Pǔmíng 普明
Obscure Chán master, traditionally associated with Pǔmíngsì 普明寺 in Liángshān 梁山 (the same geographical region as Kuò’ān Shīyuǎn 廓庵師遠). Author of the eight-stage (black-to-white) ox-herding cycle Mùniú tú sòng 牧牛圖頌 that formed one of the two main branches of the Chán ox-herding pictorial-didactic tradition (the other being Kuò’ān’s ten-stage cycle).
Pǔmíng’s lifedates, native place, and monastic lineage are all unrecorded. Yúnqī Zhūhóng 雲棲袾宏, writing in 1609 (Wànlì 37) for a sponsored reprint of the verses, already declared Pǔmíng’s identity unknown: 普明。未詳何許人。圖頌亦不知出一人之手否 (“Pǔmíng — [we] do not know whence he came. Whether the pictures and verses came from a single person’s hand is also not known.”). Later scholarship has variously placed him in Sòng, Yuán, or early Míng; the pseudepigraphic character of the attribution is therefore acknowledged.
The Pǔmíng verses survive as the kernel of the Kāngxī-1 (1662) compilation Shí niú tú hé sòng KR6q0161, where they are surrounded by fifteen sets of early-Qīng harmonizing verses.
name: 普明 pinyinName: Pǔmíng alternateNames: [] dynasty: 南宋 birthDate: deathDate: cbdbId: dilaAuthorityId:
Pǔmíng 普明
Southern-Sòng Chán attendant-disciple (shìzhě 侍者) of 師範 Wújùn Shīfàn (1178–1249); named among the fifteen co-editors of his master’s yǔlù (KR6q0315). Lifedates unrecorded. Distinct from the pseudepigraphic Pǔmíng of the ox-herding verses above.
name: 普明 pinyinName: Pǔmíng alternateNames: [] dynasty: 清 birthDate: deathDate: dilaAuthorityId: A037598
A third female Chán figure also named Pǔmíng 普明: dharma-heir (sìfǎ ménrén 嗣法門人) of Yīkuí Chāochēn 超琛 (1625–1679) at Cāntóngān 參同庵 in Méixī (Jiāxīng). Lifedates unknown. Lead compiler (biān) of her master’s yǔlù KR6q0553 《參同一揆禪師語錄》 1 juan, J39 B436. Author of the closing xíngshí (the master’s autobiographical-narration in juan 1) signed “嗣法弟子普明謹狀” dated 康熙己未冬至日 = 1679-12-23 — composed within months of Chāochēn’s death on 1679-08-09 as an immediate disciple’s homage.