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楊岐燈盞明千古寶壽生薑辣萬年

Pronunciations

Basic Meaning: the lamp of Yangqi shines forever, and the ginger of Baoshou is spicy for 10,000 generations

Senses:

  • A couplet sometimes found in monasteries. It refers to a story about Yangqi Fanghui 楊歧方會, founder of a branch of Linji Chan 臨濟宗, who was meticulous about keeping the precepts 戒律. After his ordination, he was obliged to support his mother, so at night, while the other clergy were sleeping, he would stay up and make sandals to sell privately. When he used an oil lamp to illuminate his work, he was careful to use a lamp and oil he had bought privately instead of using the common monastic supplies. He even thought to hang his lamp above the common lamp so that any oil that leaked would benefit the community and not be wasted. Hence, his lamp shines forever as an example of how even great Chan 禪宗 masters are careful about precepts. This story is sometimes used to admonish clergy who have access to temple property, as at J36nB355_p0555c12.

    The story behind the second line is found in the Dahui Pujue chanshi zongmen wuku 大慧普覺禪師宗門武庫 (T 1998B). When Chan Master Jie (i.e., Shijie 師戒, d.u., the fifth patriarch of the Yunmen lineage 雲門宗) was ill he sent a servant to the storeroom to get fresh ginger so he could make some medicine. The superintendent, his disciple Baoshou 寶壽 (i.e., 自寶, 978–1054), shouted at him, saying even his own master could not appropriate monastic property for personal use. The servant reported this back to Master Jie. Jie gave the servant some of his own money to go back and buy the ginger, and only then did Baoshou let him have it. See T 1998B.47.957a17–a21.

    [Charles Jones]
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    Entry created: 2023-03-01

    Updated: 2023-03-02