Mèngchuāng Guóshī yǔlù 夢窓國師語録
Recorded Sayings of National Master Musō by 夢窓疎石 Musō Soseki (語); compiled by 本元 Honkan (等編)
About the work
A three-fascicle Recorded Sayings collection of 夢窓疎石 Musō Soseki (1275–1351), the supreme figure of medieval Japanese Rinzai-Zen and founder of the Musō-ha 夢窓派 — by far the most influential lineage of the medieval Five-Mountain Zen system. Posthumous imperial titles Musō Kokushi 夢窓國師, Shōgaku Shinshū Fusai Kokushi 正覺心宗普濟國師, etc. Compiled by his disciple Honkan 本元 and others.
Prefaces
The work opens with a preface dated Bunna 3 (1354), 4th month, Buddha’s birthday day (8th of the 4th month) by Eiyu of Tōryō at Shimei 四明東陵叟永璵 — a Chinese-emigrant master at the Japanese Gozan, paying tribute to Musō:
“What is greatest in the world is the dào (道); what is most fair is the lǐ (理). Those who can be public and upright, broad and great, accord with the dào-and-lǐ — there are none who do not honor and respect them. Since coming east from the southern country to Japan, I have seen only one such person — the master Musō Kokushi. The master’s dào is like spring traveling the great earth; the master’s virtue is like the bright sun in the sky; the master’s precepts are stern like ice-and-frost; the master’s practice manifests in his daily deeds. Eight times he raised the tonkō (blunt-axe); six places he opened mountains (i.e. founded temples). Three reigns added their respect; one whole country together honored him. He so accorded with the great-public dào-and-lǐ that all naturally came to honor and respect him. As for the master’s speech, it filled the whole world without any verbal-fault. The Kokushi patriarched Bukkō (佛光 — Wúxué Zǔyuán) and mastered Bukkoku (佛國 — Kōhō Kennichi); he proclaimed the school-doctrine and instructed later students — like pearls running on a tray, having their own origin.”
The preface notes that Musō’s jisshi Ryōshū Eitaku 龍湫永澤 (the jushu head-monk) requested the preface, and Yu (Eiyu) demurs: “The Kokushi is a child-grandson of the Bukkō-line — and yet here I am to use the eye-cataract-darkening method to view his work. Those who succeed his dharma — they are all the unicorn-and-phoenix of the patriarchal-forest; there must be those who will magnify his family-and-line.”
A short author’s-own note follows: “This is one life’s sleep-talk of the old monk. Please do not seek for additions or corrections from others; nor moreover have it printed and distributed.” (此是老僧一生寐語也。切差求添削於他人。矧乎刊板卽施矣哉) — a humorous self-deprecation, since printed-and-distributed it indeed was.
Abstract
Content: three fascicles preserving Musō’s jōdō sermons (organized by his abbacies at Erin-ji, Zuisen-ji, Saihō-ji, Tenryū-ji, and others); hōgo dharma-talks (including extensive talks for noble disciples); encounter-dialogues; and verses. The text title gives the full posthumous: 夢窓正覺心宗普濟國師語目錄.
Significance: the central documentary text of the Musō-ha lineage — by far the most influential medieval Japanese Rinzai-Zen yulu. Through Musō’s many dharma-heirs (most prominently 周信 Gidō Shūshin KR6t0262 and Shun’oku Myōha 春屋妙葩 KR6t0266) the Musō-ha dominated the Muromachi-period Gozan and produced the Gozan literature flowering. The work is also a primary source for Musō’s relations with Emperors Go-Daigo and Hanazono and with Shōgun Ashikaga Takauji, who at Musō’s urging founded the Ankoku-ji ritō 安國寺利塔 (“Country-Pacifying Temples and Stūpas”) network.
Translations and research
- Partial English translations: Trevor Leggett, A First Zen Reader, Tokyo: Tuttle, 1960 — includes selections from Musō.
- Heine, Steven and Wright, Dale S. (eds.), Zen Masters, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
- Pollack, David, The Fracture of Meaning (1986) — extensive treatment of Musō and Gozan literature.
- Collcutt, Martin, Five Mountains (1981).
- Dumoulin, Zen Buddhism, vol. 2: Japan, pp. 153–161.
Other points of interest
Musō’s separate work Muchū mondōshū 夢中問答集 (“Dialogues in a Dream”) — a collection of doctrinal dialogues with Ashikaga Tadayoshi — is preserved separately and is one of the most-read medieval Japanese Zen texts; it is not included in the present canonical yulu.
Links
- CBETA: T80n2555
- Wikipedia: Musō Soseki