Chángguāng Guóshī yǔlù 常光國師語録
Recorded Sayings of Constant-Brightness National Master by 明應 Kūkoku Myōō (語)
About the work
A two-fascicle Recorded Sayings collection of 明應 Kūkoku Myōō (1328–1407), Late-Nanbokuchō Gozan Rinzai-Zen master in the 夢窓疎石 Musō Soseki line via Mukyoku Shigen 無極志玄 (1282–1359, the second-generation abbot of Tenryū-ji). Posthumous title Butsunichi Jōkō Kokushi 佛日常光國師 — hence the work’s title — bestowed by Emperor Go-Komatsu 後小松天皇 in 1408, the year following Kūkoku’s death.
Abstract
Kūkoku entered his founder-temple, Tenpuku-ji 天福禪寺 at Mount Shōkaku-zan 正覺山 in Mino 美濃 (Gifu), on Eiwa 1 / 12 / 5 (1376-01-26 NS). The opening of the present text records that jōdō: “Pointing at the temple gate: Throughout the ten directions of the world there is no obstructed liberation-gate. Whether one enters or fails to enter, comprehensively get the marvel — left and right meet the source.” Subsequent abbacies recorded in the text appear to include Tenryū-ji 天龍寺 and (Kūkoku also held) Nanzen-ji 南禪寺; both fascicles are organised by the standard Gozan yǔlù sections — jōdō, shōsan (小參), fa-yǔ, nenkō (拈香) — including a memorial nenkō for the dharma-grandfather Mukyoku Mukyoku 天龍第二代勅諡佛慈禪師無極和尚 (“the second-generation Tenryū-ji abbot, imperially-titled Butsuji Zenji Mukyoku”) which fixes the lineage relationship.
The lower date-bound (1376) is the entry into Tenpuku-ji at which the recorded sayings begin; the upper bound is Kūkoku’s death (1407). The Taishō text is from the Edo-period block-print preserved at Tenpuku-ji.
The text is one of several second-generation Musō-line Gozan yǔlù preserved in the Taishō (alongside KR6t0266 Shun’oku Myōha and KR6t0267 Zekkai Chūshin). Compared to the latter two, Kūkoku’s collection is institutionally narrower — it does not record a Five-Mountain abbacy of the rank Shun’oku held — but its jōdō sermons are noted in Gozan-bungaku scholarship for an idiomatically pithy style closer to mid-Sòng Linji-school models than to the literarily elaborate manner of Zekkai.
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language secondary literature located. For the Musō-line second-generation context, see Imaeda Aishin 今枝愛真, Chūsei Zenshū-shi no kenkyū 中世禅宗史の研究 (Tōkyō daigaku shuppankai, 1970); Tamamura Takeji 玉村竹二, Gozan zenrin shūha-zu 五山禅林宗派図 (Heirakuji shoten, 1985). The Tenpuku-ji branch’s institutional history is in Mino-shi shi: shūkyō hen (Gifu, 1971).
Links
- CBETA online
- Wikipedia (ja): 空谷明応 https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/空谷明応
- Tenpuku-ji 天福寺 (Mino, Gifu)