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見桃録

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Text ID
KR6t0278
Date
1549–1737
Dynasty
日本

Jiàntáo lù 見桃録

Peach-Sight Record by 宗休 Daikyū Sōkyū (語), 道忠 Dōchū (序)

About the work

A four-fascicle Recorded Sayings collection of 宗休 Daikyū Sōkyū (1468–1549), eighth-generation abbot of Myōshin-ji 妙心寺 and dharma-heir of 禪傑 Tokuhō Zenketsu (one of 宗深 Sekkō Sōshin’s “Four Branches”). Posthumous title Enman Honkō Kokushi 圓滿本光國師, later expanded to Daitetsu Enman Honkō Kokushi 大徹圓滿本光國師, bestowed by Emperor Ōgimachi 正親町天皇 in 1582 (Tenshō 10). The title Kentō-roku — “Peach-Sight Record” — derives from Daikyū’s late retreat Kentō-an 見桃菴 (“Hermitage where peach-blossoms can be seen”) at the foot of Mount Daiun-zan, built for him by Hosokawa Tsunamoto 細川氏綱.

Abstract

The preface by Dōchū 道忠, a remote dharma-grandson of the Reiun-ha lineage, dated Genbun 2 / 7 / 24 (元文二歳次丁巳壯月二十四日 = 1737-08-19 NS), records the recovery-and-collation history:

“After Enman Honkō Kokushi [Daikyū] led the assembly at the Hōzan [Myōshin-ji], the lord of Arima district, the lady [Modō Fujin 模堂夫人] of the Akamatsu clan, built a Buddhist hall for the master on the southwest side of the mountain — Reigen-an 靈雲菴 — and invited the master to dwell there. Later Hosokawa Tsunamoto established a quiet retreat at the foot of Mount Daiun-zan to provide a place for the master’s Zen-leisure — Kentō-an. Both names had a precedent in the Zhi-qín Zenji 志勤禪師’s enlightenment-circumstance [the Yangqi monk Língyún Zhìqín 靈雲志勤 was enlightened on seeing peach-blossoms; ‘peach-sight’ is the iconic kōan-encounter]; their precise sense cannot today be fully measured. Therefore the records of the master’s lifetime ascents, openings of training-grounds, instructions to assemblies, standing-recitations, verses, and encomia, gathered by his contemporaries, were titled the Kentō-roku.”

He then describes the 1734 collation project: “In the jiǎyín year (Kyōhō 19 / 1734), several of us deliberated together to fix the text. We collected the family-preserved [copies], in total more than ten different recensions, comparing them carefully — distinguishing genuine from spurious, supplementing lacunae, removing duplications, ordering the disordered. We finally divided it into four fascicles.” The pagoda-keeper then approached Dōchū at the Tonna-an 遯窩 for a preface, which Dōchū supplied while “declining out of weakness, but moved by the family-treasure”.

The dating bracket runs from Daikyū’s death (1549) to the editio princeps (1737). The textual recovery is one of the most thorough among the Shihatsu-lineage yulu in the Taishō.

The four-fascicle table of contents covers Daikyū’s three successive principal abbacies:

  • Fasc. 1: jōdō sermons at Myōshin-ji 妙心寺 (entered Eishō 13 / 1516), including the famous sansaku sermon on entering: “At the great-cessation-place, between heaven and earth, one person stands alone. The assembly hears the sound of raindrops falling on the lintel outside the gate. — Ma! Peach-flowers open, Nampo’s spring.” (大休歇地乾坤一人名).
  • Fasc. 2: jōdō at Reigen-ji and Kentō-an, fa-yǔ, shōsan, nenkō.
  • Fasc. 3: sònggǔ, jisàn, jìsòng, kōangechū on the sìliàojiǎn and the Five Ranks.
  • Fasc. 4: fa-yǔ to lay disciples (especially the Hosokawa and Arima families), funerary inscriptions, and a closing appendix.

Translations and research

No substantial Western-language secondary literature located. See the references for KR6t0275; specifically for Daikyū and the Honkō Kokushi line, Ogisu Jundō 荻須純道, Myōshinji-shi 妙心寺史 (Myōshinji honjo, 1975), §V.

Other points of interest

The LínyúnZhìqín peach-blossom kōan (“For thirty years I sought a swordsman; how many leaves fell, how many sprouted? From the moment I saw the peach-blossoms once, I have not doubted again” — Jǐngdé chuándēng lù 景德傳燈録 fasc. 11) is one of the canonical Linji-school enlightenment-stories, and Daikyū’s adoption of Kentō — “Peach-Sight” — as his late-life hermitage-name is among the most direct Japanese Zen identifications with a specific Sòng kōan. The 1737 four-fascicle redaction is the most carefully edited of the Shihatsu-lineage Taishō yulu.

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