Tōngzuì 通醉 (Zhàngxuě Tōngzuì 丈雪通醉)
Early-Qīng LínjìYángqí Chán master and the principal restorer of Sichuan Chán after the Zhāng Xiànzhōng (1644–46) massacres. Fǎhuì 法諱 Tōngzuì 通醉 (32nd-generation Línjì, 通-generation of the Mìyún line), hào Zhàngxuě 丈雪 (“Ten-Foot Snow”, bestowed by his teacher Pòshān Hǎimíng 破山海明 at the Báitùtíng 白兔亭 waterfall). Principal Sichuan dharma-heir of Pòshān (1597–1666, author of KR6q0402) and through him a grand-dharma-heir of Mìyún Yuánwù 密雲圓悟 (1566/7–1642). Lay surname Lǐ 李, mother Yáoshì 姚氏, native of Nèijiāng 內江 (Sìchuān). Lifedates 萬曆 38 庚戌 10.15 子時 – 康熙 34 乙亥 = 1 December 1610 – 1695, age 86 suì.
Note on name-variant: This person-note formerly gave the hào as 蒼雪 Cāngxuě; this is an error — the correct hào is 丈雪 Zhàngxuě per the 1657 front-prefaces, the 1651 xíngshí, and the Báitùtíng naming-verse preserved at KR6q0415 juan 8. The confusion arises because the Yúnnán / Jiāxīng Huáyán master Cāngxuě Dútǐ 蒼雪讀徹 (1586–1656) shares the hào-element 雪 and is a near-contemporary; the two should be kept strictly distinct. Zhàngxuě 丈雪 is Tōngzuì’s unambiguous hào.
Early life and Chán training. Tonsured as a young child at Gǔzìshān 古字山 under Qīngránshī 清然師 after being inspired by the Lotus Sutra “jǔ yī shǒu huò fù xiǎo dītóu jiē yǐ chéng Fódào 舉一手或復小低頭皆以成佛道” passage. First Chán training at Wǔshān Xīshān 峨眉山西山 under Jiànsuí héshàng 鑑隨 on the gānshǐjué 乾屎橛 gōngàn (c. 1629); age 20 (1629) received full precepts. Further consultation with Liǎofánshī 了凡師. Guǐyǒu 癸酉 winter (1633) bìguān at Gǔzìshān. Sealed by Pòshān Hǎimíng in c. 1633–34 on the Pòshān Sichuan arrival from Jiāngnán; received the hào Zhàngxuě at Báitùtíng. Entered Pòshān’s jìshì 記室.
Tiāntóng study-tour (1636–42). Bǐngzǐ 丙子 autumn (1636) traveled to Tiāntóngsì to see the grandfather-teacher Mìyún Yuánwù. Decisive awakening on 庚辰 10.17 (= 30 November 1640) on Tàibái Peak 太白頂 after pricking his foot on a bamboo-splinter and hearing the valley-gong. Extended training with Mìyún through 1641. Reunited with Pòshān at Kāixiàn Dàníngsì 開縣大寧寺 in Sichuan rénwǔ 壬午 winter (1642). Formal fùfǎ 付法 transmission on 甲申 10.25 (= 23 November 1644) at Fóēnsì 佛恩寺, Pòshān bestowing the yuánliú fúzǐ xìnjīn 源流拂子信金 (lineage-robe and fly-whisk).
Six abbacies (1644–1695). Per the 1657 Tán Zhēnmò preface: (1) Xuějūsì 雪居 (Sìchuān); (2) Shǎnxī Yǔménsì 禹門 (late 1640s / early 1650s — refugee-abbacy during the Zhāng Xiànzhōng massacres and early-Qīng war in Sichuan); (3) Jìngmíngsì 靜明; (4) Zuìlǐ Qīngliánchányuàn 檇李青蓮禪院 (Jiāxīng, 1657 — the Zhèjiāng refuge-abbacy where the yǔlù was first attested); (5) Cǎotángsì 艸堂 (Hànzhōng region); (6) Chéngdū Zhāojuésì 成都昭覺寺 — reopened 癸卯 spring (1663), Tōngzuì’s mother-seat for the remaining 32 years of his life, the flagship Sichuan Chán restoration project of the Kāngxī era. Died at Zhāojué in Kāngxī 34 (1695) age 86.
Historical significance. Tōngzuì’s 1663 reopening of Chéngdū Zhāojuésì is the single most consequential post-Zhāng-Xiàn-zhōng Chán restoration-event in Sichuan. Through Zhāojué and its satellite institutions, Tōngzuì rebuilt Sichuan’s clerical and monastic infrastructure that had been devastated in the 1644–46 population collapse. His subsequent compilation of the regional lamp-history 《錦江禪燈》 Jǐnjiāng chándēng (KR6q0035, TOC at KR6q0034, preface Kāngxī 11 / 1672) documented the Sichuan masters his restoration-project had brought back into tradition.
Works.
- KR6q0415 《昭覺丈雪醉禪師語錄》 (10 juan, Jiāxīng Canon J27 B194, compiled by dharma-heir 徹綱 徹綱 and cut with 1657 Zuìlǐ prefaces plus post-1663 Zhāojué material).
- KR6q0034 + KR6q0035 《錦江禪燈》 (TOC + 20-juan lamp-history, preface Kāngxī 11 / 1672, the principal regional dēngshǐ of Sichuan Chán).
Principal dharma-heirs (per KR6q0415 juan 6 fēndēng section and the roster in KR6q0035 juan 20): Yuèchuáng Cèméi 月幢策眉 (who requested the 1651 xíngshí), 徹綱 Chègāng 徹綱 (compiler of the yǔlù), and others.
Sources: KR6q0415 juan 8 xíngshí (the master’s 1651 self-biography); KR6q0415 juan 1 三 prefaces dated 1657-09-22; KR6q0035 《錦江禪燈》 Kāngxī 11 / 1672 preface; Wǔdēng quánshū 五燈全書 juan 65; Shǔzhōng fójiào zhì 蜀中佛教志 various juan.