Pǔjì Héshàng yǔlù 普濟和尚語録
Recorded Sayings of Reverend Fusai by 普濟 Fusai Zenkyū (語), 禪雄 Zen’yū (編)
About the work
A three-fascicle Recorded Sayings collection of 普濟 Fusai Zenkyū (1347–1408), fifth-generation Sōji-ji-line Sōtō-Zen master and dharma-heir of 寂靈 Tsūgen Jakurei (1322–1391). Edited by his disciple Zen’yū 禪雄 and others. The text covers Fusai’s two principal abbacies — at Taigen-zan Shōkō-ji 太原山聖興寺 in Echizen (entered Meitoku 4 / 1393, the lower date-bound) and later at Mount Shogaku-zan Sōji-ji 諸嶽山總持寺 in Noto.
Abstract
The full title of the upper fascicle is Fusai Reverend Resident at Mount Shogaku-zan Sōji-ji yulu 普濟和上住能州諸嶽山總持禪寺語録. The opening jōdō records:
“The Master, in Meitoku 4 / kishū / small-spring 2nd day [明徳四歳癸酉年小春初二日 = 1393-11-08 NS], received the invitation at Taigen-zan Shōkō-ji. The same month, on the nen (20th)-and-second day [1393-11-28 NS], he entered the temple. Pointing at the temple-gate, he said: ‘The Great Liberation Gate. Eight characters open up. One leap directly enters’ — Looking left and right: ‘From here come.’ Buddha-hall: ‘Buddha is the Western-Heaven old monk. I am today’s small monk. Bowing to you for the cause of my emerging.’ Earth-Spirit Hall: ‘Protect the Dharma, secure the people. Respond to the Vulture-Peak record. Speak the Dharma to deliver people, in the dwelling-mountain status.’ … Pointing at the dharma-seat: ‘High high a single seat: vertically penetrating the three times, horizontally spanning the ten directions. The Buddhas and patriarchs all relied on this status to do business.’ Then ascending the seat, taking up incense: the standard five-incense rite — first for the reigning emperor, second for the temple’s chief patron, third for the shi-mo-no-kō: ‘this single kind of mind-incense, my master once obtained from the patriarch ancestors, the firm spiritual root, three times took office at this temple, the abundant branches and leaves. Master and disciple are continuously connected — the residual fragrance is still warm. Today, as before, I offer it to the temple’s fifth-generation Tsūgen old-master Reverend Daizenji, in repayment of the dharma-milk-kindness.‘”
The fifth incense identifying the master-link is critical: Fusai explicitly identifies his master as “the fifth-generation Tsūgen old-master” — i.e. Tsūgen Jakurei as the fifth-generation in the Sōji-ji line counting from Dōgen, since the count goes Dōgen-Ejō-Gikai-Keizan-Gasan-Tsugen → Fusai. This positions Fusai as the sixth-generation in the Sōtō trunk — and within the Sōji-ji-line specifically, the fifth-generation abbot of Sōji-ji (Sōji-ji being founded by Keizan).
The three fascicles cover Fusai’s ministry comprehensively:
- Fasc. 1 (上): the Sōji-ji entry-sermon and subsequent jōdō; opening kōan-dialogues with the Daikai — Master-of-Constant-Light Reverend (定光和尚) — who serves as the byakutsui (white-mallet officer) for the entry ritual.
- Fasc. 2 (中): Shōkō-ji jōdō, fa-yǔ, shōsan, nenkō memorial-rites including the principal one for Tsūgen Jakurei at Tsugen’s pagoda.
- Fasc. 3 (下): sònggǔ, jìsòng, jisàn, and a closing biographical appendix.
The dating bracket runs from the Shōkō-ji installation (1393) through to Fusai’s death (1408). The Taishō recension is the Edo-period block-print preserved at Sōji-ji.
The work is one of the principal fifth-generation Sōji-ji-line yulu in the Taishō and is of central importance for reconstructing the late-Nanbokuchō Sōtō expansion that fed the rapid Tsūgen-ha growth of the early Muromachi period.
Translations and research
No book-length English translation located. For Fusai and the Tsūgen-ha sub-line in the late fourteenth century, see William Bodiford, Sōtō Zen in Medieval Japan (Univ. of Hawai’i Press, 1993), chs. 5–7.
Other points of interest
The opening sermon’s incense-rite identifies Fusai’s master Tsūgen as “three-times taking office at this temple, the abundant branches and leaves” (三董于本寺) — confirming that Tsūgen had served three terms as abbot of Sōji-ji, an unusual triple-installation pattern that establishes his pre-eminence in the Sōji-ji-line during the late fourteenth century. This is one of the principal source-witnesses to Tsūgen’s institutional dominance.
Links
- CBETA online
- Related: KR6t0298 (Tsūgen Jakurei’s yulu, Fusai’s master)