By Hongzhou Prefect Concurrently Vice-President of the Tribunal of Censors Pei Xiu1
Chan Master Guifeng collected the Expressions of the Chan Source as a Chan basket [a new basket in addition to the traditional three of vinaya, sutra, and abhidharma] and made a prolegomenon to it. Hedong Pei Xiu says: “There has never been such a thing!”2 Since the Tathagata appeared in the world to establish the teachings according to the dispositions [of beings], the bodhisattvas in the interim arose to point to medicines appropriate for the diseases. Therefore, all the teachings [spoken by the Tathagata] during his whole lifetime opened three gates of varying depth [dharma characteristics, voidness, and dharma nature]. As to the one true, pure mind, he elaborated separate dharmas of the nature and characteristics. Though the two scholars Asvaghosa and Nagarjuna both spread the sutras of the charioteer of humans,3 they were of different axioms—voidness and [dharma] nature. Though the two [Chan] masters [Hui]neng and [Shen]xiu both transmitted the mind of Bodhidharma, they were of different transmissions—all-at-once and step-by-step. Tiantai specializes in reliance upon the three tranquilizations.4 For Niutou there is not one dharma. For Jiangxi [Hongzhou] everything in its entirety is real. Heze points directly to Knowing-seeing. In addition, voidness and existence eradicate each other; real and unreal take each other in; opposites snatch each other up and are in accord; [there is] secret pointing and open preaching. In the Western Regions and in China the lineages have, in fact, been manifold. Truly, disease has a thousand sources, and so in medicine there [must] be many items. To respond to dispositions and conform to capacities, there cannot be just a uniform sameness. Although in all cases it is the gate of realization awakening, it [must] always be the correct and true path [of unexcelled, perfect awakening]. Therefore, while among the followers of all the [Chan] lineages there have been awakened people, nevertheless, each [lineage] rests in its own practices, [and so] the flexible are few and the limited numerous. For several decades the teachings of the [Chan] masters has increasingly declined. They have taken their transmissions as doors-and-windows5 [separate sects], each opening outward in its own way. They take the sutras and treatises as weaponry and attack each other. The feelings of body-armor [makers] and arrow [makers] are different. (The Zhou Rites says: “Body-armor [pronunciation ‘han’] makers make carapaces.”6 The Mencius says: “How are arrow makers more inhumane than body-armor makers? Body-armor makers only fear harm to people. Arrow makers only fear a lack of harm to people. This is because the arts they practice make it so.”7 Trainees of the present time just follow [their own] lineages and vainly negate each other over this and that.) Chasing after self and others brings on highness and lowness in dharmas. Right and wrong are seized upon in the midst of disorder, and no one can discriminate among them. Thus, in the past the World-honored-one, the bodhisattvas, and the teachings and [Chan] lineages of the various regions have unexpectedly been sufficient to produce conflict among junior people, increasing the disease of the depravities. What benefit could there be in this? The Great Master of Guishan [Zongmi] sighed over this for a long time, saying: “At this juncture I can no longer remain silent.” Thereupon [he composed his Chan Prolegomenon that] took the three types of teachings principles of the Tathagata [the three teachings] to seal the three types of dharma gates of the Chan axioms [the three axioms]. [In his Chan Prolegomenon he] melted down sheet metal, platters, hairpins, and bracelets into one metal; he stirred butter, butter fat, and cream into one taste. He raised up the headrope [of the Chan Canon net in order to hoist it from the sea] and the collar [of the Chan Canon garment in order to put the garment on], and everything fell into accord. (The Xunzi says: “It is like lifting up the collar of a hide coat. You bend your five fingers and arrange it. Those who can accord with this are uncountable.”)8 Rely on the main point and those who come will be of an identical tenor. (The Brief Examples from the Zhou Changes says: “If you rely on the main point in order to discern what comes, then even assembling from heaven and earth and the four directions, they will not [be called] ‘many.’”9 The Prolegomenon relies on the perfect teaching [as its main point] in order to seal the [Chan] lineages. Even though [the Chan lineages are of] a hundred [contending] schools [much like the contending schools of thought in late Zhou dynasty times], there are none that are not subsumed.) Still [Chan Master Guifeng] feared that for trainees it would be difficult to understand this. And so he once again directly showed the root and the branches of the axiom source [in section 11], the fusion of real and unreal [in sections 50–51], the concealed voidness [teaching] and the revealed nature [teaching from section 33 onward], the difference between dharma and principle [in sections 17 and 34], the difference and sameness of all-at-once and step-by-step [in section 19], the mutuality of negativistic [explanation] and expressive [explanation in section 39], the varying depth of the provisional and real [teachings in section 14], and the rightness and wrongness of the flexible and the limited. (From this point onward [Chan Master Guifeng in his Chan Prolegomenon] sighs over whether the narration is clear and [serves up] a warning, desiring to make people awaken.) There is no case in which he does not raise the ears [of his readers] and inform them, point to his palm to show them,10 deliver