Cāntóng Yīkuí chánshī yǔlù 參同一揆禪師語錄
Recorded Sayings of Chán Master Yī-kuí of Cān-tóng [-ān] by 超琛 (說), 普明 (編), 明俊 (錄)
Single-juan yǔlù of Yīkuí Chāochēn 超琛 一揆超琛 (1625-07-04 – 1679-08-09, age 55, sēnglà 31), one of the major female Chán masters of mid-17th-century Jiāngnán. LínjìYángqí dharma-heir of Qíyuán Xínggāng 行剛 (1597–1654), and abbess successively of Cāntóngān 參同庵 (her own foundation) and then of Méixī Fúshī chányuàn 伏獅禪院 (succeeding her sister-disciple 超珂). Native of Jiāxīng 嘉興, lay surname Sūn 孫. Compiled by her female fǎsì Pǔmíng 普明 biān and Míngjùn 明俊 lù. The closing xíngshí (the master’s autobiography) is signed by Pǔmíng dated 康熙己未冬至日 = 1679-12-23 — barely four months after the master’s death (8 August 1679) — and the front-preface dated 康熙庚申孟春月 = 1680 spring (Kāngxī 19, lunar 1).
The yǔlù is paired in the canon with KR6q0552 (her sister-disciple Chāokē’s yǔlù) and the teacher KR6q0428 (Xínggāng) — together forming a complete inter-generational female Línjì lineage record. Chāochēn’s pre-tonsure life as a young widow (her husband contracted illness and died, leaving her childless) and her direct apprenticeship under 行剛 from age 26 are the principal subject of the xíngshí, which she had earlier delivered orally on 康熙十四年四月八日 = 1675-05-02 at her enclosure.
notBefore = 1652 (順治壬辰, age 28, received seal); notAfter = 1680 (preface). Printed as Jiāxīng Canon J39 B436.
Contents. Single juan: portrait + zàn; preface; shìzhòng; jì (a substantial body of poetry — including dirges for her teacher 哭本師祗老和尚, verses for her sister-disciples (寄義公法兄, 輓義公法兄), four qīngcǎo chítáng 青草池塘 verses, dharma-funeral jì, and verses to and from Tiānqí 大蓮聽 of Jīnsù); yìngzàn image-encomia; the xíngshí by Pǔmíng.
Tiyao
Not applicable — Jiā-xīng-canon imprint (J39 B436).
Translations and research
- Beata Grant 2009. Eminent Nuns: Women Chan Masters of Seventeenth-Century China. University of Hawaiʻi Press — chapter 4 translates and discusses Chāo-chēn’s yǔ-lù together with KR6q0428 and KR6q0552.
- Beata Grant 2003. Daughters of Emptiness. Boston: Wisdom Publications — anthology of Chinese Buddhist nuns’ poetry includes Chāo-chēn.
Other points of interest
The closing jì “Zhèyī shēng gǔyìng rú dīng 這一生骨硬如釘…” (recited just before her cross-legged death) is one of the most famous female-authored death-verses in Chinese Buddhism, registering Chāochēn’s Línjì-school self-conception (“xiāoyáo wéi wǒ 逍遙惟我”). Her transition between the Cāntóngān (her own foundation) and the larger Fúshī chányuàn abbacy follows directly on her sister-disciple 超珂’s death in 1661 — the lineage was strictly female-to-female throughout these three generations.