Tiěméi Sānbāzhǎng chánshī yǔlù 鐵眉三巴掌禪師語錄
Recorded Sayings of Chán Master Tiě-méi Sān-bā-zhǎng (Iron-Brow Three-Slap) by 慧麗 (說), 性養 (編), 性亮 (編)
About the work
Single-juan yǔlù of Tiěméi Sānbāzhǎng Huìlì 慧麗 鐵眉三巴掌慧麗 (1586–1650), the third-listed fǎsì of Jùyún Chuīwàn Guǎngzhēn 廣真 聚雲吹萬廣真 (alongside 慧機 Tiěbì Huìjī and Sānmù Huìzhī). Compiled by the xìng-generation dharma-grandsons Xìngyǎng 性養 + Xìngliàng 性亮. Printed as Jiāxīng Canon J29 B242. The catalog meta gives the author-name as the unusual compound 鐵眉號三巴掌 “Tiěméi (hào) Sānbāzhǎng”; the underlying dharma-name 慧麗 is recovered only from the closing xíngzhuàng and the 《續燈正統》 j. 17 cross-reference. Contents: shàngtáng (the bulk of the volume, organized abbacy-by-abbacy with dating-notices), xíngzhuàng (anonymous, post-1650), and a closing 〈巴掌歌〉 panegyric by the late-Míng grand secretary Wén Ānzhī 文安之 dated 崇禎甲申秋前五日 = 1644 late summer.
Abstract
Dating. notBefore = 1641 (the 崇禎辛巳 10/15 entry-sermon at Shízhù Niúnánshān Huáyánsì 石砫牛南山華嚴寺, the earliest dated event). The Wén Ānzhī 〈巴掌歌〉 of 1644 is the latest internal date but predates Huìlì’s Shùnzhì 7 庚寅 10/10 = 1650-11-03 death; the closing xíngzhuàng must therefore be post-1650, and likely belongs to the early-1650s window when Tiěméi’s dharma-heir Xióngěrān 熊耳菴 (named in the 行狀) and the xìng grandsons were active. notAfter = 1655 as a conservative bound.
Authorship. The xíngzhuàng gives the principal biographical record: lay native of Bǎixiāng 柏鄉 (Zhílì) — exceptional in the otherwise Sì-chuān-centered Jùyúnpài; tall and broad-browed, by trade a glaze-tile artisan at the Liúlíchǎng 琉璃廠; tonsured in middle age under Tiāntái Wújìn chánshī; 崇禎 6 = 1633 at Éméishān bandit-attack survivor; brought to Guǎngzhēn at Zhōngzhōu by Mǎ Shàoyóu 馬少游. Wànfǎ guīyī awakening in the 25th seven-day qī; transmission via the cāndé sān bāzhǎng 參得三巴掌 verse, with Guǎngzhēn bestowing both hào (鐵眉 from the verse zhèng kàn Tiěméi rèn-me lái; 三巴掌 from his characteristic three-slap response).
Abbacies. Four formal seats: (i) Shízhù Niúnánshān Huáyánsì 石砫牛南山華嚴寺 (1641); (ii) Wànxiàn Bǎofēngshān Yúnláisì 萬縣寶峰山雲來寺 (the seat from which the title-form Bǎofēng Sānbāzhǎng derives); (iii) Wànxiàn Dàfósì 萬縣大佛寺; and (iv) Shīwèi 施衛 (entered 甲申秋 = 1644 autumn with the lay-patron Xióng Rǔxué 熊汝學 / 月崖 — same Xióng who prefaced KR6q0448 / KR6q0449 / KR6q0450). Late-life flight south to Nánbīn Fèngwèi 南濱鳳衛 at the invitation of Móugōng 牟公 (= 文安之 Wén Ānzhī), where Tiěméi died.
The 巴掌歌. Wén Ānzhī’s panegyric, dated to Chóngzhēn jiǎshēn qiū qián 5 rì = 1644 late summer, is signed Wényuāngé dàxuéshì Yǒuān Wén Ānzhī 文淵閣大學士有庵文安之. Wén (1582–1659) was indeed the late-Míng grand secretary of the southern court who would lead the resistance in eastern Sìchuān against Qīng forces; the 1644 dating here, immediately after the Beijing collapse but before Wén’s later Yǒng-lì-court appointments, is a precious dated witness to his Sìchuān monastic-patronage activity.
Tiyao
Not applicable — Jiā-xīng-canon imprint (J29 B242). The closing 〈行狀〉 (anonymous, post-1650) and the Wén Ānzhī 〈巴掌歌〉 of 1644 provide the principal documentation.
Translations and research
- Hasebe Yūkei, 〈《続灯正統》と聚雲法門 (II)〉, Zengaku kenkyū-jo kiyō 32 (2003).
- 《續燈正統》 j. 17 — biographical entry for Huì-lì.
Other points of interest
- Northerner among Sìchuān masters. Huìlì is exceptional in the otherwise Sì-chuān-centered Jùyúnpài for being a Bǎixiāng native (Zhílì) — joining the lineage as a refugee from a 1633 bandit attack near Éméi rather than through the regional Sìchuān recruitment that produced Huìjī and Huìzhī. The 行狀’s note that he was illiterate (yī zì bù shí, yé shì wénzì yǔ zán gōngfū bù tóng 一字不識爺是文字與咱工夫不同, in the master’s North-China dialect yé shì zán) further underlines his outsider status within an otherwise scholar-monastic lineage.
- Wén Ānzhī’s 1644 patronage. The 〈巴掌歌〉 is one of very few dated 1644-late-summer texts by Wén Ānzhī, falling exactly between the Běijīng collapse (4/25) and his later Yǒnglì appointments — a witness to his Sìchuān monastic-patronage activity in the immediate transition window.
- Catalog name-form. The compound Tiěméi (hào) Sānbāzhǎng in the catalog meta is unusual and reflects the dual hào-bestowal at transmission, both hào having displaced the underlying dharma-name 慧麗 in printed-circulation usage.