The Collections of Topics from the Garden of the Patriarchs (Zuting shiyuan 祖庭事苑) is an eight-fascicle reference work compiled by Muan Shanqing 睦庵善卿 (active 1088-1108) during the Northern Song. Its format resembles that of a dictionary, although entries are arranged by source material. It contains more than 2,400 entries of difficult terms used in eighteen Chen texts, including Records of Yunmen (Yunmen lu 雲門錄) and Xuedou's Verses on Old Cases (Xuedou songgu 雪竇頌古). Thus, it is an excellent supplement for understanding those Chan texts. Nontheless, the Zuting shiyuan itself needs to be studied because it was compiled almost 900 years ago. Serving as the foundation for a larger project, this papaer is a general study of the Zuting shiyuan. It examines the author's life and motivation, the structure of the text, the circumstances under which this text was first published, and the development of its various versions in Japan. This paper primarily analyzes the text's principles of organization and methodology, using entries from the first text it annotates, the Yunmen lu. In the Zuting shiyuan, each entry may contain six types of information: the entry term itself, correction of incorrect characters, pronunciation, explanation of the meaning, quotation as proof, and the author's personal note. However, not every entry contains all six items. Based on this general study, the author will continue to work on each Chan text annotated in the Zuting shiyuan. It is the author's hope that the Zuting shiyuan may be effectively used as a supplement for understanding Chan texts, and its contributions be fully valued. Furthermore, the author also hopes that a systematic study of the Zuting shiyuan will provide new material for the studies of Chinese linguistics and culture in the Tang and Song dynasties.
