Hēigǔ shàngrén yǔdēng lù 黒谷上人語燈録
Record of the Lamp of Words of the Saint of Kurodani by 源空 Hōnen, compiled by 了惠 Ryōe Dōkō (輯)
About the work
A fifteen-fascicle anthology of 源空 Hōnen’s writings, dharma-letters, sermons, and recorded oral teachings (語燈 gotō — “lamp-of-words”), compiled by the Jōdoshū editor 了惠 Ryōe Dōkō (1243–1330) of the Bōsairō 望西樓 cloister at Nison-in 二尊院, Saga. Kurodani 黒谷 (lit. “Black Valley”) was Hōnen’s Hieizan retreat-name and serves here as a respectful periphrasis. The work is the principal early-medieval canonical collection of Hōnenshōnin’s writings and the major source — together with the Shūi-roku KR6t0318 — for our knowledge of Hōnen’s doctrinal positions outside the Senchakushū.
Abstract
The preface, dated Bun’ei 11 / 12 / 8 (Tathāgata’s-Enlightenment-Day) = 1275-01-06, lays out the editorial principles: Ryōe Dōkō observed that Hōnen’s literary remains existed scattered in both classical Chinese (漢 kan) and vernacular Japanese (和 wa) compositions; the present Gotōroku collects the Sinitic portion in seventeen chapters (章) arranged in ten fascicles, with one supplementary fascicle (拾遺 — but in the received text the supplement is the separate three-fascicle work KR6t0318). The vernacular Japanese-language compositions (Wagō 和語) were published in a parallel compilation that survives only in the Jōdoshū zensho. The preface explicitly justifies the project as a defence against the post-Hōnen doctrinal disputes: “Within the gate of disciples diverse opinions are in confusion, each claiming to follow the master’s teaching, mutually arguing right and wrong — gold and brass are hard to tell apart, forked paths easy to lose oneself on” (門徒中異説紛紜 … 金鍮難辨岐路易迷).
Compositional spread. The compiled material spans Hōnen’s mature career (c. 1175–1212). It includes the Hōnenshōnin senchakushū kishō no koto 法然上人選擇集起請事, the Shichikajō kishōmon 七箇條起請文 (1204), various jōdo doctrinal essays, dharma-letters to lay-patrons (most importantly his correspondence with Kujō Kanezane 九条兼実 and the regent’s sister Eitokumon-in 永徳門院), and shorter doctrinal pieces (ondoku 御讀 / ondan 御談 records).
Editorial position. Ryōe Dōkō was a Chinzei-line disciple (Hōnen → Benchō → Ryōchū → … → Ryōe), and the Gotōroku unsurprisingly reflects the Chinzei reading of Hōnen — but its primary materials are by Hōnen himself, and the work is broadly recognized as the most reliable extant collection of Hōnen’s literary remains. Its compilation only sixty-three years after Hōnen’s death and Ryōe Dōkō’s access to senior-disciple-line manuscripts give it the highest authority of any Hōnen anthology.
Transmission. Continuously transmitted within Jōdoshū from 1275; printed in the early Edo period and definitively edited in the Jōdoshū zensho (1907–14, vols. 9–10) and Taishō vol. 83.
Translations and research
No comprehensive English translation has been located. Substantial use of the Gotōroku materials in: Jōji Atone and Yōko Hayashi (trans.), The Promise of Amida Buddha: Hōnen’s Path to Bliss (Wisdom, 2011) — translates selected dharma-letters and shorter pieces; Senchakushū English Translation Project, Hōnen’s Senchakushū (Univ. Hawai’i Press, 1998), uses Gotōroku materials extensively in its introduction; Sōhō Machida, Renegade Monk: Hōnen and Japanese Pure Land Buddhism (Univ. California Press, 1999); Tamura Enchō 田村圓澄, Hōnen-shōnin den no kenkyū 法然上人傳の研究 (Hōzōkan, 1956); Ōhashi Shunnō 大橋俊雄, Hōnen no shōgai 法然の生涯 (Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 1971); critical edition: Ishii Kyōdō 石井教道 (ed.), Shōwa shinshū Hōnen-shōnin zenshū 昭和新修法然上人全集 (Heirakuji Shoten, 1955).
Links
- CBETA online
- Supplement: KR6t0318 (Shūi Kurodani Shōnin Gotōroku)
- Subject: 源空 Hōnen