Qiānshān Shèngrén chánshī yǔlù 千山剩人禪師語錄
Recorded Sayings of the Survivor Chán Master of Qiān-shān by 函可 (說), 元賦 (等編), 今羞 (等錄), 今盧 (重梓), 今又 (重梓)
Six-juan yǔlù of Hánkě 函可 函可 (1612 – 1660-01-09, age 49), zì Zǔxīn 祖心, biéhào Shèngrén 剩人 (“the Survivor”), Cáodòng 34th-generation dharma-heir of Zōngbǎo Dàodú 宗寶道獨 (= 空隱道獨) and dharma-elder-brother of Tiānrán Hánshì 函昰 (cf. KR6q0526). A Míng-loyalist monk arrested in 順治四年 = 1647 in Nánjīng for carrying drafts of his secret history of the dynastic fall (Zài biàn jì 再變紀), commuted from execution to lifelong exile in the Liáodōng frontier. From this exile he became the founding teacher of large-scale Chán Buddhism in Yīwūlǘshān 醫巫閭山 / Qiānshān 千山 (modern Liáoníng), holding seven successive abbacies there: Pǔjì 普濟, Guǎngcí 廣慈, Dàníng 大寧, Yǒngān 永安, Cíháng 慈航, Jiēyǐn 接引, and Xiànghuà 向化.
The corpus survives in two recensions: an original Pǔ-jì lù 普濟錄 compiled at Pǔ-jì-sì in his lifetime, with prefaces dated 順治甲午仲春 / 季春 = spring 1654 by exiled lay scholars Mù-zhāi 木齋 and Běi-lǐ Qiáo-rén 北里樵人 (= Hǎo Yù 郝浴 / 雪海, an official also exiled to Liáo-yáng), plus an undated epigram by his teacher Kōng-yǐn Lǎo-rén 空隱老人 transcribed by his lay-nephew Xuán Shì 玄釋. The expanded six-juan corpus presented here is a zhòng-zǐ (re-cut / re-publication) prepared in Suì-chéng 穗城 (Guǎngzhōu) at Huáng-huá-sì 黃華寺 by Hán-kě’s tonsure-disciples Jīn-lú 今盧 and Jīn-yòu 今又, with a third preface dated 康熙庚午歲僧自恣日 = 1690 (Kāngxī 29, day of pravāraṇa) by their fǎ-zhí 今辯 今辯樂說. The reissue project was launched because the original Liáo-dōng print “had been published over thirty years already, and given the great distance and the closed frontier, even Qí-Lǔ-Yān-Zhào saw it rarely, let alone the south of the Yangtze” (重梓序). notBefore = 1640 (post-tonsure preaching), notAfter = 1690 (publication of the Huáng-huá-sì zhòng-zǐ edition). The catalog dynasty is registered as 明 because the master’s career and self-understanding remained Míng-loyalist throughout. Printed as Jiā-xīng Canon J38 B407.
Contents. Juan 1: three prefaces, qǐngqǐ (invitation petitions, including one dated 順治九年三月朔日 = 1652-04-08 signed by Lamas (lǎ-ma), Mongol functionaries (gělàng 葛浪 = gelong), and the seven jiānyuàn of his Liáoyáng abbacies), shàngtáng (juan 1–2). Juan 3–4: xiǎocān. Juan 5: pǔshuō, cháhuà, wèndá. Juan 6: niāngǔ, sònggǔ, jì including the famous Shíèrshí gē 十二時歌, and shū (letters).
Tiyao
Not applicable — Jiā-xīng-canon imprint (J38 B407).
Translations and research
- Jiang Wu 2008. Enlightenment in Dispute. New York: Oxford University Press — discusses Hán-kě as the founding figure of late-Míng / early-Qīng Chán Buddhism in Manchuria.
- Lawrence C. H. Yim 嚴志雄 has published on Hán-kě’s poetry and exile-writing (《千山詩集》 transmits his Shèng-shī).
- 嚴志雄 2002. 《錢謙益《病榻消寒雜詠》論釋》 (peripheral).
- 戴麗珠 / 嚴志雄, etc. 2008. 《函可禪師年譜》 (Línjì-Yángqí scholarship has produced multiple chronologies).
Other points of interest
The qǐngqǐ documents at the head of juan 1 are an unusually rich record of the multi-ethnic religious culture of mid-17th-century Manchuria: petitioners include lamas (lǎ-ma) bearing Mongolian-titulature (gělàng = Tibetan Buddhist gelong), Manchu 僧司 officials, and the jiānyuàn of seven separate Liáoyáng monasteries acting in concert. The 1690 zhòngzǐ preface by 今辯 is also of interest as a programmatic statement on Cáodòng-school accommodationism — explicitly defending non-”reductive” pedagogy (“not only本分事接人”) against the more austere Línjì-style of the Mìyún Yuánwù 密雲圓悟 lineage.