Blue Cliff Records

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; ).K. Sekida, ''Two Zen Classics'' (1977) p. 18-20

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 Zen literature.

Dogen and Japan

Another key legend regards Dōgen (1200–1253), who brought the Caodong school of Chan to Japan as the Sōtō sect 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.

# The Emperor Wu Questions Bodhidharma
# The Ultimate Way Is without Difficulty
# Master Ma Is Unwell
# Deshan Carrying His Bundle
# Xuefeng's Grain of Rice
# Every Day Is a Good Day
# Huichao Asks about the Buddha
# Cuiyan's Eyebrows
# Zhaozhou's Four Gates
# The Phony Notice on Overcoming Demons
# Gobblers of Dregs
# Three Pounds of Flax
# The School of Kāṇadeva
# An Appropriate Statement
# An Upside-Down Statement
# The Man in the Weeds
# The Living Meaning of Chan
# The Seamless Monument
# One Finger Chan
# The Living Meaning of Chan
# Lotus Flower, Lotus Leaves
# The Turtle-Nosed Snake
# The Summit of the Peak of Wonder
# Guishan and Iron Grindstone Liu
# The Hermit's Staff
# Sitting Alone on the Mountain
# The Body Exposed in the Autumn Wind
# The Truth That's Never Been Spoken
# It Goes Along With It
# Big Radishes
# Magu Carrying His Ringed Staff
# Elder Ding Stands Motionless
# Zifu's Circle
# Where Do You Come From?
# The Dialogue of Mañjuśrī and Wuzhuo
# Roaming in the Mountains
# There's Nothing in the World
# The Workings of the Iron Ox
# The Flowering Hedge
# Like a Dream
# One Who Has Died the Great Death Contents
# Good Snowflakes
# No Cold or Heat
# Knowing How to Beat the Drum
# Zhaozhou's Shirt
# The Sound of Raindrops
# Six Do Not Take It In
# Overturning the Tea Kettle
# The Golden Fish That Has Passed through the Net
# Every Atom Samādhi
# What Is It?
# The Stone Bridge
# Wild Ducks
# Yunmen Extends Both Hands
# Daowu's Condolence Call
# One Arrow Smashes Three Barriers
# The Stupid Oaf
# Zhaozhou Can't Explain
# Why Not Quote It Fully?
# The Staff Changes into a Dragon
# One Atom
# Within There Is a Jewel
# Nanquan Kills a Cat
# Nanquan Questions Zhaozhou
# An Outsider Questions the Buddha
# Getting Huangchao's Sword
# Great Adept Fu Expounds a Scripture
# What's Your Name?
# Nanquan's Circle
# Guishan Attends Baizhang
# You Shut Up Too
# Baizhang Questions Yunyan
# The Permutations of Assertion and Denial
# Jinniu's Rice Pail
# Wujiu's Unjust Beating
# Have You Eaten?
# Yunmen's Cake
# Sixteen Bodhisattvas Bathe
# All Sounds
# A Newborn Baby
# Shooting the Elk of Elks
# The Stable Body of Reality
# The Ancient Buddhas and the Pillars
# Vimalakīrti's Scornful Revilement
# Tianping's Travels
# The Ten Body Controller
# Baling's Sword

See also

* ''101 Zen Stories''
* ''Book of Equanimity''
* '' Mondo''
* '' Every day is a good day''
* '' The Gateless Barrier''

References

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

External links

{{Wikiquote, Blue Cliff Record
* Text on Chinese Wikisource
Chinese original on the Chinese Text Project's wiki
* ttps://www.bluecliffrecord.ca/commentaries/ Directory of commentaries on the Blue Cliff Record
Zen koan collections
1125 works
Song dynasty literature
12th-century Chinese books