Obaku Canon in Fu Sinian Library at Taibei Academia Sinica

In Dec. 2015, I visited Fu Sinian Library 傅斯年圖書館 at Academia Sinica 中央研究院 in Taibei. I know there is a whole set of Obaku Canon 黃檗藏 bestowed by Manpukuji to the library in 1950s. I checked out a few books to examine and found the colophons by the then fifty-ninth generation abbot of Hozoin 寶藏院 at Manpukuji Akamatsu Shinmei  赤松晉明 in its catalog 大明三藏聖教目錄. 

昭和28年 (1953) 識語
黃檗鐵眼版一切經印行會  總裁賀陽元宮恒憲氏  參與黃檗不說師弘道監寺   龍興公宏會長等發願   江湖有緣顯紳淑女協賛捐資端著成就仍而茲為酬恩加之勸募印施  上梓此三藏聖教目錄其他  所以久遠実成記念流布   伏愿   宿障自除善根益威者  今為   家先祖菩提頒一本第    號矣
昭和癸已孟夏日
黃檗山寶藏院五十九代住持法孫晉明仁賢識

昭和31年 (1956) 識語
仰愿 壽命延長  身宮堅固  福智并圓
         世世生生  行四無量道者
酬恩 請藏施主也
         紙材  木村氏等    印工山本氏等
         造本   伊東氏等   助緣鳥越氏等

昭和丙申孟夏   黃檗山寶藏院晉明賢識 

Aitani Yoshimitsu 會谷佳光 has done some research about this edition of the Obaku Canon. See his article by following this link. 

中央研究院傅斯年図書館蔵黄檗版大蔵経目録
by 會谷 佳光; アイタニ ヨシミツ; Aitani Yoshimitsu
Article Article
Language: Japanese
Publication: 東洋文庫書報. n41 (2009): 35-124

Buddhist Bible by the Lay Woman Yang Xiuhe楊秀鶴

Recently I was contacted by Lily Ling 林劉旭強 who introduced her mother Yang Xiuhe's 楊秀鶴 (1910-2011) Buddhist Bible 佛陀語錄:佛教聖經 to me and wanted to translate it into English. This is basically a collection of excerpts from the Chinese Buddhist canon and is arranged topically. Ms. Yang is a remarkable woman and was praised for former president Ma Yingjiu 馬英九 and Ven Xingyun 星雲. It is a great effort and should be recognized. It shows that modern people are reading the Buddhist canon seriously.

Patricia Graham: Expert of Obaku Art

Glad to meet Patricia Graham this afternoon in my home. She is an accomplished scholar and professional appraiser of Japanese art. She has published a lot on seventeenth-century Japanese art, especially Obaku art and Sencha tradition in Japan. We had a wonderful conversation and a relaxing afternoon with tea. She has a business of appraising Asian arts: log in  http://www.patriciagraham.net/. If you have a Japanese art object, she is the ultimate authority. She also kept a blog on Asia art market at http://patriciajgraham.blogspot.com/. Here are a few books she has published. She is right now working on a biography on Langdon Warner, a former Harvard professor and East Asian art historian.

BOOKS
Japanese Design: Art, Aesthetics, & Culture (Tuttle Publishing, 2014), 160pp.  Can be ordered from Amazon.com.
Faith and Power in Japanese Buddhist Art, 1600-2005 (University of Hawai’i Press, 2007), 353pp.
Tea of the Sages: the Art of Sencha (University of Hawai’i Press, 1998), 259pp.

Tainan Penghu Confucian Academy 蓬壺書院 and Huangbo Temple

Inside the Chikan Tower 赤坎樓 compound in Tainan, there is located the Penghu Confucian Academy 蓬壺書院. If you walk in, you can find a small library of Taiwan studies literature. I picked up Draft General History of Taiwan《台灣通志稿》and found the following record about Huangbo Chapel 黃檗庵 in page 794: it was located a few li south of Haihui Temple 海會寺, which is the famed Kaiyuan Temple 開元寺.It was burnt in 1692 and rebuilt by monk Jicheng 繼成 in 1693. Not too much known about this monk.



