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  Histo
rical Dictionary of

  Chan Buddhism

  Youru Wang

  ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD

  Lanham • Boulder • New York • London

  Published by Rowman & Littlefield

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  Copyright © 2017 by Youru Wang

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

  British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Wang, Youru, author.

  Title: Historical dictionary of Chan Buddhism / Youru Wang.

  Description: Lanham, Maryland : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2017. | Series: Historical dictionaries of religions, philosophies, and movements | English and Chinese. | Includes bibliographical references. | Identifiers: LCCN 2017005949 (print) | LCCN 2017012686 (ebook) | ISBN 9781538105528 (electronic) | ISBN 9781538105511 (hardcover : alk. paper)

  Identifiers: LCCN 2017005949 (print) | LCCN 2017012686 (ebook) | ISBN 9781538105528 (electronic) | ISBN 9781538105511 (hardcover : alk. paper)

  Subjects: LCSH: Zen Buddhism—Dictionaries. | Zen Buddhism—History—Dictionaries.

  Classification: LCC BQ9259 (ebook) | LCC BQ9259 .W36 2017 (print) | DDC 294.3/92703—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017005949

  TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

  Printed in the United States of America

  To Thomas Dean

  A

  ABBOT’S QUARTERS

  This is a modern English translation of the Chinese term fangzhang, referring to the specific buildings or rooms of a Chan monastery, in which an abbot would live and conduct activities. Fangzhang, literally “ten foot square [room],” was derived from the Vimalakīrti Sūtra’s description of the layman Vimalakīrti’s room, which despite its small size was able to accommodate a great number of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and displayed various magical powers and qualities.

  According to some historical sources, the abbot’s quarters in major public Chan monasteries starting in the Song dynasty included a reception hall, a private room, and a meditation room. The reception hall was used for minor convocations or ceremonies, as opposed to the major ones held in the dharma hall. In either type of convocation, the abbot played the role of a living Buddha or patriarch and was worshiped with prostrations and offerings of incense. The audience could include many people, such as the great assembly of monks, the monastic officers, and on occasion, government officials and lay patrons. In most cases, when only monks were there, the abbot would discuss matters of monastic discipline.

  The abbot’s quarters were also used for the ritual of “entering the [abbot’s] room (rushi),” in which the abbot’s personal disciples came to see him one after the other, each asking for instruction in a formal but semiprivate atmosphere. Taking turns, the disciples made prostrations and offered incense when approaching the abbot, bowed, and stood at the southwest corner of his meditation seat. The disciple then spoke his mind and the abbot would reply. The conversations were similar to those that took place in the dharma hall, a ritual reenactment of the relationship or encounter between Chan master and disciple, as prototyped by the transmission of the lamp literature. The only difference is that these more private conversations were not included in the abbot’s recorded sayings (yulu) for publication.

  ANBAN SHOUYI JING

  Sutra of Maintaining the Awareness of Inhalation and Exhalation (Ānāpānasmṛti Sūtra), an influential Indian Buddhist scripture in the early Chinese practice of Buddhist meditation, was compiled and translated by An Shigao (d.u.), an early Buddhist missionary and translator (from Arsakes of Parthia) in the 2nd century during the Later Han dynasty. It is not exactly an original scripture, but rather a compilation from earlier Indian sources on the method of meditation that focuses on one’s inhalation and exhalation (shuxi guan). It introduces, among other things, the six wondrous gates (liu miaomen) of this meditation: counting inhalation and exhalation, following inhalation and exhalation, calming the mind, contemplating numerical categories such as the five aggregates, turning to contemplating four noble truths, and purification. The text is intermixed with some comments and explanatory notes. In translating Indian scriptural materials into Chinese, An Shigao appealed to indigenous Chinese terms, especially Daoist ones. The extant text also includes a preface written by Kang Senghui (?–280), a Sogdian Buddhist missionary and translator in China.

  AUTHENTIC PERSON WITHOUT RANK (Ch. wuwei zhenren)

  The notion of “authentic person without rank” is found in several collections of the recorded sayings of Linji Yixuan, including the Linji Lu and other earlier sources such as the Zutang Ji and Jingde Chuangdeng Lu, and became one of Linji’s most famous sayings. The use of the word zhenren (authentic person) can be found notably in Daoist philosopher Zhuangzi’s writings as well as in other Daoist texts. Despite the source of the term, Linji uses “authentic person without rank” in a Chan Buddhist context. As an expedient means, it designates the potential within every human being—that is, Buddha-nature, self-nature, or simply Buddha within each individual—and the goal of becoming an enlightened person who is able to transcend all kinds of distinctions and achieve spiritual freedom while living through daily activities. It was taught to his students to realize the possibility and necessity of the existential transformation of personhood. The term does not denote the reality of any metaphysical self or absolutized subjectivity, since it does not acknowledge any fixed differences between this “authentic person” (whether it is a Buddha or patriarch) and any ordinary individual (yu fozu bubie).

