Master Yinyuan's 隐元 Death Poem at Foguang Shan 佛光山

During my trip to Foguang shan in Nov. 2017, I noticed that Master Yinyuan's 隱元 death poem was inscribed onto the wall outside the Foguang Yuan Art Gallery 佛光緣美術館.

A Chan stick from the West,

          Stirs up a powerful wind

Conjures up a Huangbo mountain, 

          enduring without dominating

Today I put down 

          both body and mind

Suddenly transcend the dharma realm, 

          becoming one with the true emptiness

西来楖栗振雄风，幻出檗山不宰功.

今日身心俱放下，顿超法界一真空.

《隱元禪師全集》第十卷，頁5055；第十一卷，頁 5439

Photo by Jiang Wu

Galen Eugene Sargent's collection of Willem Grootaer's Articles

During my research of W. A. Grootaers, I checked out a bound packet of collected papers by Grootaers. It is very likely bound by Galen Eugene Sargent 金萨静 because one of the copies has Grootaers' Chinese signature on it, dated June 20, 1957. G. E. Sargent authored several books, including Tchou Hi contre le Bouddhisme (Zhu Xi against Buddhism, 1955). He was later a professor at Indiana University and died in 1975. The collection of his books is now in the library of Institute of Advanced Studies of World Religions in New York.

Duli Xingyi's 獨立性易 Calligraphy at Worcester Art Museum

I have been to Worcester Art Museum before but never noticed they have a piece of calligraphy by the Obaku monk Duli Xingyi (1596-1672). Duli was the contemporary of Yinyuan Longqi 隱元隆琦 but never received Yinyuan's Dharma Transmission. The painting was done by Unkoku Toeki 雲谷等益 (1591-1644).

http://www.worcesterart.org/collection/Japanese/1983.32.html

OBAKU DOKURYU (Calligrapher)

Japanese, 1596-1672

Painting traditionally attributed to Unkoku Toeki, 1591-1644

Daruma

Signature: Shoeki Dokuryu shi Haidai

Seals: (upper) Dokuryu, (lower) Tengai Ichikanjin

Alexander H. Bullock Fund

1983.32

Copyright Notice

This painting of Daruma (Bodhidharma), the Indian monk who traveled from India to China in the sixth century and founded Zen Buddhism, has a traditional attribution to Unkoku Toeki on the basis of interpolated seals. The calligraphy is of greater interest than the portrait, with which it shares a highly simplified style.

Dokuryu (Chinese: Tai Li) was a Chinese scholar and calligrapher who fled the Manchu conquest of his homeland and arrived in Japan in 1653. He took the name Dokuryu when he became a monk under Ingen, the Chinese founder of Mampukuji, the Obaku Zen temple near Kyoto. The Obaku sect was influential in the spread of contemporary Chinese culture in Japan during the Edo period (1600-1868).

Dokuryu's cursive script shares characteristics with his Chinese contemporaries in the late Ming period and has a freedom and rhythm entirely its own, distinct from the calligraphic style of other Obaku Zen monk-calligraphers. The fluid brushwork seen here, with its contrast of wet and dry, light and dark ink, captures the typically irreverent Zen spirit of the inscription, which calls the subject (Daruma) "the old clot."

Jiun Sonja's 慈雲尊者 Calligraphy at Philadelphia Museum of Art

Philadelphia Museum of Art has a piece of calligraphy of Onkō Jiun飲光慈雲 , Japanese, 1718 - 1804, commonly known as Jiun Sonja. It is the title of the Lotus Sutra. See below for detailed cataloging description.


Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law (Myōhō Renge-kyō)

Onkō Jiun飲光慈雲 , Japanese, 1718 - 1804

Geography:
Made in Japan, Asia
Period:
Edo Period (1615-1868)
Date:
Late 18th century
Medium:
Ink on paper; mounted as a hanging scroll
Dimensions:
6 feet 9 inches × 26 1/2 inches (205.7 × 67.3 cm) Image: 48 7/16 × 22 5/8 inches (123 × 57.5 cm)
Curatorial Department:
East Asian Art
Object Location:
Currently not on view

Accession Number:
2002-198-1
Credit Line:

Purchased with the Hollis Family Foundation Fund, 2002
Label:

One the most talented and individualistic of Edo period calligraphers, Jiun was trained as a Buddhist monk and became renowned for his studies of the Sanskrit language. Jiun's calligraphy is most influenced by the brushwork of the Öbaku Zen monks, known as bokuseki (ink traces), although he seems consciously to ignore the rules of calligraphy in his free and idiosyncratic handling of ink and brush. The five-character inscription of this calligraphy reads myöhö renge-kyö, or Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law, referring to the canonical Buddhist text more popularly known simply as the Lotus Sutra.