Kuízhōu Wòlóng Zìshuǐ chánshī yǔlù 夔州臥龍字水禪師語錄
Recorded Sayings of Chán Master Zì-shuǐ of Kuí-zhōu Wò-lóng by 圓䂐 (說), 觀誰 (等錄)
About the work
Three-juan yǔlù of Zìshuǐ Yuánliáo 圓䂐 字水圓䂐 (1605–c. 1640s) — a Sichuan-born late-Míng Línjì Chán master and one of the most important regional Chán figures of the Kuízhōu (eastern Sichuan / modern Chóngqìng) circle. Fǎhuì 法諱 Yuánliáo 圓䂐, zì Zìshuǐ 字水, biéhào Tiělóng 鐵龍 (“Iron-Dragon”), seat-hào Wòlóng 臥龍 (from Kuízhōu Wòlóngsì 夔州臥龍寺). Dharma-heir of Pòshān Hǎimíng 破山海明 (1597–1666, cf. KR6q0402) in the Mìyún Yuánwù line — but using the 圓-generation character (an irregular use: 圓 normally marks the generation of Mìyún Yuánwù himself, not his grand-disciples). Lay surname (not preserved in my reading — of the Qiáo 譙 clan, reportedly descended from the Shu-Hàn tàishī 譙周 Qiáo Zhōu of the Three Kingdoms), of Ānhàn Yuèchí Yángshān 安漢岳池羊山 (eastern Sichuan). Compiled by dharma-heir Guānshuí 觀誰 觀誰. Non-commentary; commentedTextid omitted. Printed as Jiāxīng Canon J29 B222.
Abstract
Author. Yuánliáo was born 萬曆 33 乙巳 10.7 (= ~17 November 1605) in Ānhàn Yuèchí Yángshān (modern Yuèchíxiàn, Sichuan) to father Shènggōng 聖功 and mother Yángshì 楊氏. Family tradition claimed descent from the Shu-Hàn Three Kingdoms period tàishī Qiáo Zhōu 譙周. Precocious: at age 5 could recite the Four Books; at 10 read Chūnqiū; at 13 ran away from an imposed-betrothal to take tonsure at Qiānfóān 千佛菴 (Jiānglíng) under his maternal uncle Déchóng Dàwù 德崇大悟. Age 15 (c. 1620): traveled to JiāngZhè for formal scripture-lecture study. Age 25: gave his first Léngyán jīng 楞嚴經 lecture at Dàjué 大覺. Age 27 = 崇禎壬申 崇禎 5 (= 1632): took first abbacy at Kāixiàn Qīlíngsì 開縣棲靈寺 as a scripture-lecture master.
Turn to Chán and sealing by Pòshān Hǎimíng. A chance meeting with a Zhèjiāng monk carrying the Tiāntóng dharma-robe (evidently a token of Mìyún Yuánwù’s transmission-line) prompted Yuánliáo to seek out Pòshān Hǎimíng who had recently returned from Jiāhé to Sichuan at Liángshān Tàipíngsì 梁山太平寺. Pòshān’s public shàngtáng on the Déshān jiàn Lóngtán 德山見龍潭 gōngàn left Yuánliáo baffled; after extended rùshì exchanges over a year, Yuánliáo retreated to Jiǔlóngshān 九龍山 for one year of bìguān during the Chǔ-military intrusions. Returned to Pòshān for further training. Final decisive awakening during a three-qī 三七 = 21-day intense practice period initiated after hearing of a 3-day awakening by another student: Yuánliáo’s tǒngdǐ tuō 桶底脫 on the 21st day. Pòshān publicly sealed him with the verse “Zìshuǐ Liáogōng dédé, pòjiā sànzhái lái … 字水䂐公得得破家散宅來 …” — preserved in the xíngzhuàng.
Six abbacies (1637–c. 1647). Returned to Kuízhōu Wòlóngsì (the seat giving him his hào) intending to retire as a hermit. Age 33 (= 1637): lay-patron Zhāng Màodé 張懋德 (= the zhuàngyuán preface-writer at the front of the present yǔlù) and Xīnníng local-elite petitioned him to take the Xīnníng Zhǐyuè Chánsì 新寧指月禪寺 abbacy — he reluctantly agreed. “Bù shí nián zé liù zuò dàochǎng yǐ 不十年則六坐道場矣” — within ten years he held six successive abbacies: (1) Xīnníng Zhǐyuè 新寧指月; (2) Kāixiàn Qīlíng 開縣棲靈 (the earlier scripture-abbacy now restored on Chán terms); (3) Jīngzhōu Tiānhuáng Hùguó 荊州天皇護國; (4) Yuèzhōu Cílìxiàn Huáyán 岳州慈利縣華嚴; (5) Lǐzhōu Yàoshān 澧州藥山; (6) Xīnníng Guǎngfú 新寧廣福. Post-1647 activity not covered in the present yǔlù. Death-date not preserved in the accessible portions.
