How the Mount Wutai cult stimulated the development of Chinese Chan in southern China at Qingliang monasteries

ABSTRACT

Despite the legendary role ascribed to Shaolin monastery 少林寺 it is probably not an exaggeration to say that it has been considered sacrosanct within Chinese Chan Buddhist discourse [since at least] the mid-8th century that legitimacy comes from the south, and not the north. Since the tenth century, the rhetoric of the so-called ‘five schools’ has perpetuated peculiarly southern lineages; in practice, both the Linji and Caodong lineages (in China and beyond) propagate stories of celebrated patriarchs against a distinctively southern Chinese backdrop. What are we to make of Chan monasteries or cloisters in Ningbo, Fuzhou Jiangning, and of course, Hongzhou, apparently named to reflect the enduring significance of Mount Wutai 五臺山, a notably northern sacred site? In the first part of this article I outline the less than marginal – or peripheral – role Mount Wutai appears to have played in ‘core’ Chinese Chan Buddhist sources. Then I proceed to explain how four Qingliang monasteries 清涼寺 in southern China attest to the preservation and dissemination of a lineage of masters who supported what looks like a ‘Qingliang cult,’ with a set of distinctive teachings and practices that appears to collapse several longstanding assumptions about what separates Chan from the Teachings in Chinese Buddhism.

KEYWORDS:

• Chinese Buddhism
• Chan Buddhism
• Qingliang monasteries
• Juefan Huihong
• Southern Chinese Chan

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Abbreviations

T. Taishō shinshū daizōkyō. See Bibliography B.

XZJ Xu zangjing. See Bibliography B.

Notes

1. Titles in Japanese and [reconstructed] Sanskrit in the Taishō canon follow Demiéville et al., Répertoire Du Canon Bouddhique Sino-Japonais; Lancaster and Park, eds., The Korean Buddhist Canon also provides translation and reconstructions for Sanskrit titles. I have left out Kan’en 寬延, who entered China in 938, cf. Benjamin Brose, “Crossing Thousands of Li of Waves,” 53. Enchin’s diary, which is now lost, is the Gyōrekishō 行歴抄 (Travel Fragments). For a detailed study of Japanese Tendai pilgrims to China, see Saitō, Tendai Nittō nissōsō no jiseki kenkyū and Yoritomi, Nicchū o Musunda Bukkyōsō: Hatō o koete kesshi no tokai.

2. In the north, the blocks were transferred to Huacheng monastery 化成寺 for storage in 1610. Eventually, the blocks for over 9,500 fascicles were transferred to Lengyan monastery 楞嚴寺 (Zhejiang), where they were used to print and distribute this canon known as the edition of Jingshan, Jiaxing, Lengyan, or Square-Format (Fangceben 方冊本). The edition held today by the Tochigi Prefecture Bureau of Cultural Properties (Tochigiken shitei bunkazai 栃木県指定文化財), once held at Daiōji 大雄寺, has 4,500 rolls. See Florin Deleanu, “The Transmission of Xuanzang’s Translation of the Yogācārabhūmi in East Asia,” 625/8. See also Kurasawa, Kurobanesan Daiōji shodōhaikan, 22.

3. Ibuki, Zen No Rekishi, 160–70.

4. Steven Heine, “Visions, Divisions, Revisions.”

5. Jorgensen, Inventing Hui-neng. On “proto Chan,” see McRae, Seeing through Zen, xx.

6. On Pure Rules in China and Japan from a comparative perspective, see Foulk, “The Zen Institution in Modern Japan”; “Myth, Ritual, and Monastic Practice in Sung Ch’an Buddhism”; “Chanyuan Qinggui and Other ‘Rules of Purity’ in Chinese Buddhism”; and “Ritual in Japanese Zen Buddhism.” On the Jingde chuandeng lu, see Welter, Monks, Rulers, and Literati.

