Fascicle One contains sermons, dialogues with students, and interactions with patrons. Fascicle Two is entitled 'Verses on ancient [cases], Substitute [words], and Alternative [responses]' 頌古代別. This fascicle is generally thought to represent the earliest collection of gong’an 公案 ( 'public cases' ), even though the text itself survives only in later editions (discussed below). Fascicle Three entitled 'Songs and Verses'  歌頌 gathers didactic verses spanning several common genres.

The received edition in the Taishō canon text is based on the slightly earlier Dai Nihon Zokuzōkyō 大日本續藏經 edition produced between 1905 and 1912. That Zokuzōkyō edition most likely was based on a Japanese Edo period woodblock print made in Kyōto and dated Hōei 寶永 6 (1709). A digital photo-reproduction of the 1709 edition at present is available on the National Diet Library website. Lacunae on pages 37–39 of the 1709 Kyōto edition match those in the Zokuzōkyō and Taishō editions (T 1992.47.603.a18). In addition to the 1101 Hongzhou printerʼs colophon and donors’ inscription, this Edo edition reproduces five colophons from a Yuan era recension, one dated 1310 (至大三年) and two dated 1311 (至大辛亥). It is unclear whether the Yuan edition was based directly on the 1101 Hongzhou edition, or descended via a silent intermediary. In addition, manuscript editions also circulated in the Song (attested in Juefan Huihong 覺範惠洪 (1071–1128), Shimen wenzi chan 石門文字禪, fascicle 25). Yanagida Seizan observed that the original text was likely altered in these subsequent editions; see “Zenseki kaitei” 禪籍解題. Chinese editions are not known to have survived. No further Chinese editions of the three-fascicle text are attested in catalogues.

In addition to the 1709 witness, related extracts are found in the 1239 Southern Song anthology Xukai guzunsu yu yao 續開古尊宿語要, and in the expanded and modified Gu zunsu yulu 古尊宿語錄. 〔金陵淸涼院文益禪師語錄 T 1991.47.594a29〕

[Chinese Buddhist Canonical Attributions Database]