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少林無孔笛

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Text ID
KR6t0277
Date
1504–1708
Dynasty
日本

Shǎolín wúkǒng dí 少林無孔笛

Holeless Flute of Shaolin by 英朝 Tōyō Eichō (語), 慧照大春 Eishō Daishun (編)

About the work

A six-fascicle Recorded Sayings collection of 英朝 Tōyō Eichō (1428–1504), one of the four principal dharma-heirs (Shihatsu 四派) of 宗深 Sekkō Sōshin and founder of the Shōrin-ha 少林派 sub-lineage of Myōshin-ji 妙心寺. Posthumous title Daidō Shingen Zenji 大道眞源禪師. The title Shǎolín wúkǒng dí — “Holeless Flute of Shaolin” — is a paronomastic reference both to Eichō’s founding of Shōrin-ji 少林寺 at Mount Ryūkei-zan and to the classical Chan idiom (the holeless flute is what only enlightened ones can sound — the Bodhidharma-transmission cannot be played on the ordinary instrument).

Abstract

The text was edited by Eishō Daishun 慧照大春, eight-generation dharma-descendant in the Shōrin-ha sub-lineage, with a preface by Sohaki 祖璧 of Myōshin-ji dated Hōei 5 / 5 / 24 (寶永戊子仲夏二十四日 = 1708-07-12 NS). Sohaki’s preface explicitly traces Eichō’s place: “Our remote patriarch Daidō Shingen Zenji rose to fame early on the Five Peaks (Tao-trained at Heibai-in 衡梅院 under Sekkō); then in the vajra-volte he turned over and directly broke into Heibai-in’s jambūmiasma, contacting Sekkō’s spicy-hand — and there expired his entire life. Afterwards, abbatially at temples: first Mount Beizan (Ryūkō-ji), finally Mount Ryūkei (Shōrin-ji). Holding a holeless flute, facing the moon of Kanzan, he blew it crosswise and lengthwise, perversely and properly. Those who tried to harmonise were struck dumb.”

The six-fascicle table of contents is unusually full and constitutes a substantial Sengoku-period Zen archive:

  • Fasc. 1: jōdō sermons at Beizan Ryūkō-ji 米山龍興寺 (founder-abbacy in Mino), Ryūhō-zan Daitoku-ji 龍寶山大徳寺, re-installed at Beizan Ryūkō-ji (saijū), Seiryū-zan Zuisen-ji 青龍山瑞泉寺 (Owari), and Tai’un-an 堆雲菴.
  • Fasc. 2: jōdō sermons at Hōzan Myōshin-ji 正法山妙心寺, Fuji-an 不二菴, Hōun-zan Jōe-ji 法雲山定慧寺, re-installed at Zuisen-ji (saijū), Rinkozan Daisen-ji 臨滹山大仙寺, and Ryūkei-zan Shōrin-ji 龍慶山少林寺 (his name-giver foundation).
  • Fasc. 3: butsuji jō 佛事上 (upper Buddha-rites — nenkō, dedicatory inscriptions, jisàn).
  • Fasc. 4: butsuji ge 佛事下 (lower Buddha-rites — including memorial nenkō on Sekkō and the famous self-deprecating nenkō for Sekkō’s memorial “My whole life I poisoned the assembly, ruined the patriarchal style — sacred Plum-Sun three feet of earth, alive-bury Yangmaru and curse the heaven-old-man”).
  • Fasc. 5–6: fa-yǔ, sònggǔ, jìsòng, kōangechū on the Linji-school sìliàojiǎn 四料簡, the zhèng pī xíng zhèng wèi 正偏 Five Ranks, and various Yangqi-school exchanges, plus the closing colophon-appendix.

The dating bracket reflects: composition through Eichō’s death (1504); editio princeps (1708).

Significance: among the Shihatsu yǔlù recoveries, the Shōrin Mukon-teki is by far the longest and most institutionally varied — twelve abbacies, six fascicles — and is the principal source-base for the Mino sub-network of Myōshin-ji in the late-Muromachi → Sengoku transition. The Shōrin-ha sub-line that descends from Eichō remained the dominant Myōshin-ji presence in Mino through the Sengoku and Edo periods.

Translations and research

No substantial Western-language secondary literature located. See the references for KR6t0275; specifically for the Shōrin-ha sub-line and Mino Myōshin-ji history, Tamamura Takeji 玉村竹二, Gozan zenrin shūha-zu 五山禅林宗派図 (Heirakuji shoten, 1985), §V; Funaoka Makoto 船岡誠, Nihon zenshū no seiritsu 日本禅宗の成立 (Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 1987).

Other points of interest

The title’s pun on Shōrin = Shōrin-ji 少林寺 (Eichō’s foundation) = Shàolínsì 少林寺 (Bodhidharma’s place of nine-years wall-gazing) is one of the most beautiful onomastic gestures in mid-Muromachi Zen literature. Each of Sekkō’s four heirs took his name from a temple or hermitage; Eichō’s lineage-self-positioning as the Japanese Shaolin through this name and title is one of the strongest Sino-Japanese identifications in late-Muromachi Rinzai-Zen.

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