7. Three of the four phrases – excluding the “separate transmission outside the Teachings” –predate the compilation of the Zuting shiyuan 祖庭事苑 (Chrestomathy from the Patriarchs’ Hall, comp. 1108), in which the complete slogan was included, by perhaps as much as 200 years. This motto has generally been understood as characterizing the fundamental teachings of the Chan/Sŏn/Zen school from its beginnings through at least the year 1100. This slogan comes from the Zuting shiyuan, by Muan Shanqing 睦庵善卿, 5, XZJ no. 1261, 64: 377b05-6. Teachings refers to the scholastic schools or traditions of Chinese Buddhism as opposed to the teaching of the Chan patriarchs. See Buswell and Gimello, eds., Paths to Liberation, 412 n.2, 21 n.50; Foulk, “Sung Controversies Concerning the ‘Separate Transmission’ of Ch’an”; Welter, “Mahākāśyapa’s Smile: Silent Transmission and the Kung-an (Kōan) Tradition,” 77–82. See also Gimello, “Mārga and Culture: Learning, Letters, and Liberation in Northern Sung Ch’an,” 412. and Foulk, “The ‘Ch’an School’ and Its Place in the Buddhist Monastic Tradition,” 164–255; and “The Spread of Chan (Zen) Buddhism,” 447. On the assumptions behind Chan (and Japanese Rinzai) orthodoxy, see Welter, Monks, Rulers, and Literati, 209–211.

8. Brose, Patrons and Patriarchs, 2, where Brose quotes Foulk.

9. McRae, Seeing through Zen, xix. McRae’s third rule may be equally significant, here: “Precision implies inaccuracy. Numbers, dates, and other details lend an air of verisimilitude to a story, but the more they accumulate, the more we should recognize them as literary tropes. Especially in Zen studies, greater detail is an artefact of temporal distance, and the vagueness of earlier accounts should be comforting in its integrity. While we should avoid joining a misguided quest for origins, we should also be quick to distinguish between “good data” and ornamental fluff. Even as we ponder the vectors of medieval polemics.” An excellent example of a modern Zen dictionary with numerous helpful lineage charts is Zengaku Daijiten 禅学大辞典 [Dictionary of Zen Studies].

10. T no. 1985, 47: 498c23-499a3; trans. Sasaki and Kirchner, The Record of Linji, 201–4. The Chinese text reads as follows: 《鎮州臨濟慧照禪師語錄》卷 1：問：「如何是四種無相境？」師云：「爾一念心疑，被地來礙；爾一念心愛，被水來溺；爾一念心嗔，被火來燒；爾一念心喜，被風來飄。若能如是辨得，不被境轉，處處用境，東涌西沒、南涌北沒、中涌邊沒、邊涌中沒，履水如地、履地如水。緣何如此？為達四大如夢如幻故。道流！爾秖今聽法者，不是爾四大能用。爾四大若能如是見得，便乃去住自由。約山僧見處，勿嫌底法。爾若愛聖，聖者聖之名，有一般學人向五臺山裏求文殊，早錯了也，五臺山無文殊。爾欲識文殊麼？秖爾目前用處，始終不異，處處不疑，此箇是活文殊。爾一念心無差別光，處處總是真普賢。儞一念心自能解縛，隨處解脫，此是觀音。三昧法互為主伴，出則一時出，一即三、三即一，如是解得，始好看教。The four elements are earth, water, fire and wind; these are experienced by sentient beings through the four stages of living: birth, being, decay, and death. See Kirchner’s excellent synopsis in ibid., 200. For the date of the Linji lu, see “Rinzai roku,” available online at http://iriz.hanazono.ac.jp/frame/data_f00a.html, accessed on 7 June, 2016.

11. Gimello, “Chang Shang-Ying on Wu-T’ai Shan,” 99.

12. Ibid., 94–95.

13. Despite numerous studies which correct the misnomer Chan “school,” such as the groundbreaking studies by Foulk, “The Ch’an Tsung in Medieval China”; “The ‘Ch’an School,’“ echoed by McRae, Seeing through Zen, throughout, a note still seems necessary.

14. The text actually reads: the Jin 晉 (265–420), [Liu 劉] Song 宋 (420-479), Qi 齊 (South: 479–502, North: 550–577), and Liang 梁 (502–557) dynasties … which I have omitted here for sake of brevity. ‘Gold dust concealing the eyes’ refers to a Chinese proverb discussed in Welter, Yongming Yanshou’s Conception of Chan in the Zongjing Lu, 303 n.20: “Even though gold dust is valuable, if it falls into the eye it becomes an affliction” 金屑雖貴，落眼成翳.

