Shan-tao

Shan-tao was an influential writer for the school of Buddhism, prominent in China, Korea, Vietnam and Japan. His writings had a strong influence on later Pure Land masters including Hōnen and Shinran in Japan.

In Jodo Shinshu Buddhism, he is considered the Fifth .

Biography

Shan-tao was born at Tzu-jou in the present Anhui Province. When he was young, he entered the priesthood and devoted himself to the study of the and the Vimalakirti Sutra. One day, in the year 641, he visited the temple of the famous Pure Land master, Tao-cho, who happened to be giving a lecture on the Contemplation Sutra. This lecture ultimately inspired him to follow, and then spread the .

In his lifetime, Shan-tao wrote five major works on Pure Land Buddhism, with his commentaries on the Contemplation Sutra being among the most influential.

Teachings

Shan-tao was one of the first to propose that salvation through Amitabha Buddha could be achieved simply through his name. The practice known as the nianfo as a way of singular devotion to Amitabha Buddha was all that was needed. In one of his more famous writings, Shan-tao spoke at great length about how simply saying the name of Amitabha Buddha was sufficient for salvation.

Prior to this, Amitabha was incorporated into wider practices such as those found in the Tien Tai school of Buddhism, as part of complex and often difficult practices. In later history, the ex-Tendai monk, Shinran, once commented that in his monastic days, he had to circumbabulate a status of Amitabha for 100 days straight without sitting down.

For example, Shan-tao once wrote:

:''"Only repeat the name of Amitabha with all your heart. Whether walking or standing, sitting or lying, never cease the practice of it even for a moment. This is the very work which unfailingly issues in salvation, for it is in accordance with the Original Vow of that Buddha."''

Shan-tao often used imagery such as the "Light and Name of Amitabha" which "embraces" all beings. Ultimately, such writings marked a change in the way Buddhists viewed salvation through Amitabha.

Additional Information

* Inagaki, Hisao : A comprehensive look at Shan-Tao's life
* Ducor, Jerome : "Shandao et H?nen, à propos du livre de Julian F. Pas ''Visions of Sukh?vat?''"; ''Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies'', 22/1 , p. 93-163.

Nanyue Huairang

Nanyue Huairang was the foremost student of Dajian Huineng, the 6th Patriarch of Ch'an and teacher of one of his Dharma heirs, Mazu Daoyi. The ancestor of two of the Five Houses of Ch'an, Huairing studied with a Vinaya master and became ordained. Dissatisfied with his own progress, Huairang found Dajian Huineng in Shaozhou and became his disciple. One can read of their first meeting in the ''Wudeng Huiyuan''. Huairang gave Dharma transmission to six individuals, the most prominent being Mazu Daoyi.

Moheyan

Heshang Moheyan was a late eighth century CE monk associated with the Northern School and famous for representing Chan vs. Indian Buddhism in a debate that is supposed to have set the course of Tibetan Buddhism. ''Hva-shang'' is a Tibetan approximation of the Chinese ''hoshang'', meaning monk. ''Hoshang'' in turn comes from the Sanskrit title ''upadhyaya''.


An iconographic thangka depiction of Moheyan is held in the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art collection, St. Francis College, Loretto, Pennsylvania.

Dunhuang sojourn

Whilst the East Mountain Teachings were in decline, having been attacked by Heze Shenhui as a supposed "gradual enlightenment" teaching, Moheyan traveled to Dunhuang, which at the time belonged to the , in 781 or 787 CE. For Moheyan, this was a new opportunity for the spread of Chan.

Council of Lhasa

After teaching in the area of Dunhuang, Moheyan was invited by King Trisong Detsen of Tibet to settle at Samye Monastery, then the center of emerging Tibetan Buddhism.. Moheyan promulgated a variety of Chan and disseminated teachings from Samye where he attracted a considerable number of followers.



