雲峨喜禪師語錄

Yúné Xǐ chánshī yǔlù 雲峨喜禪師語錄

Recorded Sayings of Chán Master Yún-é Xǐ by 喜 (說), 智恒 (等編)

About the work

Two-juan yǔlù of Yúné Xǐ 喜 雲峨喜 — a mid-seventeenth-century Sichuan-born Línjì master with the unusual career-trajectory of a northern-mission abbot holding seven successive seats in Hénán, Húběi, and Shǎnxī (including the ancient Chángān Dàxīngshànsì 長安大興善寺 and the classical Línjì-revival seat Rǔzhōu Fēngxuésì 汝州風穴禪寺 of Fēngxué Yánzhào 風穴延沼). Fǎhuì 法諱 Xǐ 喜, hào Yúné 雲峨 (“Cloud-Tall”). Double-transmission: trained initially under Pòshān Hǎimíng 破山海明 (1597–1666, cf. KR6q0402) in Sichuan, then formally sealed by Línyě Tōngqí 林野通奇 (1595/6–1652, cf. KR6q0408) at Tiāntóng during Línyě’s 1650–52 abbacy — Yúné appears among Línyě’s 18 named Tiān-tóng-period dharma-heirs in the Dàomǐn tǎmíng at KR6q0408 juan 8. Compiled (děng biān 等編) by dharma-heir Zhìhéng 智恒 智恒. Cut with two front-prefaces both dated 大清康熙癸卯 (= Kāngxī 2 / 1663): one by Pòshān Hǎimíng himself (Shǔ zhōngdōng 仲冬 = lunar 11), signed “sì Línjì zhèngzōng dì sānshíyī dài Pòshān Míng lǎosēng shū 嗣臨濟正宗第三十一代破山明老僧書” from Jīnchéng Zuìfólóu 金城醉佛樓 (a Sichuan literary-retreat name); and one by Yán dàcān 𨍏轢 嚴大參 tóngzōng fǎdì 同宗法弟 dated jìqiū 季秋 (lunar 9) at age 74 — i.e. Yán was born c. 1589–90. Non-commentary; commentedTextid omitted. Printed as Jiāxīng Canon J28 B203.

Abstract

Author. Yúné Xǐ was born in Sichuan (“Shǔ rén yě 蜀人也” per Pòshān’s own preface). Early training under Pòshān Hǎimíng: “shǐ cóng lǎosēng bàngtóu hèxià, shēn zhòng cǐ dú, zì jué yǔ zhòng bù qún 始從老僧棒頭喝下深中此毒自覺與眾不群” — “first under my [Pòshān’s] staff and shouts, deeply poisoned by that [Chán-teaching], he came to sense himself apart from the common.” Purchased straw-sandals and traveled south to WúYuè (Jiāngnán) to consult other masters; “yǎn gāo yī shì, dào dòu qún jī, dúqì yīshí dǒu fā 眼高一世道逗群機毒氣一時陡發” — “eye was high against a whole generation, his Dao antagonized the many-mechanisms, and the [teaching-]poison suddenly flared up.” Saved from this crisis by Línyě Tōngqí at Tiāntóng: “xìng wú dì Línyě pītóu tòng yǔ yī jì xiāodào jiědú tāng 幸吾弟林野劈頭痛與一劑消道解毒湯” — “fortunately my [Pòshān’s] younger dharma-brother Línyě on his head roughly administered one dose of ‘eliminate-Dao-dissolve-poison potion’.” Thereafter Yúné was sealed and dispatched on his northern mission.

Seven abbacies (1650 onwards). The yǔlù’s juan-structure enumerates seven seats: (1) Huòqiū Dàbiéshān Pǔjì Chánsì 霍丘大別山普濟禪寺 (Ānhuī, northern Dàbiéshān range) — first abbacy, entered Shùnzhì 7 庚寅 10.8 (= 2 November 1650); (2) Rǔníng Guāngshānxiàn Pǔfú Chányuàn 汝寧光山縣普福禪院 (Hénán); (3) Luóshān Guóxiángshān Lóngchí Chánsì 羅山國祥山龍池禪寺 (Hénán — named Lóngchí 龍池 after the ancestral seat of Huànyǒu Zhèngchuán 幻有正傳 at Lóngchíshān, a deliberate lineage-symbolic naming-choice); (4) Húguǎng Suízhōu Luòhuáng Fǎxìngsì 湖廣隨州落黃法興寺 (Húběi); (5) Hénánfǔ Rǔzhōu Fēngxué Chánsì 河南府汝州風穴禪寺 — the ancestral seat of Fēngxué Yánzhào 風穴延沼 (896–973), one of the eight principal Línjì revivalist seats. Yúné’s abbacy here is a symbolic-historical anchor-point of the Qīng Chán northern-expansion, parallel to his dharma-nephew Běnshēng 昇 at KR6q0409 at Shāndōng Qīngzhōu; (6) Shǎnxī Chángān Dàxīngshànsì 陝西長安大興善寺 — the ancient Táng imperial sūtra-translation center (founded 265 CE as Zūnshànsì, renamed Dàxīngshàn under Suí, central Táng-era Tantric seat under Bùkōng 不空 and Amoghavajra). Yúné’s Chang-an abbacy represents a Qīng-era Línjì Chán claim to this pre-eminent institutional site; (7) Re-zhù Fēngxué 再住風穴 — return to the Fēngxué seat for a second tenure.

