Yuántōng Dàyīng Guóshī yǔlù 圓通大應國師語録

Recorded Sayings of National Master Entsū Daiō by 南浦紹明 Nanpo Jōmyō (語); compiled by 祖照 Soshō (等編)

About the work

A two-fascicle Recorded Sayings collection of 南浦紹明 Nanpo Jōmyō (1235–1308), Kamakura-period Japanese Rinzai-Zen master, posthumous title Entsū Daiō Kokushi 圓通大應國師. Compiled by his disciple Soshō 祖照 and others.

Abstract

Nanpo Jōmyō received Línjì-school transmission from Xūtáng Zhìyú 虛堂智愚 (1185–1269) at Jìngshānsì 徑山寺 during his 1259–1267 China sojourn — establishing in Japan the Xūtáng line (the Yōrin Hōō chu-tang ha 楊岐法應虛堂派) that would, through his disciple Shūhō Myōchō 宗峰妙超 (Daitō Kokushi) and Shūhō’s disciple Kanzan Egen 關山慧玄, become the dominant medieval-and-modern Japanese Rinzai-Zen lineage known as the Ō-tō-kan-ha 應燈關派 (after the three founding masters: Daiō Nanpo, Daitō Shūhō, Kanzan Egen).

The yulu in two fascicles preserves Nanpo’s jōdō sermons, hōgo dharma-talks, encounter-dialogues, and occasion-verses, organized by his abbacies at Kōtoku-ji 興德寺 in Hakata, Sōfuku-ji 崇福寺, and Kenchō-ji 建長寺. The compilation was done by Soshō 祖照 and unnamed disciples, presumably soon after Nanpo’s death in 1308.

Significance: the textual foundation of the Ō-tō-kan-ha lineage — the principal medieval Japanese Rinzai-Zen line — and through it of Daitoku-ji, Myōshin-ji, and the modern Rinzai sub-schools. One of the most historically influential yulu of Japanese Buddhism.

Translations and research

  • No complete English translation located.
  • Dumoulin, Heinrich, Zen Buddhism, vol. 2: Japan, pp. 36–37, 184–186; on the Ō-tō-kan-ha pp. 187–224.
  • Foulk, T. Griffith, “Daitō’s Last Will,” in Heine, Steven and Wright, Dale S. (eds.), Zen Masters, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.