Bīnyǎ chánshī yǔlù 斌雅禪師語錄
Recorded Sayings of Chán Master Bīn-yǎ by 鑑 (說), 海岳 (記錄)
About the work
Two-juan yǔlù of Bīnyǎ Jiàn 鑑 斌雅鑑 — a fourth-generation post-Mìyún northern-mission Línjì master and the principal successor to Yúné Xǐ 雲峨喜 at Fēngxuésì in the Mìyún → Línyě → Yúné → Bīnyǎ transmission-line (cf. KR6q0408, KR6q0422). Fǎhuì 法諱 Jiàn 鑑, hào Bīnyǎ 斌雅 (“Elegant-Refined”). Lay surname Zhāng 章, native of XīShǔ Tóngchuān 西蜀潼川 (Sichuan, modern Sāntái 三台 district). 33rd-generation Línjì 臨濟正宗三十三代 per his transmission-claim. Compiled by shìzhě 侍者 Hǎiyuè 海岳 海岳. The text is one of the last of the Mìyún-line yǔlù cut within the J26–J28 Jiāxīng Canon Chán cluster, with prefaces spanning the most extended chronological range of any volume in the cluster: Kāngxī 6 (1667), Kāngxī 19 (1680), Kāngxī 24 (1685), and undated pieces. Non-commentary; commentedTextid omitted. Printed as Jiāxīng Canon J28 B204.
Abstract
Author. Bīnyǎ Jiàn was born in Sichuan Tóngchuān 潼川 to the Zhāng 章 family (章 rather than 張 — note orthographic distinction), sometime in the 1610s–20s (inferred from his career-chronology; specific birthdate not recovered). Hé Fù’s 何傅 preface (c. 1680) states that Hé had known Bīnyǎ for “ten-odd years” by 1680, implying their first meeting c. 1668. Bó Yǒngfù 柏永馥’s 1667 preface records an earlier meeting at Bīnyǎ’s passage through the Jīngyuán 涇原 region in 丁未秋 丁未 (= 1667 autumn). Tonsure and early training undocumented in the preserved portions.
Chán training (c. 1640s–1657). Per the (c. 1680) He Fu 何傅 preface: initial training under Wànrú Tōngwēi 萬如通微 (1594–1657, cf. KR6q0404) at Yǔmén 禹門 — where Bīnyǎ had the spontaneous awakening-verse “bìng hòu fāng zhī chègǔ qióng, bōyú kāikǒu xiào chūnfēng 病後方知徹骨窮缽盂開口笑春風” after a near-death illness. Subsequently traveled through northern and southern Chán circuits: “rú jùn yào liáo tiān, rénrén luólóng bùzhù 如俊鷂遼天人人羅籠不住” — “like a swift falcon crossing the sky, no one could cage him.” Finally settled at Fēngxuésì 風穴寺 under Yúné Xǐ 雲峨喜 (cf. KR6q0422) for extended training. Bīnyǎ’s master-test exchange (reconstructed in the Hé Fù preface): “Yúnwēng jiāng gǔdé yáoé yīyī ànyàn, liǎo wú zhìníng 雲翁將古德淆訛一一按驗了無滯凝” (“Yúnwēng tested him on the classical muddinesses one by one; no obstruction”). Bīnyǎ offered the verse “qiánkūn wú shì bù xiānggān, qiǎoshǒu hé xū měi chìbān 乾坤無事不相干巧手何須美赤斑” — “nothing in heaven and earth is apart; the skilled hand need not paint the red freckle”.
Sealing at Fēngxué (1657). Attended Yúné at Fēngxué for ten years (“chéngshì Fēngxué shí yì hánshǔ 承事風穴十易寒暑”). Dīngyǒu xīnqiū 丁酉新秋 (= Shùnzhì 14 / 1657 autumn): Yúné formally sealed him with “yīn fá zuǒzhù, zhì rǔ duō nián, mǒu zhī guò yě 因乏佐助滯汝多年某之過也” (“for want of assistance I have delayed you these years — my fault”). Named Fēngxué twelfth-ranked dharma-heir (Fēngxué yīshíèr yuán zhī zhǎng 風穴一十二員之長) — succeeding to the 33rd-generation Línjì position.