Historical significance. Yúné Xǐ’s northern-mission is part of the wider Mìyún-line northward-expansion program that also produced Běnshēng 本昇 at Qīngzhōu (1655+, KR6q0409) under Mùchén Dàomǐn 木陳道忞’s coordination, and that peaked with the Mùchén / Shùnzhì imperial audience of 1659. Where Běnshēng operated in Shāndōng under Dàomǐn’s patronage, Yúné operated further west in Hénán / Húběi / Shǎnxī under the Pòshān / Línyě dual patronage of the Sichuan-Zhè-jiāng wing. The enumeration of seven seats across a 13-year span (1650–63) makes this one of the most geographically-extensive Chán abbacy-sequences of the period.

Dating. notBefore = 1650 (庚寅 10.8 = 2 November 1650, the dated first kāitáng at Huòqiū Pǔjì). notAfter = 1663 (Kāngxī 2 癸卯; both Pòshān and Yán prefaces dated 1663).

Contents by juan. (j.1) Pǔjì + Pǔfú + Lóngchí + Fǎxìng + Fēngxué yǔlù; (j.2) Dàxīngshàn + Re-住 Fēngxué yǔlù + wèndá rùshì jīyuán 問答入室機緣 + niāngǔ 拈古 + sònggǔ 頌古 + zànjì 讚偈 + fóshì 佛事 + zázhù 雜著 + 行實 行實.

Tiyao

Not applicable — this is a Jiā-xīng-canon imprint (J28 B203), not a WYG text. Two 1663 front-prefaces (Pòshān Hǎimíng’s own self-authored preface and Yán dàcān’s tóngzōng fǎdì preface) provide the compositional documentation. The xíngshí in juan 2 is an important biographical supplement but has not been examined in detail here.

Translations and research

• Jiang Wu, Enlightenment in Dispute (2008). Yún-é Xǐ appears in the Pò-shān sub-line Sichuan roster and in the dharma-heir list of Lín-yě Tōng-qí (cf. KR6q0408), though his subsequent northern-mission is not a primary focus of the analysis.
• Yǒng Hé 永和 works on Sichuan Chán. The Pò-shān-line Sichuan masters who dispersed northward after the 1644–46 massacres are a partially-documented phenomenon; Yún-é is one of the better-preserved examples.
• Cáo Yǎn 曹炎 (ed.), 《河南佛教史》 (Běi-jīng: Zōng-jiào Wén-huà, 2014). Yún-é’s Rǔ-zhōu / Guāng-shān / Luó-shān abbacies of the 1650s–60s are documented briefly in this regional history as part of the Qīng-era Hé-nán Chán restoration.
• No Western-language treatment.

Other points of interest

• Pòshān Hǎimíng’s self-authored preface. The lead preface by Pòshān Hǎimíng himself, dated Kāngxī 2.11 (December 1663), is a rare first-person document by one of the most famous Mìyún-line Sichuan masters. Pòshān signs as “sì Línjì zhèngzōng dì sānshíyī dài 嗣臨濟正宗第三十一代” — claiming the 31st-generation position — from “Jīnchéng Zuìfólóu 金城醉佛樓” (“Golden-City Drunk-Buddha-Tower”). Pòshān died 1666; this 1663 preface is among his last datable literary pieces, written at age 66–67. The content — a graphic “poisoning-and-antidoting” medical metaphor for the dharma-transmission from himself to Línyě to Yúné — is characteristically pungent Pòshān Chán rhetoric.
• Yán dàcān’s age datum. Yán’s 1663 preface identifies himself as age 74 (“qīshísì suì 七十四歲”), placing his birth in 1589–90. This is a useful biographical datum for Yán dàcān — who appears as preface-writer at KR6q0415 (1657), KR6q0416 (lay-patron 1630s), KR6q0421 (1659), and here (1663). Yán is alive at 74 in 1663 and is consistently the same person across all these cross-references. This fixes Yán dàcān’s lifedates approximately to 1589–c. 1670.
• Northern-expansion Chán seats. Yúné’s three northern “prestige-seats” — Lóngchí 龍池 (Hénán, named after the Jiāngnán Huànyǒu seat); Fēngxué 風穴 (Rǔzhōu, the Sòng-era Fēngxué Yánzhào ancestral cloister); and Dàxīngshàn 大興善 (Chángān, the Táng imperial sūtra-translation center) — together constitute a deliberately constructed lineage-prestige-network: each of the three is a site of exceptional historical-institutional weight, and Yúné’s sequential holding of all three seats claims a comprehensive Línjì revival-narrative for the Mìyún line in the post-1644 northern institutional space. This is a more ambitious institutional claim than Běnshēng’s parallel Qīngzhōu mission (KR6q0409), and deserves more scholarly attention than it has received.

Links

• CBETA
• Pòshān Hǎimíng: KR6q0402 《破山禪師語錄》; also the self-authored preface-writer here.
• Formal transmission-teacher: Línyě Tōngqí (at KR6q0408).
• Parallel Mìyún-line northern-mission abbot: Běnshēng at KR6q0409 (Shāndōng Qīngzhōu under Mùchén).
• Preface-writer cross-cluster: 嚴大參 Yán dàcān (c. 1589–c. 1670; multiple cross-appearances).
• Compiler: 智恒 Zhìhéng.