Yùxuǎn yǔlù 御選語錄
Imperially Selected Recorded Sayings selected by 世宗皇帝 (御選), the Yōngzhèng 雍正 emperor
About the work
A nineteen-juan imperially edited Chán-Buddhist yǔlù (recorded-sayings) anthology, selected (yùxuǎn 御選) by the Qīng Yōngzhèng emperor 雍正帝 (Aisin-Gioro Yìnzhēn, 1678–1735, r. 1722–1735), completed in Yōngzhèng 11 = 1733. The work is an authoritative imperial-curated anthology of Chán yǔlù spanning the entire Chinese Chán tradition — from the Tang patriarchs through the late-Míng / early-Qīng masters — with the imperial selection privileging the orthodox Mìyún Yuánwù 密雲圓悟 line of Línjì-Yángqí Chán in conjunction with the polemical positioning of KR6s0068. Preserved at X68 no. 1319.
Prefaces
The text opens with the Yùzhì zǒngxù 御製總序 (Imperially Composed General Preface). In paraphrase:
The Tathāgata’s right-Dharma eye-treasure, transmitted outside the teaching, truly has the principle of piercing the three barriers. The true-speaker, the real-speaker, the not-deceiving-speaker, the not-falsifying-speaker — for those who have intent toward the Way: they must diligently consult and forcefully investigate. From the one to the three, step-by-step there is settling — not muddle-headed and confused, deceiving oneself and deceiving others.
I am already deeply clear on this matter; not sparing the words-to-fall-on-the-ear, one-by-one I clearly indicate. The student first ascending the gate of liberation — suddenly released from the suffering of being bound by karma — feels the mountains-and-rivers-and-great-earth, the ten-direction empty-space all dissolved-and-vanished. Not deceived by the tongues of the ancient gimlets. Recognizing that the present seven-foot body is nothing but earth-water-fire-wind, naturally to-the-bottom pure, not hanging by a single thread — this is then named the first-step shattering of consultation. Of those who the before-and-after states are cut off: having shattered the original consultation, they then know mountains as mountains, rivers as rivers, the great-earth as the great-earth, the ten-direction empty-space as the ten-direction empty-space, earth-water-fire-wind as earth-water-fire-wind…
[The preface continues with detailed exposition of the three barriers (sānguān 三關) of Chán practice — the foundational shattering, the before-and-after-cut-off, and the ultimate post-shattering reintegration — drawing on standard Línjì-Yángqí Chán formulations.]
Abstract
Authorship and date: imperially edited and selected by the Yōngzhèng emperor, with a 1733 imperial preface dated to Yōngzhèng 11. notBefore = 1733, notAfter = 1733 (the work is firmly dated to 1733 by its preface). Catalog dynasty 清.
The work is one of the principal imperial-canonical interventions in the Chinese Chán tradition. Its 19-juan structure spans the major Chán figures from Bodhidharma through Huìnéng through the Five Houses (wǔjiā 五家) of Tang Chán — Línjì 臨濟, Cáodòng 曹洞, Yúnmén 雲門, Fǎyǎn 法眼, Wěiyǎng 溈仰 — through the Sòng-period Yángqí 楊岐 / Huánglóng 黃龍 sub-lineages and into the late-Míng / early-Qīng masters. The imperial selection systematically privileges the Mìyún Yuánwù 密雲圓悟 line of Línjì-Yángqí Chán — which Yōngzhèng explicitly defended in KR6s0068 against the dissent of Hànyuè Fǎzàng 漢月法藏 — and integrates this with selections from the Pure Land masters and other complementary doctrinal traditions.
The substantive three-barriers (sānguān) doctrinal exposition in the imperial preface is one of the most explicit pre-modern statements of the Línjì progressive-awakening framework:
- First barrier: shattering of consultation — recognizing the body as four-element empty.
- Before-and-after cut off: post-shattering recognition that mountains are again mountains, rivers again rivers — the standard Chán “shān shì shān” formulation.
- Final integration: full post-awakening function in the world (implied but not detailed in the preface excerpt).
This three-stage framework, while drawing on traditional Línjì sources, is given in unusually clear and systematic form by Yōngzhèng — making the Yùxuǎn yǔlù preface one of the principal pre-modern statements of the Chán practical-soteriological framework.
Translations and research
Reminder: AI generated list - beware of hallucinations. Corrections and additions welcome
- Jiang Wu 吳疆, Enlightenment in Dispute (Oxford, 2008) — for the institutional context of Yōng-zhèng’s imperial Chán intervention.
- Wáng Jūn-zhōng 王俊中, Yōng-zhèng huáng-dì yǔ Fó-jiào — the standard Sinophone treatment.
- Holmes Welch, The Buddhist Revival in China (Harvard, 1968) — Qīng-period Chán historical context.
- Robert E. Buswell, Jr., The Zen Monastic Experience (Princeton, 1992) — context for Chán practical-soteriology.
Other points of interest
The 19-juan extent and substantive imperial-doctrinal preface make the Yùxuǎn yǔlù one of the most consequential pre-modern imperial-curated Buddhist canonical anthologies. Together with KR6s0068 (the polemic against Hànyuè Fǎzàng), it constitutes the Yōngzhèng program of Chán-orthodoxy reconstruction — establishing an imperial-canonical Chán lineage that would shape subsequent late-imperial and modern Chinese Chán Buddhism.
Links
- DILA authority: (no preserved authority entry for the imperial author)
- CBETA: X68n1319
- Author: Yōngzhèng emperor Aisin-Gioro Yìnzhēn 愛新覺羅·胤禛 (1678–1735, r. 1722–1735)
- Companion Yōngzhèng imperial Buddhist works: KR6s0068 Jiǎnmó biànyì lù, KR6s0070 Zōngjìng dàgāng, KR6s0009 Chóngdìng jiàoshèng fǎshù
- Privileged Chán lineage: Mìyún Yuánwù 密雲圓悟 line of Línjì-Yángqí
- Doctrinal framework: three-barriers (sānguān 三關) progressive-Chán-awakening structure