Three Book Cover Designs for Enlightenment in Dispute

I never told anyone that there were actually three different book cover designs for my first book Enlightenment in Dispute. I asked Oxford University Press to give me choices and they did. Before I made decisions, I posted these three designs on my office door and asked everyone passing by to vote. We got a winner although it was not my top choice. It turns out to be fine. This is the year of 2007.

Jonathan Spence's 2007 Letter

I am grateful to the helps I received during the years from colleagues and senior scholars. I just found a letter from my files dated back to Jan. 9, 2007. Dr. Jonathan Spence's kind words encouraged me to continue my research as a junior scholar. He is truly a gentleman. He later wrote an elegant blurb for my book which I quote below.

Nianhua Temple 拈花寺 in Beijing

One of the reasons I stayed in Beijing in Nov. 2016 was to visit the Nianhua Temple 拈花寺. This Ming temple was renovated by Emperor Yongzheng 雍正 who appointed his favorite monks to be abbots. I mentioned this temple in my book Enlightenment in Dispute in page 171. The Linji Master Yuxuan Chaoding 玉铉超鼎, who also studied Huayan Buddhism, resided in Nianhua monastery. He was likely Muchen Daomin's 木陈道忞 dharma heir. After Yongzheng died, this monk suffered persecution during the Qianlong reign. This temple was not open to the public and has been the point of dispute between Buddhists and Remin University. Thankfully, the dispute has been solved and the temple has been returned for renovation.

Haizhuang Temple 海幢寺 in Guangzhou

Haichuang Gate, shot by Jiang Wu

In May 2015, I visited Haizhuang Temple 海幢寺 in Guangzhou. This is one of the oldest Buddhist monasteries built in the tenth century. It was revived during the Ming-Qing transition and was held by Caodong 曹洞 masters, including Tianran Hanshi 天然函昰, Azi Jinwu 阿字今無, and Dangui Jinshi 澹归今释 (Southern Ming loyalist Jin Bao 金堡). These were all famous Zen teachers at that time. I have a brief summary of the rise of the Caodong lineage in Guangdong in my book Enlightenment in Dispute，page 98. The monastery kept a good website about its history. The current abbot is Master Xincheng 新成.

What I don't know is its connection with Guangzhou Foreign communities because it faced Pearl River and the port. Before the Opium War, this was the only scenic spot in the city open to the foreigners. Therefore, it was figured in many European publications about China around the time. Foreign residences and modern societies were developed around this temple.

The Old Haichuang Temple around 1840s.
From China Illustrated, painted by Thomas Allom, 1843. 中譯 

 《大清帝国城市印象》2002年上海古籍出版社出版

Kindle Version of Leaving for the Rising Sun

I am glad that Oxford published the Kindle version of Leaving for the Rising Sun. Oxford also released a Kindle version of my first book Enlightenment in Dispute. Kindle is a widely used reading device from Amazon. It is now indispensable for any serious readers. You can also send files such as student works and conference papers to Kindle for reading leisurely. I don't know if these Kindle versions are available in China and Japan.

Ven. Shengyan (Sheng Yen) 聖嚴 visited Huangbo Monastery in 2002

I was surprised to learn that Ven. Master Sheng Yen 聖嚴 not only wrote an essay on Yinyuan but also visited Yinyuan's temple in Fuqing in 2002, just a year after I visited there in 2001. He wrote a travelogue for this visit which I pasted below. He met the abbot Beisheng 悲昇 who received me as well. Ven. Beisheng has a disciple called Mingkong 明空, who accompanied me during my stay. I thanked all of them in the preface to my first book Enlightenment in Dispute: The Reinvention of Chan Buddhism in Seventeenth-century China (Oxford, 2008).

Yinyuan Memorial Hall at Huangbo Monastery (Chinese Manpukuji). Shot by Jiang Wu, 2001.

五百菩薩走江湖　聖嚴法師著

二八、福清市黃檗山的萬福寺

[日期：2010-07-23]

