Tánjīn wénjí 鐔津文集
Collected Literary Works of Tán-jīn (i.e., Qì-sōng)
written by 契嵩 (Qìsōng / Míngjiào 明教, 1007–1072, 撰)
About the work
A 19-juan Northern-Sòng Buddhist scholarly-literary collected works (wénjí 文集) of 契嵩 Qìsōng 契嵩 (1007–1072), the great Northern-Sòng Yún-mén-school Chán master and the most influential Buddhist apologist-polemicist of the eleventh century. The title Tánjīn 鐔津 derives from Qìsōng’s native place (Tánzhōu 鐔州 in modern Yúnnán 雲南 / Guǎngxī 廣西 border region). The collection assembles his principal apologetic, philosophical, literary, and biographical writings, prepared during his mature scholarly career and continuously expanded down to his death in 1072. The dating bracket is 1056 – 1072. Transmitted in Taishō 52 as T2115.
Prefaces
The collection includes Qìsōng’s own multiple introductory paratexts together with Sòng-period prefaces by major literary figures. The text-line of the master volume gives the standard imperially-recognised attribution.
Abstract
The 19 juan assemble the principal works of Qìsōng’s scholarly career, including:
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The 《輔教編》 Fǔjiào biān — Qìsōng’s principal Buddhist-Confucian apologetic treatise, presenting an integrative reading of Buddhism as compatible with — and indeed completing — the Confucian moral-philosophical framework. The Fǔjiào biān is the principal Sòng Buddhist response to the Hán Yù / Ōuyáng Xiū Confucian critique, alongside Zhāng Shāngyīng’s KR6r0147 Hùfǎ lùn.
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The 《孝論》 Xiào lùn (essays on Buddhist filial piety) — Qìsōng’s argument that Buddhism, far from being anti-filial as the Confucian critique alleged, contains within itself a higher form of filial piety (the bodhisattva’s salvific concern for parents in past, present, and future lives). This argument was particularly influential and entered the standard Sòng Buddhist self-presentation.
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Anti-mengzi materials — Qìsōng’s polemical engagement with the Mèngzǐ 孟子 tradition, particularly on the question of human nature and the Buddhist-Confucian comparative ethics.
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Biographical and biographical-historical materials — including parts of the lineage-historical corpus that culminated in KR6r0100-KR6r0102 (Chuánfǎ zhèngzōng trilogy).
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Personal-literary writings — zhī 志, zhuàn 傳, prefaces and postfaces for friends’ works, letters, poetry, and personal-lyrical compositions. The collection is one of the most important documents of Buddhist participation in Northern-Sòng literary culture.
The work received imperial endorsement from Sòng Rénzōng 仁宗 in Zhìpíng 治平 1 (1064), together with Qìsōng’s lineage-historical works (KR6r0100 Chuánfǎ zhèngzōng jì, KR6r0101 Chuánfǎ zhèngzōng dìngzǔ tú, KR6r0102 Chuánfǎ zhèngzōng lùn). The imperial endorsement made Qìsōng the most institutionally-recognised Buddhist scholar of the Northern Sòng.
The work is, with KR6r0147 Hùfǎ lùn, the principal documentary corpus of Northern-Sòng lay-and-monastic Buddhist apologetic literature.
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, with extensive treatment of the Tán-jīn wén-jí.
- Albert Welter, Monks, Rulers, and Literati: The Political Ascendancy of Chan Buddhism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).
- Mark Halperin, Out of the Cloister: Literati Perspectives on Buddhism in Sung China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Asia Center, 2006).
- 黃啟江, 《北宋佛教史論稿》 — extensive treatment of Qì-sōng and the Northern-Sòng Buddhist-Confucian controversy.
- 阿部肇一, 《中國禪宗史の研究》.
Other points of interest
The work’s incorporation of the Fǔjiào biān into a comprehensive wénjí is itself a deliberate ideological statement: by arranging his Buddhist apology alongside his personal-literary writings, Qìsōng presents himself as a Buddhist wénrén 文人 (literary scholar) on the model of his Confucian counterparts — a deliberate self-positioning within Northern-Sòng literary culture rather than against it.
Links
- CBETA: T52n2115