Fori Qisong

Fori Qisong (J. Butsunichi Kaisū; K. Puril Kyesung 佛日契嵩) (1007–1072). A Chan master during the Song dynasty. He was dharma heir in the Yunmen zong, well-known for his prolific writings.

He wrote polemically in defense of Chan lineage against critics from the Tiantai lineage, and in defense of the Buddhist tradition against Confucian critics. He also wrote sympathetically about the compatibility of Buddhist and Confucian teachings. His clear and forceful writing, in guwen 古文 style, won him many admirers, and he devoted his time to scholarship and writing, taking a position as abbot only briefly later in life, after a successful campaign to have his works included in the imperial canon. His success is particularly striking given his modest origins in the far south.

His works include:

• Tanjin wenji 鐔津文集 (T 2115; an extensive anti-Confucian and anti-Daoist polemical work in nineteen fascicles)
• A set of works on Chan lineage:
  • Chuanfa zhengzong ji ("Record of the Dharma Transmission of the True Lineage")
  • Chuanfa zhengzong dingzu tu 傳法正宗定祖圖 [Chart Establishing the Patriarchs of the Dharma Transmission of the True Lineage] (T 2079)
  • Chuanfa zhengzong lun 傳法正宗論 [Critical Essay on the Dharma Transmission of the True Lineage] (T 2080)
• An introduction to the influential Yuan dynasty edition of the Platform Sutra

His later works were lost in the upheaval at the end of the northern Song dynasty.

Sources

• Buswell, Robert E.; Lopez, Donald S. (2014), The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, Princeton University