Fózǔ zōngpài shìpǔ 佛祖宗派世譜
Generational Genealogy of the Buddhas-and-Patriarchs Lineage-Branches
compiled by 悟進 (Wùjìn / Jièān 介菴, 1612–1673, 編輯)
About the work
A 1-juan early-Qīng Línjì-school comprehensive transmission-genealogy compiled by Wùjìn 悟進 (字 Juéxiān 覺先, 號 Jièān 介菴; 1612–1673) — a LínjìYángqí monk of the Yuānhú Miàoyòng 鴛湖妙用 dharma-line and abbot of Jiāxìng Jīnmíngsì 嘉興金明寺. The author’s preface, signed at the end of the work as “Jīnmíng” 金明 (his abbatial seat), is undated but precedes his death in Kāngxī 12 康熙癸丑 9 / 23 = 1 November 1673. The work was therefore composed at some point between his ordination in the late 1640s and 1673; the dating bracket is 1647 – 1673.
The work is transmitted in Xùzàngjīng X86 No. 1602.
Abstract
The compiler frames the work in his preface as a deliberate continuation of the Chuándēnglù and Wǔdēnghuìyuán tradition: “Since the Dēnglù and Huìyuán, several centuries have passed; those who continue [these works] are no more than two or three houses, and not without errors and lacunae. I cannot but follow the model and ‘paint a gourd by tracing it’” (依樣畫葫蘆).
The structure follows the canonical 5-school scheme:
- 28 Indian patriarchs through Bodhidharma;
- 6 Chinese patriarchs through Huìnéng;
- The two great Tang lines — Nányuè 南嶽 and Qīngyuán 青原;
- The 4 Tang-Sòng split-offs of these two: Wéiyǎng 溈仰 (4th generation), Línjì 臨濟 (5th), Cáodòng 曹洞 (6th), Yúnmén 雲門 (7th), Fǎyǎn 法眼 (9th);
- The continuation of these five through the SòngYuánMíngQīng down to the compiler’s own day.
The work is one of the principal early-Qīng Línjì-line transmission compilations and is closely related, in lineage and in editorial perspective, to KR6r0110 Chándēng shìpǔ (Mùchén Dàomín, 1632) and KR6r0112 Zīmén shìpǔ (Míng Xǐ, 1703).
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
Other points of interest
Wùjìn’s preface explicitly acknowledges the conventional and diagrammatic character of lineage-history: “Originally, before any of this, was there ever any such ‘message’? Without these few people, there would be no point in dividing schools and ordering branches at the tip of a single hair” — i.e., the genealogical apparatus is itself a fāngbiàn skill-in-means rather than an ultimate truth. This metacommentary is characteristic of the post-1644 Línjì self-consciousness about the political-ecclesial uses of lineage-history.
Links
- CBETA: X86n1602