作者：聖嚴法師著

　　二八、福清市黃檗山的萬福寺
　　
　　十月十三日，星期日。晴。
　　
　　昨晚抵達福州的長樂機場時，福建省佛教協會祕書長本性法師，也是福州開元寺的住持，已經率領著當地的比丘、比丘尼和居士代表，拉著一長幅寫著「熱烈歡迎台灣法鼓山大陸佛教聖蹟巡禮團蒞閩參訪」的紅布條，在登機門的出口處等候我們。之後，他還一直陪著我們，直到我們離開廈門為止。
　　
　　當天上午，我們留在福州的福清飯店休息，等待各班次的包機陸續抵達。十一時三十分進午餐，十二時三十分登上大巴士前往福清市郊外的黃檗山萬福寺。經過一個小時的車程，抵達漁溪鎮梧瑞村的黃檗山。此山距離福清市二十多公里，是在十二個群峰環繞之中，猶如一座蓮花。它和百丈山、雲居山的地形狀況 非常類似，而這座寺院就是建於蓮台正面的山坡上，腹地非常寬暢。
　　
　　現任方丈是三十四歲的悲昇法師，他原藉山東，一九九○年畢業於福建佛學院。該寺在一九八九年成立了黃檗山萬福寺修建委員會，主任委員由妙湛法師擔任，一九九○年悲昇法師畢業之後，就被妙湛法師推薦擔任該寺的住持；但他直到現在，還謙稱自己是監院而不是住持，其實除了他之外，並無另外的住持。
　　

　　

　　▲萬福寺的大雄寶殿。
　　
　　當天他帶著監院道昌法師和該寺的僧俗男女四眾，捧香案列隊到總三門迎接我們。我下車之後，遠遠就看到三門上掛著一幅歡迎的紅布條，寫著「熱烈歡迎台灣法鼓山大陸佛教聖蹟巡禮團蒞寺參訪」。三門左旁有塊石碑，用金字刻著「黃檗山萬福寺」六個大字。接著經過三門殿、天王殿，而到了大雄寶殿。殿宇都非常的雄偉壯麗。天王殿的左右兩側，有兩座石塔；大殿的左右兩側，則有鐘樓、鼓樓。我們在大雄寶殿上香禮佛之後，就請悲昇法師為我們介紹該寺的歷史環境。
　　
　　隨後我也對我們的團員開示說︰黃檗希運是臨濟義玄的師父，我是臨濟法門的傳承者，當然是黃檗希運的子孫，而萬福寺自然也是法鼓山的根源和祖庭了。經我這麼一說，大家就對這個道場有 了歸屬感，深覺自己不是客人，而是回家的遊子。悲昇法師雖然年輕，但是非常厚重而謙虛，他把我當成長老法師接待，並說曾在我的著作中獲得許多法益，就是缺少親近我的機會。所以他和我們之間，也都覺得不是外人了。
　　
　　隨後我們也參觀了大殿後面的藏經樓、法堂、觀音殿、禪堂，以及隱元禪師紀念園。
　　
　　目前全球共有三處黃檗山萬福寺。第一座就是我們訪問的福州福清市的黃檗山；另一處是在江西新昌縣的黃檗山；而在日本京都的宇治縣，也有一座黃檗山。至於福州這座寺院稱為黃檗山的原因，和希運禪師有關。據說黃檗希運出生於福建省，幼時到黃檗山出家；這座寺院原是振幹禪師於唐德宗貞元五年（七八九年）創建的。最初名為「般若堂」，經過八年之後，擴建為「建佛寺」。後來希 運禪師回到此處，由於全山遍植黃檗樹，所以命名為「黃檗山」；希運在此，前後共住了十九年。
　　
　　那麼究竟什麼是黃檗樹呢？悲昇法師帶我到後山院中的山崁上，看到幾株兩丈多高的香椿樹，還有好多小株的香椿樹在旁邊。他告訴我說，所謂的黃檗就是香椿，我問他：「有沒有古代留下的黃檗樹呢？」他說沒有。因為這種樹，最多活不過一百年，樹身就會爆裂而死。我相信這個說法，我們所種的香椿，就是吃它的嫩葉，只要插枝就能活，很少看到一丈以上、比碗口更粗的香椿樹。因此它是藥用的植物，也是食用的香料，並不能作為建材。
　　

　　

