Jifei Ruyi's Calligraphy 即非如一 in The San Diego Museum of Art

Copyright by The San Diego Museum of Art

My friend Diana Chou is right now Associate Curator of East Asian Art at the San Diego Museum of Art. She showed me a rare piece of Jifei Ruyi's calligraphy in the SDMA collection. I did a little bit research and documented it here as a note for future research. The image is kindly provided by the San Diego Museum of Art and used here with permission. All rights reserved. 

This is the first poem by the Chinese Chan Monk Jifei Ruyi 即非如一 (1616-1671) in his "Songs for the Twelve Peaks of Mount Huangbo" 詠黃檗十二峰, probably written in Feb. 5, 1661 (seventh day of the first month 孟陬人日) when he was in Japan. The full text is as follows:

寶峰

形山啟自檗山翁

鎮國之名今古通

富貴潑天無取捨

大家都在寶林中

黄檗即非書於伊井

This poem is included in Complete Records of Chan Master Jifei (Jifei chanshi quanlu 即非禪師全錄),Juan 16, compiled and published in 1694.It is also reprinted in Shinsan kōtei Sokuhi zenshū / Hirakubo Akira hen 新纂校訂卽非全集 , ed. by Hirakubo Akira 平久保章編. kyōto-shi: Shibunkaku Shuppan, Heisei 5 [1993]京都市 : 思文閣出版, 平成5 [1993]，第二卷，第893頁，“詠黃檗十二峰”，第一首。

According to Hirakubo Akira, an album entitled "Songs for the Twelve Peaks of Mount Huangbo" (Huangbo shi'erfeng shi 黃檗十二峰詩) is extant and preserved in Kenshoji in Mie 三重縣見性寺. This album includes a painting of Huangbo Monastery in Fuqing, China by Xie Tu'nan 謝圖南 whose name is identical with a Southern Song bureaucrat. The painting is followed by Jifei's preface, his twelve poems, and a postscript by his disciple Xinghe 性合, probably Chinese monk Hualin Xinghe or Xingying 化林性合/偀 according to which the poems could have been composed in 1646 when Jifei was still in China. (See also a Japanese site on Xingying.) It is not clear if this piece of calligraphy in the SDMA collection is related to this album. (Shinsan kōtei Sokuhi zenshū, vol. 1, p. 5.)

A digital version of the text included in the Jiaxing Buddhist Canon 嘉興藏 can be accessed through the CBETA collection.

http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/zh-cn/J38nB425_016

Yinyuan's Hometown Fuqing 福清

Recently, a Fuqing native who is a Ph.D student in Hong Kong contacted me after reading my paper "Taikun's Master from China." He was amazed by Yinyuan's achievement. Yes. All Fuqing people should be proud of him. Not only Yinyuan, his teacher Feiyin Tongrong also hailed from Fuqing.

Fuqing map

I have been to Fuqing only once, during my research trip in the summer of 2001. In recent history, Fuqing is famous for legal and illegal immigration during the 1980s. There are a lot of Fuqing people in Japan. (People from its neighboring country Changle 长乐chose to go to New York, according to local sayings.) However, this is not a remote and culturally impoverished place. It is rich in culture. The Song New Confucian thinker Zhu Xi came here at least twice to spread his teaching. Another Song scholar Lin Xiyi 林希逸  was a Fuqing native. His family clan still thrived in the late Ming. One of his descendant became Yinyuan's disciple, the famed Jifei Ruyi 即非如一 in Nagasaki, who published his ancestor's work in Japan. Fuqing produced many jinshi degree holders throughout history. The late Ming prime minister Ye Xianggao 叶向高 was a Fuqing native and it is evident that Ye introduced the Jesuit missionary Guilio Aleni 艾儒略 to Fujian, who temporarily resided in Fuqing. Therefore, Fuqing had a small Christian population in Ming and Qing. Jesuit archival materials in Rome proved it.

Local gazetteer also says that the soil in Fuqing was so poor that many became salt workers, fishers, sailors, or even pirates. Japanese wako pirates sacked Fuqing at least twice and Qi Jiguang fought them with a big victory. It is clear that the land is not rich enough to support its population. I read the local gazetteer of Jianyang country in norther Fujian, where its magistrate complained that monks in his territory often came from Fujian and were often family members and relatives.

Remember that Fuqing is also called Futang 福唐 and Yurong 玉融 in historical sources.