The Zutang ji 祖堂集 (Collection of the Patriarchal Hall) is the earliest extant “lamp record” (denglu 燈錄) of the Chan tradition arranged around a full-fledged genealogical framework. Initially compiled as a single-fascicle (juan 卷) work by the otherwise unknown Chan monks Jing 靜 (d.u.) and Yun 筠 (d.u.), the text was prefaced at their request by Wendeng 文僜 (892?–972; a.k.a. Chan Master Jingxiu 淨修禪師) who served as abbot of the Zhaoqing Monastery 招慶寺 in Quanzhou 泉州. The sole extant witness of the Zutang ji is the twenty-fascicle Goryeo 高麗 woodblock edition (K. 1503) achieved in the thirty-second year of the Gojong 高宗 era (1245). It was found among the extracanonical works carved in the context of the second enterprise of the Goryeo Buddhist canon (Kor. Goryeo Daejanggyeong 高麗大 藏經), supplemented by a foreword by a certain Seok Gwangjun 釋匡儁 (d.u.). This second preface indicates that the original Zutang ji had subsequently been expanded to a ten-fascicle version, which was then used as the base text of the Goryeo edition.
The objectives of this dissertation are threefold: (1) to examine the compilation history of the Zutang ji and clarify what we know and what we do not know about its multilayered nature; (2) to shed light on the context of production of the Zutang ji by investigating the version of Chan genealogy embraced in the text and its underlying claims about the tenth- century Chan landscape; and (3) to further our understanding of the Zutang ji’s relationship to the Baolin zhuan 寶林傳 (Chronicle of the Baolin [Monastery]) and Wendeng’s Quanzhou Qianfo xinzhu zhuzushi song 泉州千佛新著諸祖師頌 (Eulogies for the Patriarchs Newly Composed by Qianfo of Quanzhou), both used as sources by the compilers of the text, as well as to provide a first evaluation of its compilers’ editorial interventions in comparison to later “lamp records.”
From a methodological perspective, the study is grounded in traditional philology and literary criticism. However, the project further integrates approaches from Digital Humanities through the production of XML-based TEI diplomatic and critical editions of selected fragments of the Zutang ji and related manuscripts (e.g., Or.8210/S.1635), as well as approaches from Historical Social Network Analysis and graph theory to explore the genealogical framework of the text. Most of these materials have been made available on the website of the Database of Medieval Chinese Texts (Ghent University & Chung-Hwa Institute of Buddhist Studies 中華佛學研究所).