Guǎng qīngliáng zhuàn 廣清涼傳
The Expanded Records of the Cool Mountain (i.e., Mount Wǔ-tái)
edited by 延一 (Yányī / Miàojì dàshī 妙濟大師, fl. Jiāyòu era 1056–1063, 編)
About the work
A 3-juan Northern-Sòng expansion of KR6r0133 Gǔ qīngliáng zhuàn (the early-Tang Wǔtái gazetteer of 慧祥 Huìxiáng), edited by Yányī 延一 (號 Miàojì dàshī 妙濟大師), the abbot of the Zhēnróngyuàn 真容院 within the Qīngliángshān Dàhuáyánsì 清涼山大華嚴寺. The compilation was prepared at the request of the prefectural official Qiè Jìchuān 郄濟川, undertaken in the Jiāyòu 嘉祐 era (1056–1063), and Qiè Jìchuān’s preface is dated Jiāyòu 5 = 1060. The dating bracket is 1056 – 1063. Transmitted in Taishō 51 as T2099.
Abstract
The work substantially extends the Gǔ qīngliáng zhuàn by incorporating four centuries of intervening Wǔtái documentation. The 3-juan structure adds:
- Tang-Sòng imperial patronage materials — the major imperial pilgrimages, donations, and dedications, including those of the Wǔ Zétiān 武則天 court (post-680), the Tang Dàizōng 代宗 (post-765), and the Sòng Tàizōng 太宗 / Zhēnzōng 真宗 / Rénzōng 仁宗 imperial visits and donations.
- Tang-Sòng Mañjuśrī-apparition narratives — extended biographical-narrative materials on the principal monks who experienced documented Mañjuśrī apparitions on the mountain, including Wú-zhuó 無著 (active under Wǔ Zé-tiān), the great Esoteric master Bù-kōng 不空 (705–774, who established the Wǔ-tái Esoteric establishment), and the Cháng-xìng dà-chán-shī 長興大禪師 (founder of the Cháng-xìng 長興 lineage).
- Stelae-inscriptions and Tang-Sòng dedicatory writings, including the principal Esoteric inscriptions documenting Bùkōng’s construction of the Jīngésì 金閣寺 (“Golden Pavilion Monastery”) at imperial command.
- Foreign pilgrimage notices — the visits of Indian, Korean, and Japanese monks to the mountain, including the famous Japanese monk Ennin 圓仁 (in 840, during his Tang-period travels documented in his own RùTáng qiúfǎ xúnlǐ jì).
The work is a major Northern-Sòng documentary expansion of the foundational Wǔtái gazetteer tradition, and is the principal source for late-Tang and early-Sòng Wǔtái Buddhist establishment.
Translations and research
- Raoul Birnbaum, Studies on the Mysteries of Mañjuśrī (Boulder, 1983) — uses the Guǎng qīng-liáng zhuàn extensively for the Mañjuśrī apparition tradition.
- 崔福姫 (吾印), 〈《古清涼伝》から《広清涼伝》への文殊信仰の變遷〉, Indian and Buddhist Studies 51 (2003): 192–194 — the principal modern study of the Gǔ → Guǎng transition and the development of the Mañjuśrī cult.
- 杜斗成, 《五台山佛教史》 — the principal modern Chinese-language survey.
- Susan Naquin and Chün-fang Yü, eds., Pilgrims and Sacred Sites in China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992) — context for the imperial-pilgrimage tradition.
Other points of interest
Yán-yī’s compilation reflects a decisive shift in the Wǔ-tái cult: the Sòng-period imperial patronage produced a state-canonical Mañjuśrī tradition, in which the mountain was understood not merely as a site of Mañjuśrī apparitions (per the older Tang tradition) but as the fixed bodhisattva-residence to which imperial patronage was institutionally directed. The Guǎng qīng-liáng zhuàn is the principal documentary witness to this canonisation.
Links
- CBETA: T51n2099