15. For information on Deshan’s blows and Linji’s shouts, see Wudeng huiyuan 五燈會元 (ca. 1252) 4, XZJ no. 1564, 80: 1a6-8 or Jingde chuandeng lu 景德傳燈錄 (ca. 1004) 15: T no. 2076, 51: 318a. In addition, for information on Deshan Xuanjian see Zutang ji 祖堂集 5: 2/31/14-35/12; Song gaoseng zhuan 宋高僧傳 (ca. 988) 12: T no. 2061, 50: 778b22-c12.

16. Kakumon Kantetsu, ed. Chū Sekimon Mojizen, 95–96 and Zibo zunzhe quanji 紫柏尊者全集 2 (Sage of Purple Cypress Tree’s collected works) [1621], XZJ 1452, vol. 73: 262b. The Chinese from the Jingshan or Jiaxing supplement to the canon [J 23: 577a2–24] reads: 《石門文字禪》：蓋禪如春也文字則花也春在於花全花是春花在於春全春是花而曰禪與文字有二乎哉故德山臨濟棒喝交馳未嘗非文字也清涼天台疏經造論未嘗非禪也而曰禪與文字有二乎哉逮於晚近更相笑而更相非嚴於水火矣 宋 寂音尊者憂之因名其所著曰文字禪夫 齊 秦搆難而按以周天子之命合遂投戈臥鼓而順於大化則文字禪之為也蓋此老子向春臺擷眾芳諦知春花之際無地寄眼故橫心所見橫口所言鬥千紅萬紫於三寸枯管之下於此把住水泄不通即於此放行波瀾浩渺乃至逗物而吟逢緣而詠並入編中夫何所謂禪與文字者夫是之謂文字禪而禪與文字有二乎哉噫此一枝花自瞿曇拈後數千餘年擲在糞掃堆頭而寂音再一拈似即今流布疏影撩人暗香浮鼻其誰為破顏者。明萬曆丁酉八月望日釋達觀撰.

17. See Zenseki kaidai “Zenrin sōbōden,” http://iriz.hanazono.ac.jp/frame/data_f00a.html, accessed 7 June, 2016.

18. Daoyuan’s 道原 Jingde chuandeng lu (1004); Li Zunxu’s 李遵勗 Tiansheng guangdeng lu 天聖廣燈錄 (Tiansheng era Extensive Record of the Transmission of the Flame, 1036); Foguo Weibo’s 佛國惟白 Jianzhong Jingguo xudeng lu 建中靖國續燈錄 (Jianzhong Jingguo era Supplemental Record of the Transmission of the Flame, 1101); Wuming 悟明 and his Liandeng huiyao 聯燈會要 (The Collated Essentials of the Records of the Transmission of the Flame, 1183); Zhengshou’s 正受 (1146-1208) Jiatai pudeng lu 嘉泰普燈錄 (Jiatai era Inclusive Record of the Transmission of the Flame, 1204); and finally Puji’s 普濟 (1179–1253) Wudeng huiyuan (1252).

19. I would like to express sincere gratitude to Marcus Bingenheimer for producing this map.

20. Preliminary survey with Seiryō monasteries in Suzuki Tetsuo, Chūgoku Zenshū Jimei Sanmei Jiten (Tokyo: Sankibō busshorin, 2006). Other sources cross checked include Nianchang’s 念常 Fozu lidai tongzai Fozu lidai tongzai 佛祖歷代通載 [Annalist Documents of Buddhas and Patriarchs in Successive Generations, T no. 2036] comp. 1341; Jue’an’s 覺岸 Shishi jigulüe 釋氏稽古略 [Outline of the Investigation of the Buddhist Past, T no. 2037] comp. 1354; Baoqing siming zhi 寶慶四明志, comp. Luo Jun 羅濬 ca. 1226-1228; Ming dynasty Jiangxi tongzhi 江西通志; Zhi daquan Jinling xinzhi 至大全金陵新志, comp. Zhang Xuan 張鉉, Ming; Liuchao shiji bianlei 六朝事跡編類, comp. Zhang Dunyi 張敦頤 Southern Song, ca. 1160: unless otherwise noted (as in T.) these texts are in Ji Yun 紀昀 and Lu Xixiong 陸錫熊, eds., Yingyin Wenyuan Ge Siku Quanshu (Taipei: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1983–1986). It should be noted that we have no contemporary, extant sources.

