Chányuàn méngqiú shíyí 禪苑蒙求拾遺
Gleanings to the Introductory Inquiries on the Chán Garden
anonymous Yuán-period supplement to KR6r0097 Chányuàn méngqiú yáolín
About the work
A 1-juan supplement (shíyí 拾遺, “gleanings”) to KR6r0097 Chányuàn méngqiú yáolín of 志明 (annotated by 德諫). The catalog meta records no author; the text is anonymous, and is dated to the Yuán dynasty (post the Wànsōng / Déjiàn period, and likely before the late Yuán Cáodòng decline). The bracket 1234–1300 represents the most defensible composition window.
Abstract
The Shíyí extends KR6r0097 with additional paired-couplet entries in the same four-character format, drawing on Chán-school figures and incidents that the original had omitted. The opening couplets of the surviving text — Shàolín chìxiàng / Niútóu biàntōng, “Shàolín reproved physical features / Niútóu argued penetration”; Dàotōng shízǐ / Yuándé tǎhóng, “Dàotōng’s purple stone / Yuándé’s red stūpa”; Xuědòu hànlín / Fúshān lùgōng, “Xuědòu of Hánlín / Fúshān master Lù” — illustrate the form: each pair juxtaposes two contrasting incidents from the Chán-historical tradition, with cross-reference to canonical yǔlù and dēnglù sources.
The work circulates anonymously and the editorial provenance is uncertain. It is preserved in the Manji Xuzangjing (X87 no. 1615) on the basis of a late-Míng / Qīng print, transmitted alongside KR6r0097 and presumably collated with it in the late-imperial Cáodòng establishment.
Translations and research
- 陳士強, 〈《禪苑蒙求瑤林》並《拾遺》舉隅──禪籍導讀之九〉, Fǎ-yīn 法音 (1989) — covers both KR6r0097 and the present Shí-yí.
- No substantial Western-language secondary monograph located.
Other points of interest
The continued elaboration of the Chán méngqiú tradition through anonymous supplementation is testimony to the didactic function of the genre in the Yuán Cáodòng establishment: the méngqiú and shíyí were not authored compositions but live pedagogical instruments, supplemented and revised as the school’s curriculum demanded. The anonymity of the Shíyí is therefore not a concealment but a generic-conventional feature.
Links
- CBETA: X87n1615