Bǔxù gāosēng zhuàn 補續高僧傳
Supplementary Continued Lives of Eminent Monks
compiled by 明河 (Mínghé / Tàirú, 1588–1640, 撰)
About the work
A 26-juan compilation of biographies of monks of the Sòng, Yuán, and Míng dynasties — collected over thirty years by Mínghé and posthumously printed after his death in 1640. The work explicitly fills the gap between KR6r0054 Sòng gāosēng zhuàn (closed 988, covering through the early Sòng) and KR6r0055 DàMíng gāosēng zhuàn (covering Sòng-Yuán-early-Míng, but selective and abbreviated): Mínghé’s Bǔxù aims to be the comprehensive replacement compendium for the 400-year window from Northern-Sòng to late Míng, organising c. 400 lives “without distinguishing sects” 不分宗派.
Abstract
The work follows the canonical ten-category typology inherited from KR6r0052 – KR6r0054: (1) Yìjīng 譯經, (2) Yìjiě 義解, (3) Xíchán 習禪 (the largest section, reflecting the post-Sòng dominance of Chán), (4) Mínglǜ 明律, (5) Hùfǎ 護法, (6) Gǎntōng 感通, (7) Yíshēn 遺身, (8) Dúsòng 讀誦, (9) Xīngfú 興福, (10) Zákē 雜科. The chronological scope is from the earliest Northern-Sòng monks omitted by Zànníng down to Mínghé’s own teachers: his master Yīyǔ Tōngrùn 一雨通潤 (1565–1624) and the senior figures of the late-Míng Xuělàng 雪浪 jiǎngjīng school. The Chán biographies cover the principal SòngYuánMíng lineage figures including Dàhuì Zōnggǎo 大慧宗杲 (1089–1163), Hóngzhì Zhèngjué 宏智正覺 (1091–1157), and the late-Míng “four eminent monks” — although in this last cluster there is significant overlap with KR6r0055.
The principal innovations of the Bǔxù are (i) its inclusivity across schools — Mínghé refuses to exclude monks on doctrinal-sectarian grounds, including Tiāntāi, Huáyán, Chán (Línjì and Cáodòng), Pure Land, and tantric figures; (ii) its long-arc coverage of the SòngYuán transition, for which it is one of the principal Buddhist-historiographical sources; (iii) its careful citation of yǔlù prefaces, tǎmíng 塔銘 stūpa-inscriptions, and local-temple gazetteers as source-material — many of which would be otherwise lost. Modern scholarship on SòngYuánMíng Buddhism uses Mínghé’s compendium as an essential prosopographical reference.
The work is dated by the documents Mínghé draws on: he was actively gathering material from c. Wànlì 萬曆 38 (1610) onwards (the date of his earliest preserved correspondence on the project), and the compilation was substantially complete by the time of his death in Chóngzhēn 崇禎 13 (1640). The bracket 1610–1640 represents the composition window. The text was first printed posthumously by his disciple Dàokāi Zìjiōng 自扃道開 with a bá postface dated immediately after Mínghé’s death, and was incorporated into the Manji Xuzangjing (X77 no. 1524) on the basis of the early-Qīng print.
Translations and research
- 釋見曄 (Shì Jiàn-yè), 《明代高僧叢林與佛教史學》 (Taipei, 2007) — substantial chapter on the Bǔ-xù gāosēng zhuàn and its place in late-Míng Buddhist historiography.
- 黃啟江, 〈明河補續高僧傳考〉, in 《漢學研究》, various — Chinese-language source-critical articles.
- No major Western-language secondary monograph devoted specifically to the Bǔ-xù, though it is heavily cited in studies of late-Míng Buddhism (e.g., Chün-fang Yü, The Renewal of Buddhism in China: Chu-hung and the Late Ming Synthesis, 1981; Beata Grant, Mount Lu Revisited, 1994).
Other points of interest
The “thirty years” of compilation gives the work an unusually deep documentary base: Mínghé personally knew or had at one remove from many of the late-Míng figures he records, including the disciples of 袾宏 Yúnqī Zhūhóng (1535–1615) and 紫柏真可 Zǐbó Zhēnkě (1543–1604). For these biographies the Bǔxù is contemporary documentation, not derivative compilation. The work is the principal complement to the Chán yǔlù and dēnglù literature for non-Chán figures of the same period.
Links
- CBETA: X77n1524