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Wikipedia / Blue Cliff Record

The Blue Cliff Record () is a collection of Chan Buddhist kōans originally compiled in Song China in 1125, during the reign of Emperor Huizong, and then expanded into its present form by Chan master Yuanwu Keqin (1063–1135; ).

The book includes Yuanwu's annotations and commentary on 100 Verses on Old Cases (), a compilation of 100 kōans collected by Xuedou Chongxian (980–1052; , ). Xuedou selected 82 of these from the Song period work The Jingde Record of the Transmission of the Lamp, with the remainder selected from the Yunmen Guanglu (, Extensive Record of Yunmen Wenyan, 864–949).

History

Name and origin

The Blue Cliff Record derives its name from the temple where Yuanwu Keqin wrote most of his commentaries, the Blue Cliff Cloister (碧巖院, Bìyán Yuàn) in Hunan. The work was originally called Xuedou's Juko (ju, verse; ko, old koans) before its Blue Cliff Record title was attributed.

Yuanwu first presented it as a series of lectures to his students between 1111 and 1117. It appears these lectures occurred during the traditional 90-day summer retreats, as can be seen from his introduction to the 100th Case, where he writes: "All summer I've been verbosely making up complications... and tripping up all the monks in the land." Written a hundred years before The Gateless Gate, the Blue Cliff Record contains appended verses to each koan, added by Xuedo to point out their hidden meaning. Yuanwu 's commentaries were added to tempt students trying to understand Zen conceptually and intellectually instead of by their own immediate experience.

The composite work consisting of the one hundred cases, along with poetry added by Xuedou and prose commentary by Yuanwu, is collectively known as the Blue Cliff Record.

Later developments

Yuanwu's successor, Dahui Zonggao (1089–1163), wrote many letters to lay students teaching the practice of concentrating on koans during meditation, but Dahui did not explain and analyze koans. Oral tradition holds that Dahui noticed students engaged in too much intellectual discourse on koans, and then burned the wooden blocks used to print the Blue Cliff Record to "rescue disciples from delusion".

The text was reconstituted only in the early 14th century by a layman, Zhang Mingyuan (, ). One of Zhang's sons became ill during this time, and others believed that it was an omen meaning that Zhang should not have re-released the book. However, an elder named Feng Zizhen () comforted Zhang and encouraged him for his work. Some of Yuanwu's capping phrases and possibly some of Xuedong's capping phrases were lost due to the incomplete source material available to Zhang.

On its republication, the Blue Cliff Record again became one of the most influential works of Chan/Zen literature.

Dogen and Japan

Another key legend regards Dōgen (1200–1253), who brought the Caodong school of Chan to Japan as the Sōtō tradition of Zen. After an extended visit to China for the purpose of studying Chan, on the night before his planned return to Japan, Dogen came across the Blue Cliff Record for the first time, and stayed up all night making a handwritten copy of the book. Given the size of the book, this story is most likely apocryphal; but Dogen is still credited with introducing the collection to Japan, where it had a wide circulation. The Blue Cliff Record became the central text in Japanese Zen by the Muromachi period of 1336 to 1573.

Literary qualities

The Blue Cliff Record was a subtle and literary text, with wide-ranging philosophical implications, in contrast to the more straightforward nature of The Gateless Barrier. The Gateless Gate is normally studied before Blue Cliff Record because it is a shorter, simpler text, but all the cases in both texts are independent and could be studied in any sequence.

List of chapters

Below is a list of the 100 cases (koans) in the Blue Cliff Record from Thomas Cleary's 1998 English translation of the Blue Cliff Record. Traditionally, the Blue Cliff Record is organized into 10 volumes, each containing 10 cases.