the lion’s roar for them, love the weak [among them, and offer] enticement. (From this point onward [in the Chan Prolegomenon] he sighs out of compassion and anxious thoughts, like one caring for a newborn baby.) [As if] suckling [an infant or applying] a medicine, he worries about the early death of their buddha seeds. (Cutting off good [karmic] roots and creating an icchantika11 is early death.) [As if] holding them to his belly, he thinks of their floating adrift on the waters or being burned by fire. ([Placing on the] belly is embracing.12 Three years after birth the child is free of the father and mother’s worries. They no longer have thoughts of water and fire. The person of the present has grown up a little and sinks into the five desires—that is water and fire.) He lifts them up and leads them, afraid of13 the trap of delusions false and small. (When they already have good [karmic] roots and are also free of the five desires, he has the further fear that they will not enter into the Mahayana.) He disperses [their delusions], out of compassion for their prison of fighting and quarreling. (Having already entered into the dharma of the Mahayana, they once again [engage in] mutual negation and assertion, and so he disperses [such contentions]. That is the axiom of the Prolegomenon.) The great brightness cannot eradicate the darkness of the long night; a compassionate mother cannot protect her child after its death. (From this point onward [in the Chan Prolegomenon] he exclaims that compassion and wisdom are identical to the buddhas. Even though the buddha sun is flourishing, after having gotten my teacher, that radiance shined out in every nook and corner; even though the buddha compassion is universal, after having gotten my teacher, that broad benefit [increased] more and more.) As to what my teacher is like, he lifts up the buddha sun that illumines every nook and corner, and the cloudiness of doubt is dissipated. In accordance with buddha mind, he diffuses great compassion in every direction, throughout eons bringing benefit. Thus, the World-honored-one is the master of explaining the teachings, and my teacher is the person who harmonizes the [seemingly contradictory ideas found in the various] teachings. The root [the World-honored-one] and the branches [my teacher] fit into each other like a tally, the distant and the near illumining each other. You could say that [my teacher] completes the capabilities14 of all the teachings [spoken by the Tathagata] during his whole lifetime. (From the World-honored-one’s developing the teachings until today, [Chan Master Guifeng] harmonizes [the seemingly contradictory ideas found in the various teachings so that for the first time]15 their capabilities are completed.)
Someone says: “[Even though] the Tathagata never did a great gist16 [like the Chan Prolegomenon] that harmonizes [the seemingly contradictory ideas found in the various teachings,] now one morning [Chan Master Guifeng] contravenes the axiom, failing to maintain it. If [Guifeng] abandons the monastery and does not rely on it, is it not perverting the [Chan] way of cryptic coinciding [found in] the secret treasury?”
Answer: “Even though the Tathagata at the beginning preached separately the three vehicles, later he harmonized [the seemingly contradictory ideas found in the various teachings] into one path [as Guifeng shows in section 48].” (Thirty years earlier he sometimes had preached the Hinayana, sometimes had preached the voidness teaching, and sometimes had preached the characteristics teaching. Those who listened according to their dispositions came to a realization awakening, but they did not come to a knowledge that harmonized [the seemingly contradictory ideas found in all of them]. Forty years later sitting at Vulture Peak [where he delivered the Lotus Sutra] he made the three vehicles converge. He went to Kuśinagara [where he delivered the Nirvana Sutra and died] and revealed the one nature. This is the [underlying] norm for these earlier and later [teachings].) Therefore, in the Nirvana Sutra the bodhisattva Kāśyapa says: “The buddhas sometimes speak with a secret [intention] but they do not have a secret storehouse.”17 The World-honored-one praises him, saying: “The words of the Tathagata are open and revealed dew, pure without concealment. The stupid ones do not understand and call it a secret storehouse. Since the wise ones comprehend, they do not call it a storehouse.” This is proof. Therefore, when the kingly way prospers, doors are not shut [for security], and there is protection against barbarians. When the buddha way is provided, it is the dharani of all the teachings and a defense against the Evil One from without. (The perfect teaching of the Nirvana brings together all the teachings. It only excludes theories of the Evil One and the false axioms of the outsider [non-Buddhist] paths.) You should not once again [in a state of] grasping feelings roll up your sleeves18 [to make an exhaustive effort] in the midst of this. Ah! Junior trainees should take their faith from the Buddha and not take their faith from people. They should take their proof19 from the root dharma and not take their proof from branch practices. (The Prolegomenon takes buddha word to seal the [Chan] axioms and takes the root dharma to illumine slanted theories. Therefore, it repeatedly exhorts deep faith.) If you can be like this, then you will not be ungrateful for the trouble to which the Great Master Guishan has put himself. (My poor father and mother in giving me life went to great trouble,20 but my teacher’s virtue surpasses this. Later people who look at his dharma [that is, the Chan Prolegomenon] and do not produce a sense of compassion21 are no different from trees or stones.)