黃檗庵：在海會寺南數里。壬申年，災於火； 癸酉，僧繼成募緣重建。
薛紹元編，楊水彬點校，《台灣通志稿》，中， 頁794.

Feiyin's 費隱 (Hiin) Calligraphy in Dr. Harald Conrad's Collection 祖師西来意縦目劫帰

Hiin calligraphy for Harald Conrad collection. All rights reserved.

Details from the Conrad collection. All rights reserved.

Details from the Conrad collection. All rights reserved.

I am glad that Prof. Harald Conrad from School of East Asian Studies at University of Sheffield in England contact me about one of Feiyin Tongrong's one-column calligraphy in his collection. It reads  祖師西来意縦目劫帰. However, its meaning is very difficult to understand. Dr. Conrad is also puzzled by Feiyin's (Hiin) use of "the 35th generation after Nangaku 南嶽三十五世, rather than the reference to Rinzai, which is common with Ingen, Mokuan, Sokuhi, etc.? There is a genealogical document in Manpukuji written by Hiin which he started with Nangaku, too." Also, Dr. Conrad noticed that a number of similar on-column pieces (ichigyo) are also dated back to the same year 1656 with the same date and signature. 

He wants to organize a special exhibit of his collection some day and I think it is a great idea.Below is my reply and I want to thank Dr. Conrad for allowing me to use the pictures of his collections here.

I think your reading is correct unless there are other alternatives. If it is true, 縦目 could mean looking forward with protruding eyes. This is an common expression in Chinese literature but its meaning is not clear until the discovery in Sanxingdui in 1980s about masks with protruding eyes. See the link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanxingdui.  劫帰 could be a short hand for 萬劫歸一，which could mean a return to the origin after sufferings in myriads of kalpas. Then the question is why he wrote this.

You are right to date it to 1656, more precisely the second month. I pulled out his biography in the year of 1656 (see below) and in the second month, he offered dharma transmission to his longtime follower Xu Changzhi 徐昌治，a gentleman from Yanguan 鹽官 county, zi Jinzhou  覲周. I mentioned him briefly in both of my books. Remember the controversy about his book Wudeng yantong 五燈嚴統 is not over yet and he was obviously very depressed but hopeful at the time. So his verse could be his expression of hoping to overturn the adverse situation. His verse then could mean the truth of Bodhidharma's coming from the west can be only looked for after many kalpas returning to one, or the true original existence. Of course, he meant his reputation would be rehabilitated for discovering the truth after being defeated in the court. The events listed in this year also shows some of his opponents actually visited him to show their remorse. This is only my guess. He could have written it for Xu Changzhi or even to Yinyuan Longqi 隱元隆琦. If you get this in Japan and there are many bearing similar dates from the same period, it may indicate that Yinyuan's envoy was visiting Feiyin around this time and they simply collected or requested Feiyin's writing as credentials for Yinyuan's orthodox transmission in Japan. Then they returned quickly to Japan with their collections. During this time, Yinyuan was "detained" in Fumonji 普門寺 under serious suspicion from all, including authorities and ordinary Japanese monks. So he needed something from China to prove his reputation and prestige. 

There is reason for Chan monks during this period to count from Nanyue rather than Linji to avoid overt sectarian rivalry in China. Feiyin was just challenged because of his genealogy book, this might be the reason that he used Nanyue to identify himself. But his seal is still orthodox Rinzai.

Here is the excerpt about what he did in the second month in 1656, followed by the entire entry for that year. Sorry, it is not punctuated.

二月鹽官覲周
J26nB178_p0190c29║　　徐居士來省覲周于天童金粟徑山諸禪席靡不
J26nB178_p0190c30║　　追隨嚮往究心本分機緣相契付如意一柄表信

