Zuòyòu chāo 座右鈔
Notes for [Keeping] at One’s Right Hand (anon., Chinzei-line monastic-disciplinary protocol)
About the work
A single-fascicle disciplinary protocol in twenty-five articles (制式二十五條 seishiki nijūgojō), explicitly framed as a zuoyoumeishi 座右銘 — a “near-at-hand inscription” — for the daily reference of monastic disciples in maintaining the legacy of their deceased teacher. The Edo-period colophon dates the printed edition to Kyōhō 12 / 5 / 18 = 1727-07-07, with collation by Sawaryō 澤了, the 37th-generation abbot of Kōmyō-ji 光明寺 (the head temple of the Chinzei-line of Jōdoshū at Kamakura, founded by 良忠 Ryōchū) — placing the work definitively within the Chinzei tradition. The underlying composition is medieval but undatable from internal evidence beyond its post-Ryōchū origins.
Abstract
The opening sentence frames the work: “Reverently announcing to fellow-practitioners and the assembly: for the sake of protecting the master’s traces, the establishment of the regulatory protocol in twenty-five articles” (敬啓 同法衆等。爲護師跡立制式二十五條事). The articles cover the daily-disciplinary, ordination-procedural, and ritual-liturgical life of the Chinzei-line monk:
- The initiation of a novice (童子入室 dōji nyūshitsu): first the triple refuge and five precepts should be given, citing Yìjìng’s Nánhǎi jìguī nèifǎ zhuàn 南海寄歸内法傳 on the canonical procedure;
- The disciple’s full ordination: the gedo (得度 — full ordination) should be announced publicly to the entire assembly, citing Daoxuan’s Nánshān níchāo 南山尼抄;
- The sanmi-jissan ordination procedure**: after tonsure, the daśa-śīla (ten-precepts) should be conferred according to the Hieizan / Sange (山家) ritual code of 最澄 Saichō;
- The Hieizan ordination platform (叡山戒壇): full bhikṣu-ordination should be received at the Hieizan kaidan, “established by the petition of Dengyō Daishi [Saichō] to Emperor Saga, who issued the imperial sanction”; 5.–25. Further articles on the vinaya procedures, the seasonal liturgies, the jūya-nenbutsu and betsuji-nenbutsu retreats, the kuyō offerings, the raisan hymn-singings, and the lineage-transmission-of-Dharma protocols.
The work is one of the principal documents of Chinzei-line monastic discipline and shows the school’s careful maintenance of Hieizan-Tendai kaidan ordination as the institutional foundation for Jōdoshū monastic life — a position distinctive to the Chinzei tradition (the Seizan school used its own ordination procedures, and the later Shinshū did not maintain a separate monastic kaidan tradition at all).
Date. The underlying composition is post-Ryōchū (so post-c. 1287) and pre-1727. A medieval (Kamakura-to-Muromachi) date is most likely on doctrinal-stylistic grounds. The 1727 Kōmyō-ji edition collated by Sawaryō is the source-text of the Taishō.
Translations and research
No Western-language translation has been located. Treated in: Mark L. Blum, The Origins and Development of Pure Land Buddhism (Oxford UP, 2002); Itō Yuishin 伊藤唯眞, Jōdo-shū no seiritsu to tenkai (Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 1981); Ōhashi Shunnō 大橋俊雄, Jōdo-shū no kyōdan-shi 浄土宗の教団史 (Daizō Shuppan, 1972); critical text in Jōdo-shū zensho 浄土宗全書 vol. 14.
Links
- CBETA online
- Cf. parallel-genre Chinzei-line monastic-pedagogical protocol: KR6t0325 (Daigen, Renmon gakusoku)
- Cf. companion novice-protocol: KR6t0348 (Shoshin gyōgoshō)