First abbacy and subsequent mission. 順治丁酉 10月15日 (= 18 November 1657): Húguǎng Yúnyángfǔ zhèntái Mùgōng 鄖陽府鎮臺穆公 and 協鎮 Lǚgōng 呂公 plus Nányáng 南陽 prefectural lay-elite petitioned Bīnyǎ from Fēngxué. Entered Xīchuānxiàn Zuówéshān Fǎhǎisì 淅川縣岝峉山法海寺 (Hénán); kāitáng 戊戌 4月8日 = 9 May 1658. Subsequent abbacies (from preface-cross-references): Níngxià / Gānsù regional seats under Língxià fǔyuàn Liúgōng 寧夏撫院劉公 (1660s); Hànnán 漢南 (Shǎnxī); Jīnchéng 金城 (= 蘭州 Lánzhōu, Gānsù — the old capital of the Tangut Western Xià); and eventually to Jiāngnán (per the Wáng Xīnmìng 1685 preface: “sī lái Jiāngzuǒ zé Bǎozhì duì LiángWǔ tǔkuài zhī dì yě 茲來江左則寶誌對梁武吐鱠之地也”). The “from Western Xià six thousand li” phrase in the Wáng preface confirms Bīnyǎ’s extreme-northwest mission reach.
Historical significance. Bīnyǎ represents the second-generation northern mission of the MìyúnLínyě line, extending the Yún-é-level Hénán / Shǎnxī presence further northwest into Gānsù and the Níngxià Western-Xià frontier — an unusually remote mission-territory for a Qīng-era Chán master. The overlay of his Sichuan origin, Fēngxué training, and Gānsù / Níngxià abbacies traces a Chán-geographical triangle spanning the entire western frontier of Qīng China. Comparable northwest-mission masters of this scale are rare in the Jiāxīng Canon corpus.
Compositional history. Four prefaces/pieces preserved in juan 1:
- 《福寧斌雅禪師語錄序》 by Wáng Xīnmìng 王新命 (Jiāngnán + Jiāngxī + Cāojiāng zǒngdū 總督江南江西操江總督 Bīngbù yòushìláng jiān Dūcháyuàn yòufù dūyùshǐ 兵部右侍郎兼都察院右副都御史 — among the highest Qīng civil-military grades), 同鄉 Tóngchuān, dated 康熙 24 乙丑 夏至日 = 22 June 1685.
- Second preface by Xú Zuòbǐng 徐祚炳 (南州法弟子 Nánzhōu dharma-disciple), undated.
- Third preface by Bó Yǒngfù 柏永馥 (Tídū Shǎnxī děngchù jūnwù zuǒdūdū 提督陝西等處軍務左都督 三韓弟子), dated 康熙 6 10月下浣 = late November 1667.
- Fourth preface by Hé Fù 何傅 (Tídū Shāndōng quánshěng zǒngbīngguān Dūdū tóngzhī 提督山東全省總兵官都督同知), dated 康熙庚申夏日 = Kāngxī 19 / 1680 summer.
notBefore = 1657 (the Xīchuān Fǎhǎisì first-abbacy entry on Shùnzhì 14.10.15). notAfter = 1685 (Wáng Xīnmìng preface). The yǔlù must therefore have been in active compilation across 28 years — one of the longest compilation-windows in the J26–J28 cluster. The integrated cutting would have been c. 1685 or shortly after.
Contents. (j.1) Multiple prefaces + shàngtáng and kāitáng corpus from Xīchuān Fǎhǎisì onwards; abbacy-specific sermon blocks for Gānsù / Níngxià / Hànnán / Yúcí seats. (j.2) pǔshuō 普說 + shìzhòng 示眾 + zázhù 雜著 + rùtǎ 入塔 pieces (burial-rite prose for lay disciples). No dedicated xíngshí / xíngzhuàng / tǎmíng preserved — the text was presumably cut during Bīnyǎ’s lifetime or immediately after.
