居士傳

Jūshì zhuàn 居士傳

Biographies of Lay Buddhists

written by 彭際清 (Péng Jìqīng / Péng Shàoshēng / Èrlín jūshì 二林居士 / Zhīguīzǐ 知歸子, 1740–1796, 述)

About the work

A 56-juan mid-Qīng compendium of biographies of lay Buddhists (jūshì 居士) from the Latter Hàn through the early Qīng, compiled by the great Sūzhōu lay-Pure-Land patriarch Péng Jìqīng 彭際清 (also known as Péng Shàoshēng 彭紹升, hào Èrlín jūshì 二林居士 and Zhīguīzǐ 知歸子, 1740–1796). The work is the culminating compilation of the late-imperial Buddhist lay-prosopographical tradition, integrating and surpassing the prior two-stage genealogical line: Xīntài’s KR6r0161 Fófǎ jīntāng biān (1391) → Xià Shùfāng’s KR6r0169 Mínggōng fǎxǐ zhì (early 17th c.) → and the contemporary Jūshì fēndēng lù of Zhū Shíēn 朱時恩, the Xiānjué zōngshèng of Guō Níngzhī 郭凝之, and the Jūshì chándēng lù of Lǐ Shìcái 李士材. Compiled between 庚寅夏 = summer of 1770 and 乙未之秋 = autumn of 1775. The work treats approximately 300 lay-Buddhist figures in 56 juan, structured as 50+ lièzhuàn (biographical chapters) following the Chinese zhèngshǐ (standard-history) format. Transmitted in the Xùzàngjīng as X1646.

Prefaces

The work has a preface by Péng’s friend and collaborator Wāng Jìn 汪縉 (“Tóngxué Wāng Jìn zhuàn” 同學汪縉撰): “Zhīguīzǐ now manifesting in lay form preaches the Dharma; he has composed the Jūshì zhuàn and asks me to write a preface. The preface says: Zhīguīzǐ studies Buddhism, has turned his heart to the Pure Land, has issued the resolute vow for rebirth there. Investigating the cause of rebirth, the cause is one moment of pure mind. One moment of pure mind becomes the cause of rebirth. How much more so when moment after moment of recitation, continuously, no rebirth and no encounter with Amitābha?”

The author’s own fāfán 發凡 (general principles), in twelve clauses, is the most substantial part of the prefatorial apparatus and supplies the key methodological statements:

1. The genealogical-source frame: Péng identifies his sources — Sēngyòu’s Hóngmíng jí, Dàoxuān’s Guǎng hóngmíng jí, Xīntài’s Fófǎ jīntāng biān, Yáo Mèngcháng’s Jīntāng zhēngwén lù, Xià Shùfāng’s Fǎxǐ zhì, plus the standard gāosēng zhuàn and dēnglù tradition — and notes that he has taken about half of his materials from these prior compilations and doubled their content through fresh research in the dynastic histories, literati collected works, sūtra prefaces, and miscellaneous compendia.

2. The triple-school synthesis: the compilation aims to provide models for lay practitioners across the three streams of late-imperial Chinese Buddhist practice — Chán (zōng 宗), doctrinal study (jiào 教), and Pure Land (jìngtǔ 淨土) — supplying the appropriate exemplary models for each.

3. The defending-the-Dharma stance: Péng explicitly excludes from inclusion (a) figures whose Buddhist engagement was merely literary-decorative without genuine practice (Wáng Jiǎnqī’s stele, Wáng Bó’s Shìjiā chéngdào jì); (b) figures whose Buddhist engagement was contradicted by their public conduct (the Northern-and-Southern dynastic ministers Wèi Shōu, Yù Yùn, Shěn Yuē, Jiāng Zǒng — whom he characterises as “slandering the Dharma with their bodies”); and (c) figures whose nominal Buddhist engagement was overwhelmed by their Confucian or Daoist commitments (Hán Yù, Lǐ Áo, Zhōu Dūnyí, Ōuyáng Xiū — “their lifelong vow-power was entirely devoted to defending Confucianism”).

4. The three foundational figures: Páng jūshì 龐居士 (in Chán), Lǐ Tōngxuán 李通玄 (“Lǐ Chángzhě”) (in doctrinal study), and Liú Yímín 劉遺民 (in Pure Land) — these are the paradigm exemplars (“teachers for a hundred generations”) to whose level the other figures’ biographies are calibrated.

5. The three teachings stance: Péng follows the Dàzhū tradition’s view that the three teachings (Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism) are different expressions of the same nature, with the late-Sòng Lǐ Bójì 李伯紀 and the Míng Zhào Dàzhōu 趙大洲 as exemplary three-teachings synthesists.

