Línjiān lù hòují 林間錄後集
Latter Collection of the Línjiān lù
compiled by 慧洪 (Huìhóng / Juéfàn 覺範, 1071–1128, 集)
About the work
A 1-juan supplementary collection of the Línjiān corpus, gathering pieces composed by Juéfàn Huìhóng 覺範慧洪 (1071–1128) after the closing of the principal Línjiān lù compilation in Dàguān 大觀 1 (1107). Where the principal Línjiān lù KR6r0157 is a heterogeneous compendium of Chán anecdote, philological note, and conversation-record, the Hòují is dominated by eulogistic and dedicatory pieces — zàn 贊 (eulogistic prose-poems), míng 銘 (inscriptions), jì 記 (commemorative records), and xù 序 (prefaces) composed by Huìhóng for paintings, calligraphic specimens, monastic foundations, and devotional images during his last two decades. Transmitted in the Xùzàngjīng as X1625, under the title-variant 《新編林間後錄》 Xīnbiān Línjiān hòulù.
Prefaces
The Hòují has no compiler’s preface. The collection opens with 《釋迦出山畫像贊》 Shìjiā chūshān huàxiàng zàn (“Eulogy on a Painting of Śākyamuni Coming Out of the Mountain”), an extended zàn on a chūshān image that Huìhóng identifies tentatively as a work of the Tang painter Wú Dàozǐ 吳道子 in the collection of his patron Qián Lèdào 錢樂道. The piece exemplifies the work’s characteristic mode: erudite art-historical observation framed by lyric-Buddhist meditation, combining the secular zàn tradition with Buddhist devotional address.
Abstract
The work consists of approximately eighty pieces of mixed genre, including:
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Image-eulogies (像贊): on Śākyamuni chūshān images, on portraits of past Chán patriarchs (Bodhidharma, Huìnéng, Mǎzǔ, Línjì, Dòngshān), on contemporary paintings by Sòng monks and laymen.
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Sūtra-eulogies (經贊): on miniature manuscript copies of the 《金剛經》 Jīngāng jīng, the 《心經》 Xīn jīng, the 《法華經》 Fǎhuá jīng, and other devotional copies — many notable for their commentary on the calligraphic and material practices of small-script sūtra copying in the Northern Sòng (the xiǎozì jīngāngjīng of 子瓊 with characters on the scale of “língmáng 菱芒” — the spike-tip of a water-chestnut leaf).
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Monastic-foundation records (寺記 / 庵記): commemorative pieces on temple buildings and hermitages — the Míngbáiān 明白庵 (Huìhóng’s own retreat from 1107), various Línjì-Huánglóng-school institutions.
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Funerary inscriptions (塔銘 / 行狀): for Huìhóng’s contemporary Chán colleagues.
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Letters and miscellaneous prose: dedicatory and explanatory pieces.
The work is the principal source for Huìhóng’s late-life self-portrayal and supplies a counterweight to the more anecdotal-impersonal Línjiān lù: where the principal collection records Huìhóng’s observations of his contemporaries, the Hòují shows him in his role as public eulogist and dedicator of Northern-Sòng Buddhist material culture. The work is also of considerable importance as a source for Northern-Sòng Buddhist visual culture and devotional manuscript practice, supplying detailed textual descriptions of paintings and calligraphic specimens otherwise unrecorded.
The dating bracket is 1107 to 1128: the lower bound is fixed by the closing of the principal Línjiān lù (preface dated 大觀 1.11.1 = December 1107); the upper bound by Huìhóng’s death in summer 1128.
Translations and research
- George Keyworth, “Transmitting the Lamp of Learning in Classical Chán Buddhism” (PhD diss., UCLA, 2001) — comprehensive treatment, including the Hòu-jí.
- 周裕鍇, 《惠洪文字禪詩學研究》(Chéngdū: Bā-Shǔ shū-shè, 2010) — extensive use of the Hòu-jí eulogistic pieces for the reconstruction of Huì-hóng’s poetics.
- 釋果鏡, 《惠洪覺範及其文學研究》, MA thesis, 國立政治大學, 2001.
Other points of interest
The Hòují’s heavy investment in image-eulogies (像贊) is one of the earliest substantial corpora of Chán painting-criticism in Chinese — a genre that would become standard in SòngYuán Chán literature and that supplies an important link between the secular Northern-Sòng art-criticism tradition (Sū Shì, Mǐ Fú, Huáng Tíngjiān) and the developing Chán visual culture.
Links
- CBETA: X87n1625