Author Affiliations: Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Northwestern University National University of Singapore=美國西北大學宗教研究所教授、國立新加坡大學教授
關鍵詞
Chan Philosophy=禪哲學; Soto (Caodong) Zen History=曹洞禪歷史; Shitou Xiqian’s “Cantongqi”=石頭希遷《參同契》; Humanistic Buddhism=人間佛教; Li Hexagram=離卦; Yin-Yang Thought in Chan=禪之陰陽思想
摘要
The “Cantongqi” 參同契, attributed to Shitou Xiqian 石頭希遷(700-790), is a short text of 220 characters that first appears in verifiably dated document in the biography of Shitou in the Zutangji 祖堂集 of 952. Shitou is considered the ur-patriarch of Caodong Chan (Jp: Soto Zen), traditionally regarded as a student of Huineng’s student Qingyuan Xingsi 青原行思 (660-740), and as the teacher of Yaoshan Weiyan 藥山惟儼(745-828), who was the teacher of Yunyan Tansheng 雲巖曇晟 (780-841) whose student was the Caodong Patriarch Dongshan Liangjie 洞山良价 (807-869). This text, which is still recited as part of the daily liturgy in Japanese Soto Zen monasteries today, sharply contradicts popular stereotypes of Zen as a freewheeling form Buddhism that eschews textual intricacy, tradition and learning, for it is an extremely dense text that utilizes an extended metaphorical structure presupposing a deep familiarity with indigenous Chinese light-dark and yin-yang symbolism as derived from the Yijing 易經 and its commentarial tradition, from which, indeed, the text borrows its name. For this reason, perhaps, the text has been little studied and even less understood. In spite of its exemplary status as a true amalgamation of Buddhism and Chinese thought, there have been almost no attempts in modern Chinese Buddhism to reclaim the legacy of this text. Master Shengyan’s commentary to the text in his Baojing wujing 寶鏡無境 (Fagu, 2008) is one of the very rare exceptions. But this text marks a distinctive systematic attempt to reconfigure the traditional understanding of Buddhism into a truly “this-worldly” form of practice, propounding a notion of practice and enlightenment that is thoroughly intermelded with the world of phenomena. For this reason, an understanding of this text can make a great contribution to the construction of modern Humanistic Buddhism of a distinctly and deeply sinitic kind. In this paper I will attempt to unravel the dense symbolism of the text in the hopes of clarifying its distinctive understanding of Buddhist practice enlightenment, and its modern relevance. Of special importance in understanding this text is its insistence on the ineluctable copresence of knowing and not-knowing even in the state of Enlightenment, which may be regarded as an integration of Daoist conceptions of sagehood into the Mahayana notion of the interfusion of samsara and nirvana. Enlightenment is not to be imagined as a state of perfect transparence and clarity, but as an enfoldment of the “light” in the “dark” and the “dark” in the “light.” This conception expresses one of the most profound and unique ideas of the Chinese cultural heritage: that the comprehensive inclusion and harmony of “both this and that” is superior to the pure and exclusive presence of only “this,” even when “this” is defined as something that is superior to “that.”
1. Light, Darkness and the Li Hexagram in Caodong Chan Texts 85 2. A New Interpretation of the Li Hexagram’s Use in the Five Ranks 101 3. Conclusion: What Does It All Mean 121
