Chuánfǎ zhèngzōng jì 傳法正宗記
Records of the Orthodox Lineage of the Transmission of the Dharma
compiled by 契嵩 (Qìsōng / Míngjiào, 1007–1072, 編)
About the work
A 9-juan Northern-Sòng Chán-school lineage-history, the principal documentary instrument of 契嵩 Qìsōng’s 1064 imperial-court submission defending the orthodoxy of the Chán Bodhidharma-lineage against contemporary Confucian and rival Buddhist critics. The work is one of three coordinated lineage-historical compilations Qìsōng presented to Sòng Rénzōng 仁宗 in Zhìpíng 治平 1 (1064) — together with KR6r0101 Chuánfǎ zhèngzōng dìngzǔ tú (1 juan) and the Chuánfǎ zhèngzōng lùn 傳法正宗論 (T2080, 2 juan) — which received imperial approval and the conferral of the title Míngjiào dàshī 明教大師 on Qìsōng. Composition is bracketed by 1061–1064.
Abstract
The work establishes the Chán Bodhidharma-lineage as the orthodox transmission (zhèngzōng 正宗) of the Buddha’s dharma, in deliberate response to two competing claims:
(i) The lineage transmitted in KR6r0051 Fù-fǎ-zàng yīn-yuán zhuàn, which closes the Indian patriarchal succession at Siṃha-bhikṣu with no further transmission, declaring that “the lamp of the dharma is extinguished.” Qì-sōng argues that the Chán-school lineage “splices forward” from Siṃha through to Bodhidharma, the 28th Indian patriarch and the 1st Chinese Chán patriarch, and that this is the genuine continuation of the Buddha’s transmission.
(ii) The skeptical position taken by Northern-Sòng Confucian gǔwén 古文 critics — most prominently Ōuyáng Xiū 歐陽修 (1007–1072) — who questioned the historical authenticity of the Bodhidharma-lineage and dismissed it as Buddhist propaganda. Qìsōng’s Chuánfǎ zhèngzōng jì answers these critics with systematic biographical-historical argumentation, marshalling canonical sources (the Lèngjiā shīzī jì, the Chū sānzàng jì jí, the Lìdài sānbǎo jì, the Gāosēng zhuàn tradition) to construct a defensible historical picture of the Chán transmission.
The 9 juan are organised chronologically: juan 1–7 cover the Indian lineage from Mahākāśyapa through Bodhidharma; juan 8 covers the early Chinese Chán patriarchs Bodhidharma through Huì-néng; juan 9 covers the post-Huì-néng lineage through to the Northern-Sòng establishment. Each biography is supported by detailed citation of Qì-sōng’s documentary sources and by his editorial-critical commentary.
The work was incorporated into the printed canon through the standard Sòng-Yuán-Míng-Korean recensions and into the Taishō (T2078). The transmission is uniform; minor variants are confined to nomenclature.
Translations and research
- Elizabeth Morrison, The Power of Patriarchs: Qisong and Lineage in Chinese Buddhism (Leiden: Brill, 2010) — the principal Western-language monograph on Qì-sōng and on the Chuán-fǎ zhèng-zōng jì; treats the work as the foundational document of Sòng-Buddhist lineage-historical scholarship.
- John R. McRae, Seeing through Zen (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003) — uses the Chuán-fǎ zhèng-zōng jì in his analysis of the Sòng formation of the Chán lineage.
- Stuart H. Young, Conceiving the Indian Buddhist Patriarchs in China (Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2015) — extended treatment of Qì-sōng’s reading of the Indian patriarch tradition.
- Albert Welter, Monks, Rulers, and Literati: The Political Ascendancy of Chan Buddhism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).
- 阿部肇一, 《中國禪宗史の研究》 (Tokyo, 1963).
Other points of interest
The 1064 imperial submission of the Chuánfǎ zhèngzōng jì and its companion volumes is one of the most consequential events in the politicisation of Chinese Buddhist historiography. Qìsōng’s argument was politically successful: imperial endorsement of the work effectively settled the lineage question in favour of Chán orthodoxy, and the Chuánfǎ zhèngzōng jì became the canonical Sòng-court presentation of the Chán transmission. Modern scholarship treats Qìsōng as the single most influential Buddhist historiographer of the Sòng, and the Chuánfǎ zhèngzōng jì as the foundational document of late-imperial Chinese Buddhist lineage-thinking.