Digital Dictionary of Buddhism

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延壽

Pronunciations

Basic Meaning: prolonged life

Senses:

  • Alternative rendering of 延年. [Charles Muller; source(s): Nakamura]
  • An infirmary for sick monks. Also written as 病室 and 延壽堂. 〔典座教訓〕 [Charles Muller; source(s): Nakamura]
  • The name of Yanshou (904–975), a noted monk of the Fayan 法眼宗 lineage of the Chan school who lived from the end of the Tang into the early Song dynasty 宋代, originally from Yuhang 餘杭 in Lin'an 臨安 (present-day Hang 杭 county in Zhejiang 浙江). His surname was Wang 王; he was styled Zhongxuan 仲玄, and posthumously titled Baoyizi 抱一子. He was considered to the third patriarch of Fayan and the sixth patriarch of the Pure Land school 淨土宗, known by the full name of Yongming Yanshou 永明延壽. He entered into the monastic order at the age of thirteen under the tutelage of the Chan master Cuiyan 翠巖 of Longcesi 龍册寺. He later went to Mt. Tiantai 天台山 where he paid his respects to the national preceptor Deshao 德韶, first training in Chan meditation and grasping the essence of his teaching. He subsequently went to Guoqingsi 國淸寺 where he practiced the Lotus repentance 法華懺，and is said to have experienced enlightenment. Upon this, in the morning he released animals from captivity and in the evening fed the hungry ghosts, chanting the Lotus Sutra 法華經，while carrying out intense practices of purity. He next moved to Mt. Xuedou 雪竇山 in Mingzhou 明州 where he propagated the Dharma. He also supervised the renovation of Lingyinsi 靈隱寺 in Hangzhou 杭州. In 961, in response to the request of Qianchu Yuewang 錢俶越王 of Wu 吳，he moved to the great practice center of Yongming Yongming 永明 where he taught many students, and was thus subsequently known as the great teacher of Yongming 永明大師. He was distinguished in being a teacher who combined the practices of Chan and Pure Land 禪淨雙修. He ended up staying at Yongming for fifteen years, and people called him an incarnation of Maitreya 慈氏下生. On the scholarly side, Yanshou assembled into a single compilation of one hundred fascicles the writings of some two hundred Indian and Chinese Buddhist teachers, including such luminaries as Cien 慈恩, Xianshou 賢首, and the three masters of Tiantai 天台, which was titled the Record of the Axiom Mirror 宗鏡錄. In this work he juxtaposed and compared the teaching of the various schools of Buddhism with the aim of showing the various ways in which they complemented one another. When the king of Goryeo 高麗 saw this text, he was so impressed that he dispatched over three hundred monks to study under Yanshou, and thus the Fayan teaching was transmitted to the Korean peninsula. Passing away at the age of 72, he was posthumously titled 智覺禪師. In addition to the Axiom Mirror, he published the Wanshan tonggui ji 萬善同歸集 in six fascicles, the Shenqi anyang fu 神棲安養賦 in one fascicle, the Weixin jue 唯心訣, as well as sixteen other works. 〔宋高僧傳, 景德傳燈錄, 傳法正宗記, 宗門統要續集, 佛祖統紀〕 [Charles Muller; source(s): Kamata, Ui, Soothill]
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    [Dictionary References]

    Chūgoku bukkyōshi jiten (Kamata) 030

    Bukkyō jiten (Ui) 91

    Bulgyo sajeon 585a

    Zengaku daijiten (Komazawa U.) 111d

    Bukkyōgo daijiten (Nakamura) 110a

    Fo Guang Dictionary 2880

    Ding Fubao {Digital Version}

    Index to the Bussho kaisetsu daijiten (Ono) 073

    Bukkyō daijiten (Mochizuki) (v.1-6)315a, (v.9-10)1029c

    Bukkyō daijiten (Oda) 139-2

    Copyright provisions

    The rights to textual segments (nodes) of the DDB are owned by the author indicated in the brackets next to each segment. For rights regarding the compilation as a whole, please contact Charles Muller. Please do not reproduce without permission. And please do not copy into Wikipedia without proper citation!

    Entry created: 2002-06-18

    Updated: 2020-01-26