The Administration of Buddhism in China: A Study and Translation ...

Appendix 1

Wang Yucheng’s Preface for Zanning from The Literary Collection of Wang Yucheng (Xiaochu ji 小畜集)¹¹²

(1) Preface to the Collected Writings of Great Master of ‘Comprehensive Wisdom’¹¹³ [Zanning], Buddhist Registrar of the Left Precincts [of the Capital]

(2) Sons of the Buddha refer to Buddhist writings as the internal (i.e., essential or orthodox) canon, and Confucian writings as external (i.e., peripheral or non-orthodox) study. Many are skilled in poetry; few are skilled in literary culture (wen). The Great Master alone is [proficient in] all four of these.

(3) The Great Master’s secular family name is Gao; his Dharma name is Zanning. His forebears hailed from Bohai.¹¹⁴ At the end of the Sui dynasty (581-618), they migrated to Deqing county in the Wuxing region.¹¹⁵ If you investigate the achievements of his ancestors,¹¹⁶ they all concealed their virtue and did not serve as officials.

(4) His mother’s family name was Zhou; she gave birth to the Great Master in a country villa¹¹⁷ on Mount Jinwu,¹¹⁸ on a specific day and month in the year yimao,¹¹⁹ the sixteenth year of the tianyou era of the Tang dynasty (919).¹²⁰

(5) At the time of the seventh year of the zhenming era of the [Later] Liang dynasty (921), Kings Wusu, Qian so and so, had exclusive control over the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions. During the tiancheng era (926-930) of the Later Tang dynasty, [the master] left home [to become a monk]. At the beginning of the qingtai era (934-936), he received full ordination on Mount Tiantai, studied the fourfold vinaya¹²¹ and mastered the Nanshan Vinaya [tradition].¹²²

(6) In the third year of the changxing era (932), King Wusu passed away, and King Wenmu, so and so, inherited the position. The prestige of the Great Master increased daily, and the study of literature prospered. At the