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
Reminder: AI generated list - beware of hallucinations. Corrections and additions welcome
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