  Contemporary scholars have debated Linji’s notion of authentic person without rank. Some criticize this notion as something metaphysical, similar to the Hindu notion of ātman, which obviously deviates from the Buddhist teaching of no-self (anātman). Others argue that Linji used it as expedient means only and have pointed out that Linji himself, in the same anecdote, even performed a deconstructive operation on this notion by telling his students clearly, “What kind of shitty ass-wiper this authentic person without rank is!” A recent study of the Linji Lu also reveals the evolving editorial change in the rhetoric and details of the story from its initial version to the later ones by its Song compilers, which makes Linji’s image more lively, shocking, and enigmatic, to serve the Linji school’s need for establishing its own identity and rising to prominence.

  B

  BAIYUN SHOUDUAN (1025–1072)

  A Chan master of the Yangqi lineage of the Linji school in the Song dynasty, Shouduan was a native of Hengyang (in present-day Hunan province). His family name was Zhou. He started his monastic life with the Chan master Renyu in Chaling. After studying with several teachers, he became a disciple of Yangqi Fanghui and attained enlightenment under Fanghui’s instruction. Inheriting Fanghui’s dharma lineage, he then took abbacy at a number of monasteries, including Chengtian Temple in Jiangzhou, Zhengdao Temple at Mount Fahua, Ganming Temple at Mount Longmen, and Haihui Temple at Mount Baiyun. It was said that his preaching attracted huge crowds and won him high regard. One of his great achievements was his establishment of rules for the patriarch hall of a Chan monastery; for example, he enshrined the ancient patriarchs Bodhidharma and Baizhang Huaihai in the first place instead of just enshrining founding abbots and their successors, which became the model for all Chan monasteries throughout the Song and Yuan dynasties
. Shouduan’s teachings were preserved in the Baiyun Shouduan Chanshi Yulu (two fascicles) and Baiyun Duan Heshang Guanglu (four fascicles). He had many disciples, among whom Wuzu Fayan was the most famous. The thriving of the Yangqi lineage is very much related to the success of Shouduan and his disciples.

  BAIZHANG GUANGLU

  This title means The Extensive Record of Baizhang. It records Baizhang Huaihai’s sermons and short addresses. Historical materials from the Tang dynasty show that soon after Baizhang’s death, some of his disciples compiled a record of their teacher’s oral instructions and conversations and circulated it. The extant text, with its current title Baizhang Guanglu, was recompiled by Daochang (d. 991) at Baizhang mountain in the early Song dynasty and was then included in the Song literature of Chan recorded sayings (yulu) and in the transmission of the lamp literature (denglu). Contemporary scholars acknowledge the authenticity of this text based on the evidence that ascertains its older origin than its Song compilation. This evidence includes, first, the omission of biographical outlines that characterize the standard format of the Song recorded sayings literature, and second, the lack of stories of the “encounter dialogues,” which are often radical and iconoclastic in nature, dominating the Song recorded sayings literature. Contemporary scholars thus distinguish the Baizhang Guanglu from the other Baizhang Yulu. The latter collects all dialogues attributed to Baizhang and is considered a Five Dynasties and Song product, less reliable, and to be used with caution.

  Different from most texts of Chan recorded sayings popularized in the Song, which are collections of short, eccentric dialogues, the Baizhang Guanglu consists of Baizhang’s sermons—an early and conservative form of Chan discourse—and short addresses answering his students’ questions. He quotes and alludes to Buddhist scriptures, elaborates on them in colloquial terms, and integrates them into his pragmatic concern with the students’ non-attachment. He does not seek to break with tradition or abolish traditional scriptures and practices, nor is he constrained by the sudden-gradual dualism promoted by the early Chan movement. However, these factors do not prevent him from showing his creative insight. In addition to shedding light on such Hongzhou themes as no-seeking, no-cultivation, and seeing all teachings/practices as expedient means, Baizhang’s sermons skillfully weave traditional teachings and the Hongzhou’s emphases into an organic whole by elaborating on “penetrating three propositions or sentences (touguo sanjuwai).”