Ěrān Sōng chánshī yǔlù 耳庵嵩禪師語錄
Recorded Sayings of Chán Master Ěr-ān Sōng by 嵩 (說), 性愷 (編), 徐善 (序)
About the work
Single-juan yǔlù of Ěrān Sōng 嵩 耳庵嵩 (= Xióngěrān 熊耳菴), the principal LínjìYángqí dharma-heir of Tiěméi Sānbāzhǎng Huìlì 慧麗 鐵眉三巴掌慧麗 (1586–1650) of the Jùyúnpài 聚雲派. Compiled by the shūjì 書記 disciple Xìngkǎi 性愷. Front-preface by Xú Shàn 徐善 Pántán 槃談 (Zuìlǐ 檇李 shuāngguì jūshì), undated. Closes with an anonymous 附記 biographical postscript. Printed as Jiāxīng Canon J29 B243.
Abstract
Dating. notBefore = 1649 (the 順治六年十月十五日 = 1649/10/15 entry-sermon at Húguǎng Shīzhōuwèi Sāndùtún Guānyīnshān Xióngěrān 湖廣施州衛三渡屯觀音山熊耳庵, where Ěrān assumed the abbacy bǐng běntáng Bāzhǎng héshàng yímìng 秉本堂巴掌和尚遺命 — “by the testamentary command of the home-hall Bāzhǎng héshàng” — i.e., on Tiěméi’s deathbed appointment). The second dated event is 順治七年九月十五日 = 1650/9/15 with Ěrān’s invitation to Jīnfúshān Huílóng Chányuàn 金福山迴龍禪院 by the Zhōnglù xuānwèisī 忠路宣慰司 chief Rǎn Sīróng 冉斯榮. Subsequent moves to Tiānníng 天寧 — where he died age 46 — are undated; notAfter = 1660 is a conservative bound for the post-decease compilation.
Authorship. The closing 附記 supplies the principal biography: native of Fēngdūxiàn 酆都縣 in Chóngqìngfǔ 重慶府 (Sìchuān), lay surname Máo 毛; tonsured young at Sānxìngān 三姓庵; initial training in jiàoshèng doctrinal studies; long residence under Chuīwàn Guǎngzhēn 廣真 at Jùyúnsì; continued under Tiěbì Huìjī 慧機 at Píngdū after Guǎngzhēn’s 1639 death; finally took up Tiěméi as principal teacher, serving as jìshì 記室 (secretary) and shǒubǎn 上板 head-monk, accompanying him through all four of his abbacies. At Tiěméi’s death he received the yīfú transmission. Four own abbacies: Fúhǔān 伏虎庵 — Xióngěrān — Huílóng — Tiānníng. Last words instructed his disciples to forward Tiěméi’s yīfá onward to Sānshān 三山 (= Sānshān Dēnglái 燈來) — explicitly distinguishing his own succession-line within the Tiěméi sub-branch from the Tiěbì → Sānshān sub-branch.
Xú Shàn’s preface. Foregrounds three points: (i) the doctrinal absurdity of the present-day “10,000-volume” Chán literature next to Bodhidharma’s bù lì wénzì 不立文字 maxim; (ii) Tiěméi as a Yōuyān jiéshì 幽燕傑士 (“Yōu / Yān stalwart” = a North-Chinese, of Bǎixiāng) who broke into the Sìchuān Jùyún tradition; and (iii) Ěrān’s distinctive position as the sole yīfú recipient against a Líonjì field crowded with rival heirs (xiàzhī shǔ fǎxí rú yún, Ěrshī mò shì wǎng yě 下枝屬法席如雲耳師莫適往也). The preface frames Ěrān’s yǔlù as deliberately spare (liáoliáo shù yán 寥寥數言) in keeping with the bùdéyǐ 不得已 economy of authentic Chán transmission.
SìchuānHúběi border ministry. All four abbacies fall in the Sìchuān / Húběi border country (Shīzhōuwèi, Zhōnglù, Jīnfúshān, Tiānníng) of the post-Zhāng-Xiàn-zhōng frontier — the same conflict-zone where Tiěméi himself had operated 1641–50 and where Wén Ānzhī’s Yǒng-lì-loyalist resistance was based. Ěrān’s yǔlù preserves rare dated material on this border-region monastic infrastructure during the Shùnzhì 6–7 (1649–50) transition.
Tiyao
Not applicable — Jiā-xīng-canon imprint (J29 B243). The Xú Shàn preface and the closing 附記 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).
Other points of interest
- SìchuānHúběi border 1649–50 ministry. The dated entries to Xióngěrān (1649/10/15) and Huílóng (1650/9/15) are exceptional documentation of Sìchuān / Húběi border-region monastic activity in the immediate Shùnzhì 6–7 window — the same frontier where the Yǒnglì court’s eastern Sìchuān resistance under Wén Ānzhī was active. The presence of a xuānwèisī 宣慰司 native-chief patron (Rǎn Sīróng of Zhōnglù) places Ěrān at the intersection of Han monastic Chán and the tǔsī indigenous-administration system.
- Xú Shàn as Zuìlǐ patron-bridge. Xú Shàn 徐善 (Zuìlǐ 雙桂居士) is the lay-patron bridge that brings the deeply-Sì-chuān Jùyúnpài material into the Jiāxīng Canon’s Zhèjiāng publication network — paralleling the Xióng Rǔ-xué-circle preface-work on KR6q0448 / KR6q0449 / KR6q0450.