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瑩山清規

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Text ID
KR6t0295
Date
1300–1325
Dynasty
日本

Yíngshān qīngguī 瑩山清規

Pure Rules of Keizan by 瑩山 Keizan Jōkin (撰)

About the work

A two-fascicle monastic-rules text by 瑩山 Keizan Jōkin (1268–1325), composed for and in use at his two principal Noto foundations — Yōkō-ji 永光寺 (also known as Tōkoku-ji 洞谷寺 in its early years) and Sōji-ji 諸嶽山總持寺. The companion-text in the Sōtō-Zen monastic tradition to Dōgen’s KR6t0290 Eihei shingi; the two together constitute the foundational rules-codification of the Japanese Sōtō school.

Abstract

The principal preface (anonymous, from the Edo editio princeps) frames the recovery and re-publication of the text:

“Antiquity says: ‘The human heart is like iron; the official law is like a furnace.’ How well said! For the iron that has passed through the red-furnace can be made into all sorts of vessels, its uses inexhaustible. If not so, dull-stupid like tile-and-rubble. The human heart is also so. With official law it is rectified, then there is no partial-private; otherwise [the heart] mostly falls into one-bend. The one-bend gentleman and the dull iron are alike unfit for use. Official law — this means not merely the king’s regulations. The Three-Thousand Manners and Eight-Myriad Subtle Practices are the official law of the Buddha-gate. The Great-Hero’s Rites-and-Music and the Eihei rules-and-ropes are the official law of the patriarch-gate. … Now this winter, journeying north a thousand miles, I climbed the Sugijubayashi at Kayō; bowed to the chief-cell elder, who graciously permitted me to join the anchored-residence (summer-retreat) line. The pure rules of the [meditation-]hall — alongside the ancient-Buddhas and the patriarchs of antiquity — were in mutual surface-and-back, in order, order! So they could be observed. … The hall-officers told me: ‘These pure rules are those that our great master Keizan promulgated at the two places of this temple, Tōkoku and [Yōkō]. The volume is in two fascicles, item by item all weighing-balanced (折中) on the Buddha-and-patriarchs, with not a hair too much or too little. The cell-elder once obtained it from an ancient chest, and has practised it for one full hall … in restoring the assembly-grove, several years now.‘”*

The preface continues with the textual recovery: “In olden times Keizan died and this text was hidden. The text being hidden, the assembly-grove fell to ruin. Today the Reverend has come forth and this text appears. The text appearing, the assembly-grove flourishes. The arising-and-passing of the person, the hidden-revealed of the text — really the assembly-grove’s flourishing-and-decline depends on it.”

The text proper covers:

  • Daily protocols: morning and evening fugin (chants), midday jōdō sermons, kankin sūtra-recitations, dokuro readings.
  • The monks-hall (sōdō 僧堂): regulation of bowls, cushions, sleep-and-wake schedule, the Yokushitsu 浴室 (bath) rotations, the Tōsu 東司 (latrine) protocols.
  • Memorial calendar: the Buddha-Bodhi-Day, Buddha-Birth-Day, Buddha-Nirvāṇa-Day, Bodhidharma-anniversary, and founder-anniversaries.
  • Liturgical formulae: the jūbutsumei (10-Buddha names), the go-kan (5-contemplations) at meals.
  • Special rites: kessei (entry-into-retreat), gosei (release-from-retreat), zenshi (head-monk-installation), kakkin (dharma-talk-by-the-head-monk).
  • Founder-temple-specific protocols: the jūshi-fudo-kuyō 十三佛供養 (Thirteen-Buddha offering) at Yōkō-ji, the kashu-no-kuyō (incense-offering) at Sōji-ji.

The dating bracket is the period of Keizan’s mature teaching (c. 1300–1325). The Taishō recension is the Edo-period printing.

The work is canonical for the Sōji-ji-line of Japanese Sōtō; the modern Sōtō school’s two head-temples — Eihei-ji (using the KR6t0290 Eihei shingi) and Sōji-ji (using the Keizan shingi) — observe complementary but distinct rule-codifications, both ultimately deriving from the patriarchs’ compositions.

Translations and research

The principal English translation is by Taigen Dan Leighton and Shōhaku Okumura, published as the second volume of their Sōtō-rules translation series, Keizan Jōkin’s Pure Standards (forthcoming SUNY series). For Keizan’s institutional rules-work and its role in the formation of the Sōji-ji line, see William Bodiford, Sōtō Zen in Medieval Japan (Univ. of Hawai’i Press, 1993), chs. 5–6.

Other points of interest

The two-fascicle structure reflects the two-temple origin: fascicle 1 carries the rules as observed at Tōkoku / Yōkō-ji in Noto (Keizan’s first major foundation, 1313); fascicle 2 carries the further developments as observed at Sōji-ji (which Keizan founded c. 1321 by transferring an existing temple’s name). The two temples represented different aspects of Keizan’s institutional vision — Yōkō-ji as the meditation-hall-centred monastery, Sōji-ji as the liturgical-and-funerary monastery — and the dual-fascicle structure of the shingi preserves this distinction.

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