Zhōngyuànliú sìdù kǒuchuán 中院流四度口傳
Oral Transmissions on the Four [Preliminary] Practices of the Chū’in Lineage by 宥快 (撰)
About the work
A four-fascicle Shingon ritual kuden compendium by Yūkai 宥快 (1345–1416), the great mid-Nanbokuchō / early-Muromachi master of Hōshō-in 寶性院 on Kōyasan. The work presents the Four Preliminary Practices (sìdù 四度 / shido) — the Eighteen-Mudrā method, the Garbha-realm method, the Vajra-realm method, and the Mahāmāyūrī / homa method — in the form recognised by the Chū’in-ryū transmission line, with the canonical kuden annotations distinguishing the Chū’in readings from those of other Kōyasan branches.
Abstract
Authorship and dating: Yūkai received his Chū’in-ryū transmission in 1377 (see KR6t0209 Ju-Hōshō-in Yūkai-ki); composition window for the present work is 1377–1416, within his subsequent career at Hōshō-in. The work is one of his principal codifying compilations.
Doctrinal content: fascicle 1 opens with the Eighteen-Mudrā oral transmission (十八道口傳), prefaced with the lineage-foundational claim: “The Chū’in-ryū Eighteen-Mudrā sequence takes Mahāvairocana as the chief deity, after the Great Master [Kūkai]‘s own composition. The various manuscripts have minor textual variations.” (中院流十八道次第大日爲本尊。大師御作云云但諸本文字有少異). The procedure is then given in standard shido sequence:
First, the purification-of-three-karmas paragraph: wash the hands, rinse the mouth, put on the dharma-robe and kesa; the purification-of-three-karmas, the three-family-armoring, etc. are as standard. This school does not have the purifying-dharma-robe empowerment procedure.
Next, the facing-the-chief-deity paragraph: prayer-beads suspended on the left wrist; the prostration-bows of the entire body and the three reverences; the universal-prostration mantra three times.
Next, after preparing the offerings, take up the censer for the three reverences; the entire-body…
The work then proceeds through the full sequence of the eighteen mudrās with detailed Chū’in-ryū-specific annotations. The closing fascicles cover the Garbha and Vajra realms, the Mahāmāyūrī-format homa, and the one-syllable hundred-recitation concluding meditation.
The work is the principal Chū’in-ryū four-preliminary-practices manual of the medieval Kōyasan tradition and was the standard reference for the lineage from Yūkai’s day through the Edo period.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language secondary literature located.
- Yūkai and the Chū’in-ryū are treated in the Mikkyō daijiten s.v. Yūkai, Chū’in-ryū; Kōyasan-shi.
Other points of interest
Yūkai is also remembered as the Hōshō-in scholastic systematiser who, in addition to his ritual codifications, produced major exegetical works on Kūkai’s Mìzàng bǎoyào and Shízhù xīn lùn — establishing the medieval interpretive orthodoxy of Hōshō-in Shingon.