　　▲黃檗樹就是香椿樹。
　　
　　首次在文獻記載中看到萬福寺的名字，根據資料，是在明神宗萬曆三十五年（一六○七年），相國葉文忠公奏請敕「萬福禪寺」四字匾額，接著在萬曆四十二年（一六一四年）賜藏經全套；明毅宗崇禎二年（一六二九年），請金粟密雲禪師任方丈；崇禎六年，費隱禪師繼其席；崇禎十年隱元禪師承其位。後來到清世宗順治十一年（一六五四年），隱元禪師應日本長崎的崇福、興福諸寺的邀請，束裝率徒三十餘人東渡，七年後在日本京都宇治縣大和山，仿照福州萬福寺規模，開創了一座寺院，亦名黃檗山萬福寺。
　　
　　希運禪師出家後，覓師訪道曾先後到天台山、長安，後來因為有人啟示他應參訪懷海，於是他又前往江西的百丈山。得到百丈的印心之後，他來到江西新昌 縣的鷲峰山，創建了一寺。因為他懷念幼年出家的道場，所以也把這座鷲峰山的新寺院稱為黃檗山萬福寺。他就在此鼓吹直指、單傳的心要，他主張：「獨佩最上乘，離文字之印，唯傳一心，更無別法。」因此而被形容為「其言簡、其理直、其道峻、其行孤。四方學徒，望山而趨，覩相而悟，往來海眾，常千餘人。」在他一生中，主要弘化的道場，也就是江西的那座黃檗山。
　　
　　不過在唐武宗會昌二年（八四二年）的法難期間，河南節度史裴休，以及任官於江西洪州的鐘陵，曾把希運禪師接到洪州龍興寺（亦名為大安寺）。然後在唐宣宗大中二年（八四八年），裴休又把希運禪師迎到宣州宛陵的開元寺，為建大禪院，請師說法。最後，希運禪師於大中四年八月（八五○年）圓寂於江西的黃檗山，留下了兩部文獻 ：《希運禪師傳心法要》以及《宛陵錄》。
　　
　　希運禪師的禪風對後來中國禪宗的影響非常深遠。他的弟子群中，如有臨濟義玄、睦州道明（陳尊宿）、千頃楚南，以及裴休等十多人，對後世也有很大的影響，在他圓寂後，唐宣宗皇帝敕號為「斷際禪師」。其實臨濟宗的禪法應該就是黃檗宗的禪法，只是到了臨濟義玄以後，門庭大盛，所以又開出了臨濟宗以及以下的黃龍及楊岐兩派。在我的《禪門驪珠集》內，有收集他的事蹟和語錄，例如他說「大唐國裡無禪師」、「擇菜去」、「噇酒糟漢」、「黃檗禮佛」，都是膾炙人口的名公案。
　　
　　而日本的那一座道場，是因為隱元禪師不忘出身的根本，效仿希運禪師而創建的，所以也稱此道場為黃檗山萬福寺。這就是飲水思源，知恩報恩的精神。
　　
　 　這也正是我要回到大陸去做佛教古蹟巡禮的出發點之一。不論是民族、宗教，對於淵遠流長的血統、文化和祖先的智慧，以及各種各樣的遺產，都必須要有認同和傳承的責任。所以佛教徒要到印度去做佛陀古蹟的巡禮；回教徒要去麥加朝聖；猶太人念念不忘耶路撒冷；羅馬天主教徒則希望去義大利聖彼得大教堂朝晉。而日本佛教徒的各宗各派，尋根探源都是到中國大陸，譬如說天台宗到浙江的天台山國清寺；密宗到中國陝西的青龍寺；唯識宗到西安的大興善寺；禪宗的曹洞宗要去南嶽的南台寺、江西洞山的普利禪寺，以及浙江的天童寺；黃檗宗就到福清的黃檗山。而且他們對於中國的祖師，特別是和他們的法源直接相關者，都非常的重視，除非已經找不到寺廟遺址，否則一定會一次一次的組團參拜。又如鑑真大師對日本 戒律的開創和弘揚有重大貢獻，因此他們對於凡是鑑真大師在中國大陸到過的道場乃至地點，都被認為是他們的法源。
　　
　　由於日本黃檗宗曾經前來參拜祖庭，便特別在福清的黃檗山境內，建了一座隱元禪師紀念院。院中有許多棟建築物，其中的主殿，就是隱元紀念堂。堂中所供奉的隱元禪師塑像，是依據日本收藏的畫像複製好了送來的。此外，他們還對黃檗山做了若干捐獻，從他們所立的碑文可以看到，捐資興建的共有五項：(1)禪堂（選佛場）建築面積三百五十七平方公尺。(2)禪堂前後庭院綠化，面積九百平方公尺。(3)禪堂橫東司（洗手間），面積五十三平方公尺。(4)古黃檗山萬福寺塔院，面積三百一十五平方公尺。(5)費隱亭及四周綠化，面積八百一十五平方公尺。
　　
　　另外我們還看到了七塊碑文： 日本黃檗宗訪問古黃檗祖山記；隱元禪師紀念碑；隱元禪師頌德碑；東渡僧人供養碑；隱元禪師詩偈二首碑；一座立碑上面寫著：「日本黃檗山萬福寺開山隱元禪師東渡振錫之聖地」，這座立碑是一九八九年由趙樸初居士所寫；以及重修古黃檗山萬福寺塔院碑記等。從這些紀念物的記載，可見日本人對於源頭祖庭的重視。
　　
　　我們中國人實在應該覺得慚愧，歷代祖師所建的道場，總是會被一次一次的破壞，而日本的古寺院則只有一次一次的修復，很少被徹底毀滅過。我真懷疑為什麼自稱為文明古國的中國，會如此的野蠻？除了北魏武帝、北周武帝、唐武宗、周世宗的所謂「三武一宗」的滅佛運動，還有清朝咸豐年間的太平天國洪楊之亂，以及二十世紀中葉的文化大革命，都曾大大破壞毀滅了佛教的文物。這種狀 況在日本，不是絕對不曾發生過，卻不會如此嚴重。所以我常常感歎，中國有人用智慧創造文化，也有人用暴力毀滅文化，這都是活生生的中國歷史。
　　
　　黃檗山的範圍實在很大，我參觀了庭院，拜了祖塔，又到了一座掛有一面號稱是世界最大銅鼓的黃檗亭。此時該山女眾學院的三十多位師生，正在亭前拍團體照。由於我的到來，所以也請我加入拍了一張合照，這讓他們感到既意外又驚喜。他們恭敬的合掌為我迎送，其威儀令人讚歎。
　　