21. Brose, Patrons and Patriarchs, 2; Ibuki, Zen No Rekishi, 81.

22. Brose, Patrons and Patriarchs, 79.

23. See ibid., 82–83 and n. 51, 56.

24. Ibid., 83-113. It should be noted that even though Brose offers significant new insights, he closely follows Welter, Yongming Yanshou’s Conception of Chan in the Zongjing Lu; Monks, Rulers, and Literati; The Linji Lu and the Creation of Chan Orthodoxy. Kagamishima, Dōgen Zenji to in’yō kyōten-goroku no kenkyū provides an excellent example of how often scriptures are cited by [Chan] Zen masters who claim to strictly adhere to maxims against the practice; this index covers Dōgen 道元 (1200–1253).

25. Yanagida, Sōzōichin Hōrinden, Dentōgyokuei Shū, Tenshō Kōtōroku, 199–200 and Suzuki, Tō Godai no zenshū, 280–285.

26. Japanese sources explain the Caodong or Sōtō lineage in terms of the transmission from Dongshan Liangjie to (1) Yunju Daoyong and (835–902) that Dōgen inherited and (2) Caoshan Benji. Therefore, the name Caodong or Sōtō refers to Caoxi Huineng 曹溪慧能 (638–713) and Dongshan Liangjie. See Foulk, “The ‘Ch’an School’,” 45; Welter, The Linji Lu and the Creation of Chan Orthodoxy, 120–121. Linji zongzhi, XZJ no. 1234, 63: 167c06–170a11.

27. “Yongming Yanshou: Scholastic as Chan Master”; Brose, Patrons and Patriarchs, 115.

28. Chanlin baoxun 1, T no. 2022, 48: 1019c25–1020a1; cf. Yü, “Ch’an Education in the Sung: Ideals and Procedures,” 86. The Chinese text reads: 「白雲曰。多見衲子未嘗經及遠大之計。予恐叢林自此衰薄矣。楊岐先師每言。上下偷安最為法門大患。予昔隱居歸宗書堂。披閱經史不啻數百過。目其簡編弊故極矣。然每開卷。必有新獲之意。予以是思之。學不負人如此(白雲實錄)。」

29. XZJ no. 1234, 63: 168a14. The Chinese text reads: 第一玄。法界廣無邊。森羅及萬象。總在鏡中圓。第二玄。釋尊問阿難。多聞隨事答。應器量方圓。第三玄。直出古皇前。四句百非外。閭氏問豐干。

30. Sudhana is the prominent interlocutor of the Buddhāvataṃsaka-sūtra. Traversing the path in a single lifetime refers to Sudana’s journey in the Gaṇḍhavyūha (Ru fajie pin 入法界品) section, in which he meets fifty-three teachers and realizes enlightenment with the assistance of Mañjuśrī and Samantabhadra 普賢菩薩. Cf. Nakamura, Iwanami Bukkyō Jiten, 499. The Dragon King’s daughter is from the Devadatta (Tipodaduo 提婆達多) chapter of Lotus Sūtra 4 [12], T no. 262, 9: 35c, who, even though only eight-years-old, according to Mañjuśrī, had already attained the dhāraṇī discussed in this chapter, and become a buddha.

31. Fenyang Wude chanshi yulu, T no. 1992, 47: 628b13–18. The Chinese text reads: 三玄三要頌 第一玄。照用一時全。七星常燦爛。萬里絕塵煙。第二玄。鉤錐利似尖。擬擬穿腮過。裂面倚雙肩。第三玄。妙用且方圓。隨機明事理。萬法體中全。第一要。根境俱亡絕朕兆。山崩海竭洒颺塵。蕩盡寒灰始為妙。第二要。鉤錐察辨呈巧妙。縱去奪來掣電機。透匣七星光晃耀。第三要。不用垂鉤不下鉤。臨機一曲楚歌聲。聞了盡皆悉返照。

32. According to Sasaki and Kirchner, The Record of Linji, 145-46, Miaojue is a reference to Mañjuśrī and Wuzhuo/Wuzhao is the monk who met Mañjuśrī on Mount Wutai in 767.

33. Ibid., 147, says that “the activity that cuts through a stream” is a metaphor for wisdom that severs the flow of discrimination.

34. T no. 1985, 47: 497a15–21 and translated in ibid., 144–49. This passage is also translated in Cleary and Cleary, The Blue Cliff Record, 238, however, Cleary and Cleary’s translation is riddled with errors—including not noticing that Miaojue and Wuzhuo are names instead of terms. The Chinese text reads: 上堂。僧問。如何是第一句。師云。三要印開朱點側。未容擬議主賓分。問如何是第二句。師云。妙解豈容無著問。漚和爭負截流機。問如何是第三句。師云。看取棚頭弄傀儡。抽牽都來裏有人。師又云。一句語須具三玄門。一玄門須具三要。有權有用。汝等諸人。作麼生會。下座.