十三年丙申

J26nB178_p0190c26║　　師六十四歲正月淨慈寺無生公來述三宜和尚

J26nB178_p0190c27║　　為嚴統事托某備申其意願與和尚面陳懺悔師

J26nB178_p0190c28║　　示答語存別錄付具足備天則琛二月鹽官覲周

J26nB178_p0190c29║　　徐居士來省覲周于天童金粟徑山諸禪席靡不

J26nB178_p0190c30║　　追隨嚮往究心本分機緣相契付如意一柄表信

J26nB178_p0191a01║　　三月師赴鹽城請舟次金山登覽賦二絕以志勝

J26nB178_p0191a02║　　概四月四日進永寧院佛誕日鹽宰賈公外翰劉

J26nB178_p0191a03║　　公總戎孫公及諸紳虔請上堂遂于此開戒三旬

J26nB178_p0191a04║　　劉一齋名若審博綜內典往來甚密設七問師立

J26nB178_p0191a05║　　答之王筠長名之楨射陽人望也皈依執弟子禮

J26nB178_p0191a06║　　嘗持宋丞相陸秀夫傳乞語跋之作宋份臣蔬枰

J26nB178_p0191a07║　　詩一章吳門縉紳內翰子美沈公繹堂沈公甲傍

J26nB178_p0191a08║　　陸公文衡申公繼揆繆公慧遠金公世渼暨眾檀

J26nB178_p0191a09║　　護敦請住堯峰師受請五月辭眾返棹先是興化

J26nB178_p0191a10║　　育長者黎太沖延師至家菴祖孫父子殷勤叩道

J26nB178_p0191a11║　　出所著頌古一冊乞鑒定求序師見其端莊鄭重

J26nB178_p0191a12║　　于本分相契欣然作序復托菴僧岷山公過鹽城

J26nB178_p0191a13║　　致請再過其家以本分砥勵三日而別還虞嶺趙

J26nB178_p0191a14║　　公景之兩致書問道師並答之復嶺南左轄曹鑒

J26nB178_p0191a15║　　躬問候請益書九月朔師進堯峰院萬指繞座薦

J26nB178_p0191a16║　　紳顧松交姚文初趙明遠沈匡來周子佩文孫符

J26nB178_p0191a17║　　及琴川檀信帆檣交映緇素駢闐初八日三宜和

J26nB178_p0191a18║　　尚造謁盤桓自陳懺悔之意靈巖繼起禪師同張

J26nB178_p0191a19║　　司農有譽到寺躬賀次日入城中輿公請瑞光上

J26nB178_p0191a20║　　堂聽法者凡數千指并答候三宜和尚暨剖石禪

J26nB178_p0191a21║　　師設供掃萬峰寶藏二祖塔十月起期龍象雲臻

J26nB178_p0191a22║　　檀度響從冠于今昔分五堂安禪眾舉龍華韜明

J26nB178_p0191a23║　　宗資福天水廣為秉拂首座東蓮古峰然為秉拂

J26nB178_p0191a24║　　西堂宗風大振仲冬苕溪孝廉嚴三求公來參應

J26nB178_p0191a25║　　接機契師遂撾鼓上堂以揚其德喜賡王公復來

J26nB178_p0191a26║　　參於此道甚有染指亦上堂表揚之臘月吳門乾

J26nB178_p0191a27║　　三法師素以才華自負後披剃博覽教乘淹貫台

J26nB178_p0191a28║　　教受無盡大師衣氣概頗異不通名字到寺見師

J26nB178_p0191a29║　　師與談論窮辨一晝夜見其所蘊理致不謬且云

J26nB178_p0191a30║　　和尚當今為宗門第一人故來相見次日上堂接

J26nB178_p0191b01║　　引之又以宗乘中事追拶機緣并上堂語載錄中。

The Cult of Chen Yonghua 陳永華 in Tainan

Chen Yonghua Palace in Tainan

Besides Zheng Chenggong 鄭成功, the next famous and popular figure is Chen Yonghua 陳永華 who assisted Zheng's son Zheng Jing 鄭經 to establish the Dongning Kingdom 東寧府. He laid out the foundation of the governance, cultural establishment, and taxation system in Taiwan. He is still worshiped in Tainan today and becomes the archetype of Chen Jinnan 陳近南 in Jin Yong's 金庸 novel The Deer and the Cauldron 鹿鼎記. The founding of Huangbo Temple in Tainan was closely related to him as it was located in the site of his residence. 

Chen Yonghua Shrine inside the Palace

Cheng Yonghua Statue in Tainan Confucius Temple