Zǐyōng Rú chánshī yǔlù 子雍如禪師語錄
Recorded Sayings of Chán Master Zǐ-yōng Rú by 成如 (說), 祖圓 (記錄)
Four-juan yǔlù of Zǐyōng Chéngrú 成如 子雍成如 (b. 1648/49, death year unknown), one of the few female Chán masters preserved in the Jiāxīng Canon — alongside KR6q0428 (Xínggāng), KR6q0552 (Chāokē), KR6q0553 (Chāochēn). LínjìYángqí dharma-heir of Gǔlǜ Fàn 古律範禪師. Native of Jīngménzhōu 荊門州 (Húběi), lay surname Zhōu 周. Recorded by her female disciple Zǔyuán 祖圓 jìlù. Documents teaching at three abbacies: Yǒngān 永安, Hóngēn 洪恩, Yǒngqìng 永慶 (also styled Yǒngshòu 永壽 in the front-title Yǒngshòu nǐ Zǐyōngrú chánshī yǔlù xù 永壽尼子雍如禪師語錄序). The bǐngzǐ (1696) self-reflection verse “sìshí jiǔ nián chūn” 四十九年春 (age 49 in 1696) gives the principal birth-date inference. notBefore ≈ 1680 (post-tonsure abbacy onset, after twenty years’ training); notAfter ≈ 1700 (post-1696 printing). Printed as Jiāxīng Canon J39 B465.
Contents. Juan 1: preface; xiǎocān fǎyǔ; fóshì; jīyuán including a substantial poetry-section (xíngjiǎo jì, jīngxíng jì, wén zhuómù shēng, yǒng xuě, shānjū, bǐngzǐ shùhuái, cháo Wǔtāishān lùmí gǎn púsà xiànshēn zhǐshì — losing the path to Wǔtāishān and being shown by a vision of the bodhisattva, jīnshàng gōngzhǔ “the present empress’s princess”). Juan 2–4: continuing materials including xíngshí (autobiographical narration in juan 4) and fùfǎ register.
Tiyao
Not applicable — Jiā-xīng-canon imprint (J39 B465).
Other points of interest
The closing 女子 yǔlù in this Jiā-xīng-canon female-authored cluster. Unlike the closely-knit Méixī Fúshī community of Xínggāng / Chāokē / Chāochēn (cf. KR6q0552, KR6q0553), Zǐyōng’s lineage is via the relatively obscure Gǔlǜ Fàn — i.e. she represents an independent female LínjìYángqí lineage based in central Húběi (Jīngmén). The Cháo Wǔtāishān (pilgrimage to Mount Wǔtāi) verses indicate substantial cross-regional pilgrimage, unusual in the gender-restricted Buddhist landscape of the era.
Translations and research
- Beata Grant 2009. Eminent Nuns: Women Chan Masters of Seventeenth-Century China. University of Hawaiʻi Press — chapter 5 discusses Zǐ-yōng among the 17th-century female Línjì cohort.