The East Asian Transmission of the Chuanlao Song (川老頌) of the Diamond Sūtra: Centering on Versions from Premodern Korea and Edo Japan

The Chuanlao Song, composed by the Southern Song Chan monk Daochuan 道川 (1104–1163, Southern Song), represents a hybrid form of exegetical lecture text from the Diamond Sūtra (金剛經). Neither a standard commentary (zhu 註) nor a ritual manual (keyi 科儀), it fuses rhetorical features of Chan sermons with versified praise, often associated with chanting. From the twelfth century onward, the Chuanlao Song circulated across China, Korea, and Japan, yet its textual identity has long been obscured. In particular, the Zokuzōkyō (續藏經) recension misclassified it as a commentary, resulting in interpretive confusions that have persisted into modern scholarship. This study reconsiders the Chuanlao Song within broader contextual frameworks of textual form, ritual practice, and editorial strategy. While grounded in philological analysis, three regional trajectories are highlighted: the Chuanlao Song’s preservation in China as an appended text within collective annotations; its transformation in Korea through royal patronage and the multiplication of textual forms; and its reinterpretation in Edo-period Japan as an object of sectarian commentary. By tracing these transregional movements, this study argues that the Chuanlao Song offers a valuable case study of how Buddhist texts were circulated and adapted across East Asia, shedding light on the intra-Chinese domestication and, beyond China, regional vernacularization and recontextualization.