Fózǔ zhèngzhuàn gǔjīn jiélù 佛祖正傳古今捷錄
A Concise Record of the Orthodox Transmission of the Buddhas and Patriarchs, Past and Present
compiled by 果性 (Guǒxìng, fl. 17th c., 集)
About the work
A 1-juan early-Qīng LínjìChán abridged transmission record by Guǒxìng 果性 (a dharma-grandchild of KR6q0193 Wángjǐng / Tiāntóng Yuánwù 圓悟’s lineage, dharma-disciple of Yúné Xíngxǐ 雲峨行喜 1613–1672), submitted as a printed votive offering to his line. The autographic colophon dates the work to “DàQīng Kāngxī 5 大清康熈五秊歲次丙午暮春” = late spring 1666. Transmitted in Xùzàngjīng X86 No. 1595.
Abstract
Guǒxìng’s preface (printed at the head of juan 1) frames the work explicitly as a shortcut: the canonical lineage record runs to “tens of houses” of compilations, the Chuándēnglù literature is enormous and difficult to navigate, and the standard Jǐngdé chuándēnglù itself stops at the Sòng-period Mìān Xiánjié 密菴咸傑 (1118–1186) — leaving the entire Yuán-Míng-early-Qīng transmission of “seventeen or eighteen generations” unrepresented. The Jiélù is intended to fill this gap: starting from the Western Patriarchs as treated by 僧祐 Sēngyòu, continuing through the standard 28-Indian / 6-Chinese-patriarch sequence, then through Caoxī 曹溪 to Tiāntóng Lǎorén 天童老人 (= KR6r0193-related Mìyún Yuánwù 密雲圓悟, 1566–1642), and on to the lineage of the compiler’s own Shàolín 少林 dharma-grandfather and his teacher Xíngxǐ.
The format is abbreviated: dynasty, monastic age (僧臘), posthumous title (謚賜), dharma-successors (法嗣) are all noted in compressed form, with the explicit aim of allowing the reader (per the preface) to “trace upstream from those-not-yet-arrived to find the source, and trace downstream from those-already-entered through the trunk to its tips.” The closing colophon is a verse-praise to the compiler’s master Xíngxǐ. The work is one of the succession-table genre (世譜 / 宗派譜) typical of early-Qīng Línjì self-documentation. Funded by three Xǔchāng bǐqiū — Juéxīn 覺心, Tōngyī 通一, and Zhēnshàn 真善.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
Other points of interest
The text is a representative example of the early-Qīng compressed transmission record — a sub-genre of Chán historiography that addressed the practical problem that the standard Sòng chuándēng texts no longer covered the active living lineage. Such compressed records, often with explicit votive function (memorialising the compiler’s own line), are a characteristic feature of post-1644 Línjì self-presentation.
Links
- CBETA: X86n1595