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 LínjìYángqí 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 LínjìYángqí 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 LínjìYángqí 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
- 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 LínjìYángqí
- Doctrinal framework: three-barriers (sānguān 三關) progressive-Chán-awakening structure