Chanmen xiuzheng zhiyao; hidden ideas; historicity and transcendence; conflicts and solution
摘要
On the basis of twenty-four significant pieces of Chan texts, Master Shengyan complied the Chanmen xiuzheng zhiyao as a direction of Chan practice for him and other people. The book is alleged completed by following the rule of “passing on the ancient culture without adding anything new”, but its choice, explanation, and evaluation of those texts reflect some important ideas about Chan itself as well as its practice and history. This paper aims at disclosing those unspoken ideas between lines, tensions between them, and the solution by Master Shengyan, consciously or not, and the problems left unsolved. Like the Changuan cejin 禪關策進 with a similar nature by Yunqi Zhuhong (1535-1615), the Chanmen xiuzheng zhiyao highlights the comparative advantage of Chan practice compared with other Buddhist practices, and reconfirms the transcendence, supremacy, and authenticity of the awakening deriving from Chan practice. But it distinguishes itself from the latter by stressing the historical nature of ideas about Chan and its ways of practice and displaying their historical development and transformations. This new feature of acknowledging historicity embodies the admirable consciousness and courage of Master Shengyan as an eminent monk deeply affected by modern academic trainings and with a wide international view, but it unavoidably sparks a profound tension with the perceived unchangeable nature of Chan, which has been best demonstrated by the value-and-history debates between Hu Shi (1891-1962) and Suzuki Daisetz (1870-1966). Master Shengyan had no intention to get involved in the debates, but when he justified those texts with historicity by regarding them as “useful” according to his own experiences as an advanced Chan master, he actually presented his own answer to the debate. Chan practice is essentially a private business and the state of awakening is essentially unspeakable. But encouraged by the Mahayana Buddhism spirit characteristic of “saving the sentient beings”, these private matters have to enter the public field by means of language. Full aware both of the necessity and the potential danger, Master Shengyan repeatedly stressed the expedience nature of any texts and the super importance of practice in expunging the complications, but not unlike former monks’ efforts, his endeavors finally led to an additional layer of complication.
