The Mutual Relationship among the Manuscripts of the Denkōroku: An Introduction to the Ryūsenji Manuscript

Abstract

It is reported that there are thirty-one manuscripts of the Denkōroku (伝光録,1300), a record of the lectures of Keizan Jōkin (瑩山紹瑾,1264–1325). These manuscripts are broadly classified into three groups.

The manuscript newly introduced here is stored in Ryūsenji Temple 龍泉寺 and fundamentally relies on the main texts of the oldest group. However, we can notice some contaminations in quotations from the basic texts of other groups. So far, it is known that texts may be different between groups, though it has been unclear why the texts had been changed or how the different groups are related to each other. Nevertheless, the Ryūsenji manuscript shows that that manuscripts from different groups were compared and selective copying took place.

Taking the Ryūsenji manuscript into consideration, we can see that the Denkōroku was copied crossing text groups, and this enables us to present the new viewpoint on the history of the Denkōroku.