There in an interesting verse said to be by Fu Dashi (傅大士) — also known as Shanhui Dashi (善慧大士) or Fu Xi (傅翕), the lay Buddhist figure of the Liang dynasty (497–569) It is a four-line gāthā:
有物先天地
無形本寂寥
能為萬象主
不逐四時凋yǒu wù xiān tiāndì
wúxíng běn jìliáo
néng wéi wànxiàng zhǔ
bù zhú sìshí diāothere is a thing prior to Heaven and Earth
formless, originally Still and Void
it can be master of the myriad images
it does not wither with the four seasons
It appears as the second of the Song er shou (頌二首; sòng èr shǒu; “Two Gāthās”) in the Shanhui Dashi yulu (善慧大士語錄; Shànhuì Dàshì yǔlù; “Recorded Sayings of the Great Being Shanhui”). It is also widely quoted in later Chan compendia and commentaries.
Although the verse is transmitted as a Chan gāthā on the dharmakāya / true nature, it deliberately echoes Daodejing ch. 25: 有物混成，先天地生。寂兮寥兮，獨立而不改…可以為天地母 (“there is a thing formed in chaos, born before Heaven and Earth; silent and void, standing alone and unchanging… it can be mother of all under Heaven”). That shared “先天地” (xiān tiāndì; prior to Heaven and Earth).
The verse sits at the Buddhist–Daoist seam and to me seems evocative of the concept of wújí (無極; the limitless). It is found in the preface of a Shinkage-ryū densho I encountered in my research.
The line 無形本寂寥 (wúxíng běn jìliáo) maps directly onto the core Yagyū teaching of the mukei no kurai (無形の位; the “formless position”), and the tradition’s deep Zen entanglement (Takuan’s Fudōchi Shinmyōroku [不動智神妙録] addressed to Yagyū Munenori) makes a Fu Dashi (傅大士) Chan gāthā an unsurprising choice.
