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徹翁和尚語録

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Text ID
KR6t0273
Date
1338–1669
Dynasty
日本

Chèwēng Héshàng yǔlù 徹翁和尚語録

Recorded Sayings of Reverend Tettō by 義亨 Tettō Gikō (語), 禪興 Zenkō (編)

About the work

A two-fascicle Recorded Sayings collection of 義亨 Tettō Gikō (1295–1369), dharma-heir of 妙超 Shūhō Myōchō (Daitō Kokushi) and second-generation abbot of Daitoku-ji 大徳寺. Compiled by his remote dharma-descendant Zenkō 禪興 (kobitsu 比丘), the fourth-generation abbot of the Tokuzen-ji 徳禪 sub-line, who states his compilation date as Ōei 32 / 1425-03 (應永乙巳三月) in his closing colophon. Re-printed under the patronage of the lay-disciple Sōhaku Koji 宗白居士 with a second colophon by Kōun Sōryū 江雲宗龍 of Manen Sūfuku-ji 萬年崇福禪寺 dated Kanbun 9 / 1669-07 (寛文九年蕤賓望) — the editio princeps reproduced in Taishō.

Abstract

The collection is arranged by Tettō’s successive abbacies:

  • Tantō Anyō-ji 但州安養禪寺 (Anyō-ji in Tajima province): the opening fa-yǔ sequence — invocation of the Buddha-hall (a Buddha-hall that is neither Amitābha nor Śākyamuni nor Maitreya, *“What is this thing in the hall? — Yi!”, then prostration on the spread zagu) and the Bodhi-day sermon.
  • Murasakino Ryūhō-zan Daitoku-ji 紫野龍寶山大徳寺: the formal entry-sermon dated Kenmu 5 / 3 / 26 (建武五年三月二十六日 = 1338-04-15 NS), with the customary five nenkō incense-rites — the fifth being for “the temple’s founder Daitō Kokushi Shūhō” 開山特賜興禪大燈國師宗峯大和尚, fixing Tettō as Shūhō’s direct heir.

Zenkō’s compiler-colophon at fasc. 2’s end records the textual history with care: “That which extinguished the flame of the Great Lamp [Daitō] and yet [whose own light] contended with the bright sun of the eastern lands — this is none other than the Reverend Tettō, great-grandson-in-dharma of Xūtáng (Zhìyú), true grandson-in-dharma of Daiō Kokushi (Nanpo Jōmyō).” He gives the lineage chain explicitly: Xū-tang Zhìyú → Nanpo Jōmyō (Daiō) → Shūhō Myōchō (Daitō) → Tettō Gikō — the canonical Ō-Tō-Kan-Tetsu sequence (the Tetsu 徹 being Tettō).

The 1669 re-printing colophon by Kōun Sōryū frames the project as having been undertaken by the lay-disciple Sōhaku (“Sōhaku Koji came to my humble cell among the ten-mile pines, donated his wealth, commissioned the engraver, and had it re-cut for wide circulation; he wished thereby to draw people into the radiance-treasury, that they might illuminate and shatter their previous obscurity”).

The dating bracket runs from the Daitoku-ji opening (Kenmu 5 = 1338) to the editio princeps (Kanbun 9 = 1669). The work, together with KR6t0272, is one of the principal source-bases for the early Daitoku-ji lineage and is studied as such in modern Rinzai monastic curricula.

Translations and research

For Tettō’s place in the early Ō-Tō-Kan transmission, see Kenneth Kraft, Eloquent Zen: Daitō and Early Japanese Zen (Univ. of Hawai’i Press, 1992), passim; Furuta Shōkin 古田紹欽, Nihon zenshū-shi 日本禅宗史 (Tōkyō: Chikuma shobō, 1972); Tamamura Takeji 玉村竹二, Gozan zenrin shūha-zu 五山禅林宗派図 (Heirakuji shoten, 1985), §IV.

Other points of interest

The 400-year compilation-to-printing gap (1425 manuscript redaction → 1669 editio princeps) is characteristic of pre-Edo Daitoku-ji yǔlù: the works were copied in restricted manuscript among temple-abbots and only entered general circulation through Edo-period block-printing under lay patronage. Sōhaku Koji’s role here is part of the broader pattern of mid-seventeenth-century lay sponsorship of Zen-text publication.

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