu-chāng-line engagement with the Chán-Pure Land question.
• Huáng Duānbó cross-cluster. Huáng Duānbó’s tǎmíng here is Huáng’s second preserved prose piece in the J26–J27 Kanripo cluster (the first being the 舊序 in KR6q0410 Ruìbái Míngxuě’s yǔlù, also attributable to Huáng). Together with the 1646 execution-circumstance, Huáng’s preserved prose is small (perhaps 3-5 authenticated pieces); the J26–J27 yǔlù cluster preserves two of them. This is a small but significant Jiāng-yīn-loyalist-corpus datum.

Links

• CBETA
• Author person-note: 智誾 Xuěguān Zhìyín (= Dàoyín after 1632 name-change). DILA A011738.
• Dharma-teacher: 元來 Bóshān Wúyì Yuánlái (cf. KR6q0417).
• Dharma-uncle: 元賢 Yǒngjué Yuánxián (who appeared at Zhìyín’s deathbed).
• Tǎmíng author: 黃端伯 Huáng Duānbó (cross-reference: KR6q0410 yǔlù’s 舊序).
• Zhuàn author: 曹學佺 Cáo Xuéquán (to be created; 1574–1646 Fújiàn bibliographer).