Abstract

The work catalogues approximately 300 lay-Buddhist figures, organised broadly chronologically. Major figures with extended treatment include:

• Latter Hàn / Three Kingdoms: Mòu Róng 牟融 (the Lǐhuò lùn author).
• Eastern Jìn: Xí Záochǐ 習鑿齒, Xiè Língyùn 謝靈運, the foundational figure Liú Yímín 劉遺民 of the Pure-Land tradition.
• Northern and Southern Dynasties: selected with the rigorist criterion of practice-and-doctrine consistency.
• Tang: Wáng Wéi 王維 (Mójié), Bái Jūyì 白居易, Lǐ Tōngxuán 李通玄 (the foundational Huáyán-school lay-figure), Páng jūshì 龐居士 / Páng Yùn 龐蘊 (the foundational Chán lay-figure), Liǔ Zōngyuán 柳宗元.
• Sòng: extended coverage of Sū Shì, Sū Zhé, Huáng Tíngjiān, Zhāng Shāngyīng, Lǐ Gāng 李綱.
• Yuán: Yēlǜ Chǔcái 耶律楚材, Liú Mì 劉謐 (the Sānjiào píngxīn lùn author of KR6r0150).
• Míng: extensive coverage of late-Míng lay-Buddhist figures including Yuán Hóngdào 袁宏道, Tú Lóng 屠隆, Sòng Liàn 宋濂, Xià Shùfāng 夏樹芳 (the Fǎxǐ zhì author).
• Early Qīng: contemporary cases drawn from Péng’s own milieu.

The work’s distinctive contribution is its rigorous triple criterion for inclusion: a figure must (a) demonstrate substantial Buddhist doctrinal engagement, (b) maintain a public moral conduct compatible with Buddhist practice, and (c) leave behind documented evidence of his Buddhist devotion. This stricter selection-principle — articulated in opposition to the earlier compendia’s more inclusive approach — produces a substantially smaller and more rigorist corpus than Xià Shùfāng’s earlier compilation.

The work was financed and published by Wáng Gùtíng 王顧庭 of Wùyuán 婺源, who funded the engraving after Péng’s friend Luó Táishān 羅臺山 of Ruìjīn had reviewed the manuscript and “joyfully approved” of its contents. The work was completed and engraved in the late 1770s.

The Jūshì zhuàn is the principal late-imperial compendium of Chinese Buddhist lay biography and a foundational document of the late-Qīng Buddhist revival: through the 19th and 20th centuries it would supply the historical-prosopographical frame within which the Chinese Buddhist lay revival (under Yáng Wénhuì 楊文會 and his successors) understood its own genealogical roots.

Translations and research

• 釋見曄, 《彭際清的居士佛教》(Táiběi: Fǎ-gǔ wén-huà, 2007) — the standard Chinese-language monograph on Péng Jì-qīng, with extended treatment of the Jū-shì zhuàn.
• 謝路軍, 《彭紹升的佛學思想》(Běijīng: Zōng-jiào wén-huà chū-bǎn-shè, 2010) — comprehensive treatment of Péng’s intellectual career.
• 廖肇亨, 《彭際清研究》, 國家科學委員會專題研究計畫, 2008 — biographical-textual study.
• Daniel Stevenson, “The Status of Jū-shì in Late-Imperial Chinese Buddhism,” in J. Heller and M. Heller, eds., Buddhism Across Asia (Singapore: ISEAS, 2014) — context for the Jū-shì zhuàn in the late-imperial Chinese Buddhist lay tradition.
• 賴永海, 《中國佛教百科全書》(Shànghǎi: Shànghǎi gǔ-jí, 2000) — covers Péng and the Jū-shì zhuàn in standard reference form.
• Holmes Welch, The Buddhist Revival in China (Cambridge MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 1968) — context for the work’s reception in the late-Qīng / early-Republican Buddhist revival.

Other points of interest

The work was foundational for the late-Qīng / Republican Chinese Buddhist revival: Yáng Wénhuì 楊文會 (1837–1911), the principal figure of the late-19th-century revival, identified Péng Jìqīng as his intellectual model, reprinted the Jūshì zhuàn through his Jīnlíng kèjīngchù 金陵刻經處 publishing initiative, and explicitly framed his own restoration project as the continuation of Péng’s work. The Jūshì zhuàn is therefore the principal mid-Qīng intellectual ancestor of the modern Chinese Buddhist revival.

Links

• CBETA: X88n1646