  1. The Emperor Wu Questions Bodhidharma

  2. The Ultimate Way Is without Difficulty

  3. Master Ma Is Unwell

  4. Deshan Carrying His Bundle

  5. Xuefeng's Grain of Rice

  6. Every Day Is a Good Day

  7. Huichao Asks about the Buddha

  8. Cuiyan's Eyebrows

  9. Zhaozhou's Four Gates

  10. The Phony Notice on Overcoming Demons

  11. Gobblers of Dregs

  12. Three Pounds of Flax

  13. The School of Kāṇadeva

  14. An Appropriate Statement

  15. An Upside-Down Statement

  16. The Man in the Weeds

  17. The Living Meaning of Chan

  18. The Seamless Monument

  19. One Finger Chan

  20. The Living Meaning of Chan

  21. Lotus Flower, Lotus Leaves

  22. The Turtle-Nosed Snake

  23. The Summit of the Peak of Wonder

  24. Guishan and Iron Grindstone Liu

  25. The Hermit's Staff

  26. Sitting Alone on the Mountain

  27. The Body Exposed in the Autumn Wind

  28. The Truth That's Never Been Spoken

  29. It Goes Along With It

  30. Big Radishes

  31. Magu Carrying His Ringed Staff

  32. Elder Ding Stands Motionless

  33. Zifu's Circle

  34. Where Do You Come From?

  35. The Dialogue of Mañjuśrī and Wuzhuo

  36. Roaming in the Mountains

  37. There's Nothing in the World

  38. The Workings of the Iron Ox

  39. The Flowering Hedge

  40. Like a Dream

  41. One Who Has Died the Great Death Contents

  42. Good Snowflakes

  43. No Cold or Heat

  44. Knowing How to Beat the Drum

  45. Zhaozhou's Shirt

  46. The Sound of Raindrops

  47. Six Do Not Take It In

  48. Overturning the Tea Kettle

  49. The Golden Fish That Has Passed through the Net

  50. Every Atom Samādhi

  51. What Is It?

  52. The Stone Bridge

  53. Wild Ducks

  54. Yunmen Extends Both Hands

  55. Daowu's Condolence Call

  56. One Arrow Smashes Three Barriers

  57. The Stupid Oaf

  58. Zhaozhou Can't Explain

  59. Why Not Quote It Fully?

  60. The Staff Changes into a Dragon

  61. One Atom

  62. Within There Is a Jewel

  63. Nanquan Kills a Cat

  64. Nanquan Questions Zhaozhou

  65. An Outsider Questions the Buddha

  66. Getting Huangchao's Sword

  67. Great Adept Fu Expounds a Scripture

  68. What's Your Name?

  69. Nanquan's Circle

  70. Guishan Attends Baizhang

  71. You Shut Up Too

  72. Baizhang Questions Yunyan

  73. The Permutations of Assertion and Denial

  74. Jinniu's Rice Pail

  75. Wujiu's Unjust Beating

  76. Have You Eaten?

  77. Yunmen's Cake

  78. Sixteen Bodhisattvas Bathe

  79. All Sounds

  80. A Newborn Baby

  81. Shooting the Elk of Elks

  82. The Stable Body of Reality

  83. The Ancient Buddhas and the Pillars

  84. Vimalakīrti's Door of Nonduality

  85. A Tiger's Roar

  86. The Kitchen Pantry and the Main Gate

  87. Medicine and Disease Subdue Each Other

  88. Three Invalids

  89. The Hands and Eyes of Great Compassion

  90. The Body of Wisdom

  91. Yanguan's Rhinoceros

  92. The Buddha Ascends the Seat

  93. Daguang Does a Dance

  94. Not Seeing

  95. Three Poisons

  96. Three Turning Words

  97. The Diamond Sutra's Scornful Revilement

  98. Tianping's Travels

  99. The Ten Body Controller

  100. Baling's Sword

See also

References

Notes

Further reading

  • Thomas Cleary and J. C. Cleary, trans. (1998). The Blue Cliff Record. BDK America.

  • Matthew Juksan Sullivan (2021). The Garden of Flowers and Weeds; Monkfish Book Publishing Company, ISBN 1948626497