聞分館君 Ask BunKanKun

黄檗清規

5 min read

Text ID
KR6t0313
Date
1672–1672
Dynasty
明/日本

Huángbò qīngguī 黄檗清規

Pure Rules of Ōbaku by 隆琦 Yǐnyuán Lóngqí (Ingen Ryūki) (撰), 性瑫 Mokuan Shōtō (校)

About the work

A single-fascicle (with appendix) monastic-rules code for the Japanese Ōbaku 黄檗 school, composed by 隆琦 Yǐnyuán Lóngqí (Ingen Ryūki, 1592–1673) at his Manpuku-ji 萬福寺 in Uji 宇治 in Kanbun 12 / 1672 — a year before his death. The full title is Ingen Oshō Ōbaku shingi 隱元和尚黄檗清規. Edited by his second-generation Manpuku-ji abbot heir 性瑫 Mokuan Shōtō with the further editorial assistance of his great-grandson-in-dharma Kōsen Shōton 高泉性潡 (1633–1695, the third Ōbaku patriarch).

Abstract

Yǐnyuán’s preface (dated Kanbun 12 / 9 — Ryūhi-jin-shi nen ryōgetsu kokutan 龍飛壬子年良月穀旦 = 1672-09 NS, “written at the Manpuku-ji at Mount Ōbaku-zan in Yamashiro province by the founder-old-man at the Shōin chamber”) frames the work historically:

“In antiquity there was no cluster-grove (assembly-grove monastery). Those studying the Way merely nested in dwellings, dwelt in caves. With Bǎizhàng Dàzhì Zenji [百丈大智禪師, the Tang-dynasty patriarch], the cluster-grove was first founded and the rule-codes established, becoming the model for the realm; the dharma-gate was thereby greatly complete. From that time onward, all places of zhāotí (招提 — formal-monastery-residence) without exception complied with [Bǎizhàng’s rules]. — From the jiǎwǔ year (1654, the year of my crossing-east), receiving the invitation at Old-Ōbaku and coming east, I first stayed-staff at Tōmei Shōju [東明聖壽 = Kōfuku-ji at Nagasaki], then transferred to Fumon [Fumon-ji], in each case following its dharma to lead the assembly. But I was not able to fully implement [Bǎizhàng’s rules]. In the xīnchǒu year [辛丑 = Kanbun 1 / 1661] blessed by the heaven-bestowal of land, I again opened Ōbaku [the new Manpuku-ji at Uji]. To-the-present-day twelve and more sacrificial cycles. Sequentially the rotation-ornament: the Buddha has the hall, the monks have the [meditation-]hall — every-one of the cluster-grove’s necessary establishments is fully equipped. … I, the old monk, although decrepit and unworthy, am shamefully the founder of one generation, and cannot avoid establishing the regulation-codes anew, to enlighten the descendants. … Just as the Pǔyìng Kokushi’s (普應國師, the Mid-Phoenix Mingben — 明本 Zhōngfēng Míngběn 中峯明本) Genjū qīnggǔi 幻住清規 is the instruction of one school and not what the realm’s cluster-grove shares — likewise our descendants should follow our rules, hopefully so the cluster-groves are not mixed and the patriarchal Way may be revived. Praying-for-the-country, blessing-the-people — all is in this. Why other affairs?”

The text proper is divided into ten zhāng 章 (chapters) plus appendices:

  • Ch. 1 — Shukuri 祝釐 (Imperial-blessing rites): “釐 means blessing.” Rituals for the protection of the imperial state and the shogunal authority.
  • Ch. 2 — Hōhon 報本 (Repayment of the root): rituals for the founder-patriarchs.
  • Ch. 3 — Sonso 尊祖 (Honour-the-patriarchs): rites for the line-of-patriarchs.
  • Ch. 4 — Jūji 住持 (Abbacy): protocols of abbatial installation, the jōdō and fa-yǔ sequences.
  • Ch. 5 — Bongyō 梵行 (Brahma-conduct): the precepts and ordination.
  • Ch. 6 — Fuju 諷誦 (Chant-recitations): the daily liturgical chants.
  • Ch. 7 — Setsujo 節序 (Seasonal observances): the calendrical rites.
  • Ch. 8 — Reihō 禮法 (Etiquette-rules): the formal protocols of monastic interaction.
  • Ch. 9 — Fushin 普請 (General-invitations): the communal-labour rites.
  • Ch. 10 — Senka 遷化 (Transition-and-transformation, i.e. funerals): the abbatial funerary rites.
  • Appendix: Butsuji bonbai-zan 佛事梵唄讃 (Sanskrit-style chants for Buddhist rites); Kaisan yo-shoku-go 開山預囑語 (founder’s admonitions); Tōin kiyaku 塔院規約 (pagoda-cloister regulations); Kotoku go-shū-yō 古徳語輯要 (Compendium of words from the ancient virtuous); Hōgu-zu 法具圖 (Diagrams of dharma-implements).

The dating bracket is narrow: composed and published in 1672, a year before Ingen’s death. The Taishō recension is the standard Edo-period printing.

The work is the founding monastic-rules code of the Japanese Ōbaku school and remains the canonical liturgical-and-monastic-rules code of all Ōbaku temples. It is also a major source for Sino-Japanese late-Ming Buddhist ritual as transmitted via Ingen — preserving in Japanese print form the Wànfúsì continental ritual practices that the Manchu conquest disrupted in mainland China.

Translations and research

For the Ōbaku monastic-rules tradition, see Helen J. Baroni, Ōbaku Zen: The Emergence of the Third Sect of Zen in Tokugawa Japan (Univ. of Hawai’i Press, 2000), ch. 4; Jiang Wu, Leaving for the Rising Sun: Chinese Zen Master Yinyuan and the Authenticity Crisis in Early Modern East Asia (Oxford UP, 2015), passim. The Ōbaku shingi has not been comprehensively translated into Western languages.

Other points of interest

The text is one of the principal sources for studying late-Ming → early-Qing Chinese Buddhist ritual as preserved in Japanese print: many of the chant-melodies (bonbai 梵唄) and dharma-implements (hōgu 法具) preserved in the appendix are characteristically late-Ming Min-nan / Hokkien-region Linji-school practices that did not survive in continental China after the Qing transition. The modern Japanese Ōbaku-school chant tradition preserves these as a living continuation of late-Ming Chinese Buddhist liturgy — a remarkable case of diaspora preservation of pre-Qing Chinese ritual practice.

Graph View

Backlinks