35. Zhizheng zhuan, XZJ no. 1235, 63: 170c23–171a09. For Linji’s comment, see Linji yulu, T no. 1985, 47: 496a15–20. See also Sasaki and Kirchner, The Record of Linji, 148. The Chinese text reads: 巖頭奯禪師嘗曰。涅槃經此三段義。略似宗門。夫言似則非宗門旨要明矣。然宗門旨要。雖即文字語言不可見。離文字語言。亦安能見哉。臨濟曰。大凡舉唱。須一句中具三玄。一玄中具三要。有玄有要。此塗毒鼓聲也。臨濟歿二百年。尚有聞而死者。夫分賓主。如並存照用。如別立君臣。如從慈明曰。一句分賓主。照用一時行。若會箇中意。日午打三更。同安曰。賓主穆時全是妄。君臣合處正中邪。還鄉曲調如何唱。明月堂前枯樹花。如前語句。皆非一代時教之所管攝。摩醯首羅面上豎亞一目。非常目也.

36. The poison-painted drum is a reference to a parable in the Daban niepan jing, T no. 374, 12: 420a8, in which there is a drum painted with poison on the surface of the drum. When the drum is struck, its vibrations cause poison dust to fly up into the air and whoever is touched by the dust dies. This is of special relevance to the Chan school because this concept was used by various Chan masters to cause their pupils to lose or “kill” their minds, extinguish their greed, anger, or confusion about the pivotal words which catalyze liberation in a single phrase or sentence. There is another famous saying by Yantou in CDL 16, T no. 2076, 51: 326b, where he says, “The meaning of our teaching is just like the poison-painted drum, and when the sound is made by striking the drum once, those who hear it near and far all die [from the dust].”

37. Zhizheng zhuan, XZJ no. 1235, 63: 171b22-c01. The Chinese text reads: 汾陽無德禪師作一字歌。其略曰。諸佛不曾說法。汾陽略宣一字。亦非紙墨文章。不學維摩默地。又曰。飲光尊者同明證。瞬目欽恭行正令。真漏泄家風也。

38. Zhizheng zhuan, XZJ no. 1235, 63: 1183c20-23. For this passage, see Dafaju tuoluoni jing T no. 1340, 21: 686c16-19. The Dafaju tuoluoni jing was translated by Jñānagupta in 594. The Inexhaustible lamp (akṣayapradīpa) is a famous allegory, see “Chōmyōtō 長明燈” in Hōbōgirin 4: 360–366. See also, Weimojie suoshuo jing, T no. 475, 14: 543b and Lamotte, The Teaching of Vimalakīrti, 105-06. The Chinese reads: 大法炬陀羅尼經曰。復次應觀是色作無相想。云何觀色作無相想。當知此色生滅輪轉。念念不停。毗舍佉。如是色相。不可眼見。當知彼是意識境界。唯意所知。是故不可以眼得見.

39. Makita, ed. Godai shūkyōshi kenkyū, 94, 96 and Brose, Patrons and Patriarchs, 81.

40. Linjian lu 2: XZJ 1624, 87: 260a11-18. The Chinese text reads: 「大覺禪師。皇祐二年十二月十九日　仁宗皇帝詔至後苑。齋於化成殿。齋畢。傳宣効南方禪林儀範開堂演法。又宣左街副僧錄慈雲大師清滿啟白。滿謝恩畢。倡曰。帝苑春回。皇家會啟。萬乘既臨於舜殿。兩街獲奉於堯眉。爰當和煦之辰。正是闡 [掦> 揚] 之日。宜談祖道。上副宸衷。謹白。璉遂陞座。問答罷。乃曰。古佛堂中。曾無異說。流通句內。誠有多談。得之者。妙用無虧。失之者。觸途成滯.

41. Trans. in Brose, Patrons and Patriarchs, 141.

42. See Wu, Enlightenment in Dispute, esp. on this text in seventeenth century Chinese Chan. See also Leaving for the Rising Sun, 27, 51, which succinctly repeats many points from his earlier book, and explains their transmission of this text in Japan through the Ōbakushū network.