Compositional history. Front-prefaces by two dharma-disciples:
- Zhāng Màodé 張懋德 (夔州府新寧縣嗣法弟子 lay-disciple, the principal Xīnníng lay-patron who had petitioned Yuánliáo’s 1637 Zhǐyuè abbacy), dated 崇禎己卯 2.15 = Chóngzhēn 12 / 1639 lunar 2.15 = ~19 March 1639.
- Xióng Zhīqí 熊之奇 (同 Xīnníng lay-disciple), undated but presumably 1639.
The opening 啟 qǐ 啟 is an address from the Xīnníng lay-patron circle to the master. notBefore = 1632 (conservative — Pò-shān-sealing era began; Kāixiàn Qīlíng first formal Chán abbacy 1632); notAfter = 1639 (preface-cutting).
Contents by juan. (j.1) 序二 + 啟 + shàngtáng 上堂 across all six abbacies; (j.2) xiǎocān 小參 + related material; (j.3) closing material + 行狀 行狀 (by unspecified dharma-heir; preserved at juan 3 line 905 with title “Kuízhōufǔ Wòlóngsì Zìshuǐ Yuán-䂐 chánshī xíngzhuàng 夔州府臥龍寺字水圓䂐禪師行狀”).
Tiyao
Not applicable — this is a Jiā-xīng-canon imprint (J29 B222), not a WYG text. Two 1639 front-prefaces + the juan 3 xíngzhuàng provide the principal biographical documentation summarized under Abstract.
Translations and research
- Yǒng Hé 永和 (ed.), 《破山海明禪師研究》 (Chéng-dū: Bā-shǔ Shū-shè, 2013). Yuán-liáo appears as one of Pò-shān’s principal Sichuan dharma-heirs.
- Qí Lǐ-jiā 齊立家, 《四川佛教寺廟歷史研究》 (2018). Kuí-zhōu Wò-lóng-sì and the Xīn-níng / Kāi-xiàn / Liáng-shān Buddhist cluster in which Yuán-liáo operated.
- No Western-language treatment.
Other points of interest
- Irregular 圓-generation character. Yuánliáo’s use of the 圓 generation-character is irregular: in the main Mìyún-line lineage-poem, 圓 marks Mìyún Yuánwù’s own generation (Mi-yun’s name is 圓悟), not his grand-disciples’. Pòshān Hǎimíng uses the 海 character (not the main-line 通), suggesting an alternative Sichuan sub-branch generation-poem. Yuánliáo’s 圓 character places him anomalously — possibly a pre-Pò-shān tonsure-line character retained after the Chán-style Pòshān sealing, or a Sichuan-specific regional variant. The specific name-character conventions of the Pòshān Sichuan sub-line deserve more detailed study.
- Preface-author’s self-positioning. Zhāng Màodé 張懋德’s preface is an unusually literary piece, built as a dream-narrative in which he encounters the master in a park and produces circle-drawings as Chán-exchange-responses. The preface’s closing “宗師遂驚寤索紙疾書出來向癡人前說夢” — a self-aware “speaking dreams to fools” framing — is characteristic of the late-Míng Chán-literary genre combining dream-frame with lay-patron theological-self-positioning.
- Sichuan-cluster context. Yuánliáo’s six-abbacy Sichuan-Hú-bei-Hú-nan circuit (Xīnníng → Kāixiàn → Jīngzhōu → Cílì → Lǐzhōu → Xīnníng) describes the eastern-Sichuan-Chán expansion-zone. His seats at Liángshān 梁山 and Kāixiàn 開縣 are in the same sub-region where Pòshān Hǎimíng had resettled on his 1632 Sichuan-return, and Xīnníng 新寧 was the town from which his lay-patron Zhāng Màodé operated. The sub-region’s dense concentration of Chán institutional development in the late-Míng / early-Qīng corresponds to the 1644–46 Zhāng Xiànzhōng massacres that subsequently devastated this exact corridor — making the 1639 preface-frame an important pre-devastation snapshot of Sichuan Chán institutional life.