　　

　　▲隱元紀念堂內供奉的隱元禪師像。
　　

　　

　　▲於黃檗亭前，與黃檗女眾學院師生合影。
　　
　　現任福清黃檗山住持悲昇法師，年紀雖輕，卻非常有心，當我回到美國之後，還接到他的一封信。因為那天我們來去匆匆，他沒有時間可以向我請教佛法，感到十分遺憾。這封信寫得非常誠懇，文字的修養也很有深度。玆錄如下：聖嚴老法師獅座下：
　　
　　拜讀示函，如飲醍醐，無任歡喜。
　　
　　法師譽滿寰宇，望重宗門，愚忝居黃檗法席，然所學所知，得益法師著作甚多，兩岸雖隔，然執侍左右之念未泯，公因緣會遇，得償夙願，千古欽式，舍師而誰，所遺憾者法師來去匆匆，未能多聆法要，尚祈法師慈悲，二六時中悅賜棒喝之音，以警昏昧，用開愚頑。愚尚有一願，乞法師玉成，望為本山書「黃檗」二字，以作鎮山之寶，忝增黃檗勝景 ，祖道情長，唯師為繼，黃檗鬱鬱，乞師恩滋。耑此恭頌法躬康宇，如意鈞安不肖悲昇百拜頂禮壬午十月五日
　　
　　讀了他的信，我感到非常慚愧，也覺得非常欣慰。慚愧的是，我回到祖庭，不但沒有任何貢獻，反而打攪了他們。我還記得很清楚，在全部的行程中，每個寺院都只有列隊迎接，而唯有這座黃檗山，除了迎接，當我們離開時還列隊恭送。男女兩眾的佛學院出家學僧，以及常住的住眾一百二十多人，分別穿著黃、黑兩海青，搭著衣，如此列隊迎送，一路上也只有這個道場。而悲昇法師來到黃檗山已經十六年，都是做著行政的工作，以及負責男女兩所佛學院的教育工作，在繁重的工作中他還能夠寫出如此情文並茂的信，實屬難能可貴。黃檗祖庭能有像他這樣一位真正的龍象人才，真的讓我欣喜。

Ryokei's Dharma Transmission Certificate

Ryokei's transmission certificate

 In the recent conference on Buddhism After Mao in Paris, an interesting question has been raised about the continuous use of dharma transmission certificate as a way to authenticate a Buddhist lineage in China. It is interesting to note that this practice is still alive in China today. In the Song time, the certificate was called “sishu” 嗣書, in the late Ming and early Qing, it became "yuanliu" 源流, and the late Qing and Republican era, "fajuan" 法卷 as Homles Welch has studied extensively. Today, it is still called "fajuan." I discussed its use in my Enlightenment in Dispute. Also, Yinyuan brought this practice to Japan as well. He wrote a yuanliu to his Japanese disciple Ryōkei 龍溪, who was the retired emperor Gomizunoo's 後水尾 teacher. This one looks like exactly the one Yinyuan received from his teacher Feiyin Tongrong. Compare with Figure 5.1 (page 139) in Enlightenment in Dispute.

blurb and backcover of Leaving for the Rising Sun

I am glad that the backcover is ready for the paperback edition. Thank Prof. Lynn Struve for her kind words.

