Zen Lamp Records

Zen Buddhism is a school of Buddhism with Chinese characteristics created by the Chinese people, and it also had a huge impact on the later development of Chinese culture.

Denglu, lamp is wisdom, it emits light, light and wisdom, so Zen Buddhism often refers to enlightening wisdom as Chuandeng. Denglu is the abbreviation of Chuandenglu. It is the master who inspires students and makes his wisdom shine. Of course not. I'll give you a lamp. You originally had a lamp, but it didn't light up. You would light it. Master will lend you a fire. If you light up the lamp, you will have wisdom. The brief records made by these Zen masters in Zen Buddhism are called Chuan Deng Lu.

Regarding the Chuan Deng Lu, there were records in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, but they were all lost. Now the earliest Chuan Deng Lu is the Southern Tang Dynasty, which is the period of the late Tang and Five Dynasties. When Zen was the most popular, it was the most prosperous in the late Tang and Five Dynasties, and the five schools and seven schools were very lively. In the Song Dynasty, it was the word Zen.

The Zen Buddhism of the late Tang and Five Dynasties was really good, but if these things have passed away, everyone will not know them. Of course, they have to resort to written records, but there is probably still a gap with the situation at that time. In the Song Dynasty, people looked at things like "Five Lantern Festivals", "Biyan Lu" and so on. They were often referred to as "Writing Zen". Just talking about the realm of words means that the realm of literature is very high, so it is called "Writing Zen". , that's why, like Su Dongpo, they liked these things, and they swarmed away after the "Five Lantern Festival" came out in the Song Dynasty.

But it records the situation in the late Tang and Five Dynasties, and the earliest records of lanterns can also be handed down in writing. It is the "Anthology of Ancestral Hall" co-authored by the two Zen masters Jing and Yun from Zhaoqing Temple in Quanzhou in the Southern Tang Dynasty. Jingde Chuan Deng Lu was published more than half a century ago, but it was later lost, lost in China. Later, it seemed that a Japanese scholar or North Korea took it back, and then returned to China. Published a few years ago. This is the earliest surviving, not lost, written record of lamps. Record some koan cases of the main line of Mazu Daoyi.