Tiyao
Not applicable — this is a Jiā-xīng-canon imprint (J28 B204), not a WYG text. Four dated prefatorial pieces (1667–1685) across high Qīng civil-military officials from Gānsù, Shāndōng, Jiāngnán, and Sichuan provide the principal compositional documentation summarized under Abstract.
Translations and research
- Jiang Wu, Enlightenment in Dispute (2008). The Lín-yě → Yún-é → Bīn-yǎ Fēng-xué sub-lineage is part of the broader Mìyún northern-expansion discussed at pp. 213–30.
- Cáo Yǎn 曹炎 (ed.), 《河南佛教史》 (2014). Fēng-xué-sì history documents the Yún-é and Bīn-yǎ tenures as the Qīng-era revival of this classical Sòng-Yuán-era Línjì seat.
- Fāng Xiǎo-yáng 方小陽 studies on Qīng-era Gān-sù Buddhism. Bīn-yǎ’s Lán-zhōu / Níng-xià abbacies are documented in passing as part of the Qīng imperial-northwestern Buddhist establishment.
- No Western-language treatment of Bīn-yǎ specifically.
Other points of interest
- The four high-ranking civil-military preface-writers. Unusually for a Chán yǔlù, all four preface-writers in this volume hold substantial Qīng civil-military offices: Wáng Xīnmìng (zǒngdū 總督, Jiāngnán + Jiāngxī); Bó Yǒngfù (tídū 提督, Shǎnxī); Hé Fù (tídū 提督, Shāndōng); Xú Zuòbǐng (南州 Nánzhōu 法弟子). The absence of a standard monastic-gate dharma-brother preface is striking. This reflects Bīnyǎ’s court-patronized northwest-mission status — his patronage network was heavily governmental rather than lay-literati or fellow-clerical. It is an important datum for understanding how Qīng imperial administrative patronage shaped mid-Kāng-xī era Chán institutional-development in the northwest.
- The “six thousand li from Western Xià” travel-narrative. Wáng Xīnmìng’s 1685 preface opens with the remarkable line “nǎi yǒu Bīnyǎ chánshī bù yuǎn liùqiān lǐ lái zì XīXià 乃有斌雅禪師不遠六千里來自西夏” — “there came Bīnyǎ chánshī, traveling six thousand lǐ from Western Xià.” “Western Xià” 西夏 is the classical designation for the Tangut Empire (1038–1227) territories in modern Níngxià / Gānsù, displaced into Qīng administrative geography as a literary reference. That a Sichuan-born Chán master operated in and traveled from this extreme-northwest region to Jiāngnán is exceptional.
- Cross-reference to Yúné Xǐ at KR6q0422. Bīnyǎ is the principal named dharma-heir of Yúné Xǐ (whose yǔlù is the immediately-preceding J28 B203 = KR6q0422). The preservation of the two volumes as sequential J28 Jiāxīng numbers (B203 = Yúné, B204 = Bīnyǎ) reflects the editors’ deliberate lineage-sequencing. Together the two volumes document a continuous 三代 (three-generation) Mìyún northern-Chán genealogy: Línyě Tōngqí (Jiāngnán Tiāntóng, d. 1652, KR6q0408) → Yúné Xǐ (Hénán / Shǎnxī, fl. 1650s–63, KR6q0422) → Bīnyǎ Jiàn (Gānsù / Níngxià, fl. 1657–1685+, present volume). Reading the three volumes in sequence constitutes the single best available source for the seventeenth-century Mìyún northwest-mission program.
- Possible death near 1685. The 1685 Wáng Xīnmìng preface does not explicitly mark Bīnyǎ as deceased (he appears to be a living guest at the time), but the yǔlù’s two-juan cut without any xíngzhuàng or tǎmíng apparatus suggests the text was wrapped up in 1685 or shortly after. Bīnyǎ’s birthdate (probably c. 1615–25) would make him c. 60–70 in 1685 — plausible late-career or late-death dating. Any modern reconstruction of his death-date will require external Gānsù / Níngxià documentation not consulted here.