Back cover

“In this wonderfully informative study, Jiang Wu extends the significance of his previous, groundbreaking book, Enlightenment in Dispute, from China into the greater East Asian sphere of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Through the career and legacy of the eminent monk Yinyuan Longqi (1592–1673) in China and Japan, Wu penetrates the crisis of cultural legitimacy that beset East Asia, particularly Tokugawa Japan, after the demise of the Ming dynasty.”—Lynn Struve, Professor of Chinese History, Indiana University, Bloomington

In 1654 Zen Master Yinyuan traveled from China to Japan. Seven years later his monastery, Manpukuji, was built and he had founded a new tradition, called Obaku.  In this sequel to his 2008 book, Enlightenment in Dispute, Jiang Wu tells the story of the tremendous obstacles faced by Yinyuan, drawing parallels between his experiences and the broader political and cultural context in which he lived.

Yinyuan claimed to have inherited the “Authentic Transmission of the Linji Sect.” After arriving in Japan, he was able to persuade the Shogun to build a new Ming-style monastery for the establishment of his Obaku school. His arrival in Japan coincided with a series of historical developments, including the Ming-Qing transition, the consolidation of early Tokugawa power, the growth of Nagasaki trade, and rising Japanese interests in Chinese learning and artistic pursuits. While Yinyuan’s travel is known in scholarly circles, the significance of his journey within East Asian history has not been fully explored. Leaving for the Rising Sun provides a unique opportunity to reexamine the crisis in the continent and responses from other parts of East Asia. Using Yinyuan’s story as a bridge between China and Japan, Wu demonstrates that the monk’s significance is far greater than the temporary success of a religious sect. Rather, Yinyuan imported to Japan a new discourse of authenticity that gave rise to indigenous movements that challenged, and led to the eventual breakup of, a China-centered world order.

Jiang Wu is an associate professor in Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Arizona. His research interests include Chinese Buddhism, especially Chan/Zen Buddhism and the Chinese Buddhist canon, Sino-Japanese Buddhist exchanges, and the application of spatial analysis tools in the study of religion and culture. He is the author of Enlightenment in Dispute: The Reinvention of Chan Buddhism in Seventeenth-century China (2008).

How to deal with "garbage sources" 垃圾史料 in Ming-Qing Chinese Buddhism?

Some books were born with important topics and self-evidently significant sources. Readers will know that. The field expects the book and acclaims its contribution. The authors were lucky to work on them, mostly likely at the suggestion of their mentors or some wise people.

Unfortunately, the sources I worked with, for both of my books, can not be said to have any real significance at the first glance. And for the most time of my research, I didn't know what I was arguing for. Even the topics were blurring......religion? intellectual history? political history? I genuinely did not know until the very last moment of research and book making.

My first book Enlightenment in Dispute (Oxford, 2008) deals with Buddhist polemics in the seventeenth century. The sources are polemical essays written by monks. I will not recommend these sources to any one, including my students, because they are very dry, tedious, and tasteless, full of personal attacks and senseless accusations. Of course, the prominent Chinese historian Chen Yuan had worked on these sources. But the truth is that after he wrote his book Qingchu sengzheng ji 清初僧诤记, no one wrote anything significant on the topics and the sources and the knowledge and figures he introduced were so obscured that a Japanese scholar had to write an annotated translation of his book in the eightieth. This tells you how unattractive these sources are. Also, his grandson Prof. Chen Zhichao told me that when his grandfather wrote the book, he had an assistant going to the Forbidden City to copy for him the sources in Jiaxing Canon 嘉兴藏 which was stored there. (This edition is still there.)

My second book deals with a prominent Zen teacher whose collected work amounts to twelve volumes in modern binding. I confess I read all of them. But I have to say there are not of the best of a Zen collection. He was a poet and wrote about 5,000 poems. However, not all of them are of the high quality and clerical writing was always not well received in literary circles in China.

I finally realize that in the study of Chinese religion, history, culture there exist a large number of "garbage sources," especially in the area of religion. The same might be said about Korean and Japanese studies. Basically, they are numerous, boring, repetitive and we don't know how to make sense of them. No one what to touch them. One example is the first fascicle of local gazetteer which usually starts with "star constellation field" 星野. Another example in literature is the collection of "imperial decrees" in the beginning of hanlin literati's wenji collections. Most of them had been the officers 制诰 to draft these imperial documents. But a lot of them had lost their context and their meaning became obscure. In Chinese Buddhism, there are a lot of scriptural commentaries 注疏科判 awaiting for further exploration. If you want to find more, go the Chinese Buddhist canon 汉文大藏经, which is another topic I am working on, for "garbage." (A collection of essays co-edited by Lucille Chia and me will be published from Columbia University Press very soon.)

If you are the one of the unlucky researcher who happen to work on these "garbage sources," the tricky part is going to be how to read them and make sense of them. I believe that a selective reading of sources only with obvious significance might have obscured our understanding of history. Without fully processing these garbage sources, it is hardly true that we have a fair and objective view of the past.