Bǎochí Zǒng chánshī yǔlù 寶持總禪師語錄
Recorded Sayings of Chán Master Bǎo-chí Zǒng by 玄總 (說; 尼 bhikṣuṇī), 明英 (等記)
About the work
Two-juan yǔ-lù of the female Chán master Bǎo-chí Xuán-zǒng 玄總 寶持玄總 (尼 bhikṣuṇī), Línjì-Yángqí dharma-heir of Tuì-wēng Hóng-chǔ 弘儲 in the Hàn-yuè Sān-fēng sub-line. Recorded by fǎ-sì Míng-yīng 明英 děng jì. Printed as Jiā-xīng Canon J35 B337. Catalog meta explicitly marks the speaker as 尼 (nun).
Abstract
Authorship. Per DILA A019288: lay-name Jīn Shūxiū 金淑脩, zhǒngxí 冢媳 (eldest daughter-in-law) of the Suízhōu Tàipú 隋州太僕 official family; after husband’s death, took the cloth and pursued intensive Chán practice. Fùfǎ (formal transmission) from Hóngchǔ at Língyánsì. Two abbacies: Jiāhé Mìaozhànsì 嘉禾妙湛寺 (Jiāxīng) and Hǎiyán Nánxúnsì 海鹽南詢寺.
Dating. notBefore = c. 1660 (post-transmission preaching). notAfter = c. 1675 (conservative bound for post-1672-Hóng-chǔ-decease compilation; Xuánzǒng was active at least into the 1670s).
Female Chán transmission. One of the relatively few documented Línjì-line women masters in the Hànyuè Sānfēng tradition to receive formal fùfǎ transmission and to have her yǔlù preserved in the Jiāxīng Canon. The Sānfēng line is notable in the late-Míng / early-Qīng for its relatively higher inclusion of female disciples — see also the related collaboration in KR6q0204 《頌古合響集》 with Zǔkuí Língruì Fúānzhǔ 符 (also a nun).
Lineage. Mìyún Yuánwù → Hànyuè Sānfēng Fǎzàng → Tuìwēng Hóngchǔ → Bǎochí Xuánzǒng (33rd-generation Línjì).
Tiyao
Not applicable — Jiā-xīng-canon imprint (J35 B337). DILA authority A019288 provides the principal documentation.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language secondary literature located on Xuán-zǒng specifically. For broader context on female Chán masters of the Sān-fēng line: Beata Grant, Eminent Nuns: Women Chan Masters of Seventeenth-Century China (Hawaii 2009).
- See also KR6q0204 《頌古合響集》 (the related female-Chán verse-commentary collection).
Other points of interest
- Female Sān-fēng-line voice. This is one of relatively few extant Línjì-line yǔlù by a fully ordained female master in the early Qīng. The Sānfēng line’s distinctive openness to women practitioners is documented in Beata Grant’s Eminent Nuns (2009), which discusses Xuánzǒng’s contemporaries.
- Catalog distinction marking. The catalog meta’s explicit (尼) marking on the speaker field is itself a documentation-feature: the Jiāxīng Canon catalogers chose to flag the yǔlù’s female-master status, implying that without this marking the standard reader-assumption of yǔlù speakers would be male.