從仁山寂震〈參禪第一步要訣〉論三峰派之禪鍛與文字=Chan Practice and Written Teachings in Sanfeng Sect –Research on Renshan Jizhen’s “Essence of the First Step on Chan Practice”
This paper explores Renshan Jizhen’s (1631-1697) meditation teachings presented in “Essence of the First Step on Chan Practice (Tasn-Chan-Di-Yi-Bu-Yau-Jyu)”. In Renshan Jizhen’s epitaph, Sung-Ling Chin (1637-1714) articulated that Renshan Jizhen wrote a 4000-word “Essence of the First Step on Chan Practice” as guidelines when he initially instructed students. Although this work seems to be disappeared, this paper identifies 3800 words of it from recently found “Ren-Shan-He-Shang-Bau-Hua-Yu-Lu”. Disputes over justifiability of using principles and essentials of chan in late Ming dynasty have drawn scholars’ attention to Sanfeng Sect’s written teachings regarding chan practice, such as Hanyue Fazang’s (1573-1635) “Yu-Mi-Tsan-Chan-Ju-Ji” and Huishan Jiexian’s (1610-1672)“Chan-Men-Duan-Lian-Shu”. This paper exams contents and historical context of “Essence of the First Step on Chan Practice” and then analyze Renshan Jizhen’s employment of “directly pointing to a person’s mind”, “beating-and shouting”, “Hua-Tou” and “principles and essentials of chan”. Moreover, by comparing it to the abovementioned works of Hanyue Fazang and Huishan Jiexian, this article tries to clarify their attitudes toward the relationship between written teachings and chan practice.
