Zīmén shìpǔ 緇門世譜
Generational Genealogy of the Black-Robed Sangha
compiled by 明喜 (Míng Xǐ / Xùnléi 迅雷, fl. 1703, 撰輯)
About the work
A 1-juan early-Qīng Línjì-school transmission-genealogy compiled by Míng Xǐ 明喜 (號 Xùnléi 迅雷), a LínjìYángqí monk of the 30th generation in the Línjì line (per the Wǔdēngquánshū lineage-count) and dharma-disciple of Zǐsù Chāoyuǎn 子肅超遠 (1631–1689). The compiler’s autographic preface is dated Kāngxī 42 康熙歲次癸未 = 1703. Compiled at Tiānlóngshānsì 天龍山寺 — the title-page reads “終南山天龍會集緇門世譜”. Transmitted in Xùzàngjīng X86 No. 1603.
Abstract
The compiler’s preface explains the purpose of the work: he had observed that the genealogical compilations of his predecessors had misallocated the relative seniority of the Five Houses of Chán: a careful reading of the Chuándēnglù shows that Wéiyǎng and Línjì appear at the 5th generation below the Sixth Patriarch, Cáodòng at the 6th, Yúnmén at the 7th, and Fǎyǎn at the 9th. To restore the correct generational ordering, the compiler has prepared an edited and corrected comprehensive lineage-table, which he titles the Zīmén shìpǔ.
The work is structured in five sections corresponding to the five Chán houses. Each section begins with a “派曰” 派曰 — a transmission-character formula prescribing the generation-characters (pàizì) that successors in that line are to use, in fixed sequence. The five formulae read:
- Línjì (5th-generation split): no formula given as a single pre-set verse; the school transmits through the 30th-generation of the Yang-qi line in a doctrinal frame.
- Cáodòng: 28-character formula beginning “淨善香然喜敬宗 …” (the formula that produces the generation-characters used in the Cáodòng line through the Qing).
- Yúnmén: 20-character formula “優曇從廣政 了性悟真如 德智圓通品 方知紹祖燈”.
- Fǎyǎn: 20-character formula “祖智悟本真 法性常興勝 定慧廣圓明 覺海玄清印”.
- Wéiyǎng: integrated within the Línjì branch; the school’s principal SòngYuán transmissions are noted but not fully tabulated.
The compiler closes with the editorial caveat that beyond the canonical five houses there are “more than thirty other lines” of self-claimed Chán transmission, “of indeterminate provenance,” which the compiler refuses to incorporate (“一槩不曾強入”) because their lineage-claims cannot be confirmed against the canonical sources. The work is therefore explicitly prescriptive as well as descriptive: it defines which Chán lineages count as 正派 zhèngpài (“orthodox-line”) and excludes those that do not.
The work is one of the principal early-Qīng Línjì-side comprehensive transmission compilations and stands alongside KR6r0110 Chándēng shìpǔ (1632) and KR6r0111 Fózǔ zōngpài shìpǔ (1647–1673) as the three great MíngQīng transition Chán genealogical syntheses.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
Other points of interest
The work is one of the most explicit early-Qīng documents on the generation-character (pàizì) system as a mechanism of monastic identity-control: the embedded 20- and 28-character formulae for each Chán house effectively determined which monks could legitimately claim membership in which line, by stipulating in advance the dharma-name characters that would be used over the next 20 or 28 generations. The system is one of the distinctive SòngMíngQīng innovations in Chán institutional organisation.
Links
- CBETA: X86n1603