Quánzhōu qiānfó xīnzhù zhū zǔshī sòng 泉州千佛新著諸祖師頌
Newly Composed Encomiastic Verses on the Various Patriarchs at the Thousand-Buddha [Temple] of Quánzhōu verses anonymous; preface by 慧觀 (撰序)
About the work
A single-juan late-Táng / Five-Dynasties Buddhist Chán-lineage encomium-collection, preserved at T85 no. 2861. The work is an Esoteric-Chán hagiographical-praise composition — encomiastic verses (sòng 頌) for the 33 Chán patriarchs of the orthodox transmission lineage from Mahākāśyapa 迦葉 (the first patriarch) through Bodhidharma 達磨 to Huì-néng 慧能 of Cáo-xī 曹溪 (the sixth Chinese patriarch) — composed at the Qián-zhōu Qiān-fó-sì 泉州千佛寺 (“Thousand-Buddha Temple” of Quánzhōu, in modern Fú-jiàn). The preface is by Huì-guān 慧觀, śramaṇa of Mount Zhōng-nán 終南山.
Prefaces
The text opens with Huìguān’s auto-preface (paraphrased):
The Nányuè Tàigōng 南岳泰公 [Tài of the Southern Peak; perhaps a reference to Lǎngzhōu Sōngshān Tàigōng?] composed five praises and ten encomia. At the time it was called a fine-talk-of-praise. Reaching to Lèpǔ Xiāngyán 樂浦香嚴, his encomia were especially excellent. These then are sources of helping the Way, the very root.
Since the patriarch-lamp was mutually entrusted — beginning with Kāśyapa and ending with Cáo-xī — there are 33 patriarchs, with the faith-robe afterward reaching some persons. Of those whom the previous worthies had not encomized, I — foolish and ill-equipped — am [troubled by]. Although the Bǎo-lín tradition transmitted-the-matter, looking at it, can be entrusted; how can [I] forget the trigger? Still, the lazy or those who view it as a deficiency: for them, “binding it far from the autumn-remnants” can be done. The foolish, with the prior intent, requested at the Thousand-Buddha Lamp…
Abstract
Authorship of the verses themselves is anonymous (composed at the Quánzhōu Thousand-Buddha Temple); the preface is by Huìguān 慧觀 of Mount Zhōngnán. The work is one of the principal Dunhuang witnesses to the late-Táng / Five-Dynasties Chán lineage-literature — specifically to the genre of encomiastic-verse hagiography (zǔshī sòng 祖師頌) of the 33-patriarch transmission, paralleling the much-better-known Zǔtáng jí 祖堂集 (952) and the Jǐngdé chuándēng lù 景德傳燈錄 (1004) of the Sòng. notBefore = 900, notAfter = 1000 (the standard late-Táng / Five-Dynasties Chán-literature bracket).
The location at Quánzhōu 泉州 in southern Fújiàn is significant: Quánzhōu was one of the principal centers of late-Táng / Five-Dynasties Chán activity (under the Mǐn 閩 kingdom of Wáng Shěnzhī 王審知, 862–925, and successor regimes). The Thousand-Buddha Temple appears to be a Quánzhōu monastic establishment of the late-Táng / Five-Dynasties period.
The work confirms by its very existence the wide Chinese geographical distribution of Chán lineage-encomium literature by the late-Táng / Five-Dynasties period — a tradition that originated in the Chángān–Luòyáng metropolitan center and the central-and-southern monasteries (Cáoxī, Sōngshān, Sìchuān Bǎotáng) and had reached the southeastern coast by the time of this Quánzhōu compilation.
Translations and research
No substantial dedicated Western-language secondary literature located. See:
- Yampolsky and successor scholars on the Liù-zǔ tán-jīng 六祖壇經 / 33-patriarch lineage.
- Albert Welter, Monks, Rulers, and Literati: The Political Ascendancy of Chan Buddhism (Oxford, 2006) — context for late-Táng / Five-Dynasties Chán in Fú-jiàn.
- Yampolsky’s translation of The Platform Sūtra of the Sixth Patriarch (Columbia, 1967) — patriarchal lineage context.
Other points of interest
The text is one of the principal Dunhuang preservations of non-metropolitan Chán literature — composed in the southeastern coastal region (Quánzhōu) but transmitted through the Buddhist canonical-distribution networks to the western frontier (Dunhuang Cave 17). This north-south transmission pattern testifies to the integrated nature of the late-Táng / Five-Dynasties Buddhist textual circulation system.
Links
- DILA authority: (no preserved authority entry for Huìguān 慧觀 of Zhōngnán)
- CBETA: T85n2861
- Cited predecessor encomium-traditions: Nányuè Tàigōng, Lèpǔ Xiāngyán, Bǎolín lineage
- Doctrinal context: 33-patriarch Chán lineage tradition (Mahākāśyapa → Cáo-xī Huì-néng)
- Companion lineage-literature: Zǔtáng jí 祖堂集 (952), Jǐngdé chuándēng lù 景德傳燈錄 (1004)