The disputes between Sanfeng 三峰 and Tiantong 天童 lineages regarding Chan masters’ attitudes on Chan methods and sutra teachings have drawn the attention of scholars. However, most discussions have focused on the controversies between the respective representatives of these two lineages, Hanyue Fazang 漢月法藏 (1573-1635) and Miyun Yuanwu 密雲圓悟 (1567-1642), who lived in the late Ming dynasty. How did masters of the Sanfeng lineage deal with these disagreements in the early Qing dynasty? Did they change their attitudes on words and texts when they claimed lineage of both Hanyue Fazang and Miyun Yuanwu?
This article attempts to identify the features and origins of the Chan thought of Jiqi Hongchu 繼起弘儲 (1605-1672, hereafter “Hongchu”), a second generation figure in the Sanfeng lineage, by analyzing his “Mingbai an ji” 明白菴記 found in the larger compilation entitled Lingyan jilüe 靈巖紀畧. This paper contains three main arguments: 1. Hongchu’s Chan thought was derived from Huihong Juefan 慧洪覺範and Hanyue Fazang; 2. Hongchu’s meditation teachings employed both directly pointing to a person’s mind and skill-in-means, including beating and shouting as well as conceptual approaches; 3. Hongchu asserted inheritance of the Linji lineage via Miyun Yuanwu, while he actually passed on Hanyue Fazang’s thought to dharma heirs of the Sanfeng lineage by alluding to the orphan of Zhaoi in his “Mingbai an ji.”