However, in 793 Trisong Detsen resolved that Moheyan did not hold the true Dharma. Following intense protests from Moheyan’s supporters, Trisong Detsen proposed to settle the matter by sponsoring a debate: dialectic is an ancient aspect of the and Chinese religions, as it is in Himalayan tradition. The most famous of these debates has become known as the "Council of Lhasa", although it may have taken place at Samye, a considerable distance from Lhasa. For the famed Council of Lhasa, an Indian monk named was invited to represent Indian Buddhism, while Moheyan represented Northern School Chán and Chinese Buddhism. Most Tibetan sources state that the debate was decided in Kamasila’s favour and Moheyan was required to leave the country and that all sudden-enlightenment texts were gathered and destroyed by royal decree. This was a pivotal event in the history of Tibetan Buddhism, which would afterward continue to follow the late Indian model with only minor influence from China. Moheyan’s teachings were a mixture of the 'East Mountain Teachings' associated with Shenxiu and Baotang Chán.

Moheyan’s teaching

Most of what is known of Moheyan’s teaching comes from fragments of writings in Chinese and Tibetan found in the Mogao caves at Dunhuang, Gansu, China. The manuscript given the appellation ''IOL Tib J 709'' is a collection of nine Chan texts, commencing with the teachings of Moheyan.

Moheyan taught in the tradition of the “sudden enlightenment” school of Southern Chan . This dichotomy is a historical construction as both Northern and Southern Schools contained 'gradualist teachings' and 'sudden teachings' and practices. Moheyan held that ''all'' thought prevented enlightenment: “Not thinking, not pondering, non-examination, non-apprehension of an object---this is the immediate access ." He also believed that carrying out good or evil acts leads to transmigration rather than liberation as these acts “lead to heaven or hell.”

An important aspect of Moheyan’s teaching was that if all thought, good or bad, obscures enlightenment, then all actions must be based on the simplest principles of conduct. To achieve proper conduct, all conceptions, without exception should be seen as false: “If one sees conceptions as no conception, one sees the Tathāgata.” To rid oneself of all conceptions, one must practice meditation, trance, and contemplating the mind: “To turn the light towards the mind’s source, that is contemplating the mind. …one does not reflect on or observe whether thoughts are in movement or not, whether they are pure or not, whether they are empty or not.”

While Moheyan took a radical approach to the achievement of enlightenment , his position was weakened when questioned by, and entering into debate with, those people who could not meditate, who could not “turn the light of the mind towards the mind’s source.” He conceded that practices such as the “perfection of morality”, studying the sutras and teachings of the masters and cultivating meritorious actions were appropriate. These types of actions were seen as part of the “gradualist” school and Moheyan held that these were only necessary for those of "dim" facility and “dull” propensity. Those of “sharp” and "keen" facility and propensity do not need these practices as they have “direct” access to the truth through meditation. This concession to the “gradualists”, that not everyone can achieve the highest state of meditation, left Moheyan open to attack on the basis of a dualistic approach to practice. To overcome these inconsistencies in his thesis, Moheyan claimed that when one gave up all conceptions, an automatic, all-at-once attainment of virtue resulted. He taught that there was an “internal” practice to liberate the self and an “external” practice to liberate others . These were seen as two independent practices, a concession to human psychology and scriptural tradition.

Legacy

The teachings of Moheyan and other Chan masters were unified with the Kham Dzogchen lineages through the ''Kunkhyen'' , Rongzom Chokyi Zangpo.

The Dzogchen School of the Nyingmapa was often identified with the 'sudden enlightenment' of Moheyan and was called to defend itself against this charge by avowed members of the that held to the staunch view of 'gradual enlightenmnent' .

Iconography

According to Ying Chua , Moheyan is often depicted holding a ''shankha'' and a ''mala'' :

He is usually depicted as a rotund and jovial figure and holding a mala, or prayer beads in his left hand and a sankha, conch shell in his right. He is often considered a benefactor of children and is usually depicted with at least one or more playing children around him.

Primary sources

Moheyan . ''IOL Tib J 709'' . Source:

Secondary sources

Electronic

*Schrempf, Mona . “Hwa shang at the Border: Transformations of History and Reconstructions of Identity in Modern A mdo.” ''JIATS'', no. 2 : 1-32. Source:

Print

*Gōmez, Luis O, 1983, The Direct and the Gradual Approaches of Zen Master Mahayana: Fragments of the Teachings of Mo-Ho-Yen in Studies in Ch’an and Hua-Yen, Robert M. Gimello & Peter N. Gregory University of Hawaii Press, 3rd printing, ISBN 0-8248-0835-5
*
*Powers, John. ''History as Propaganda: Tibetan Exiles versus the People's Republic of China'' Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195174267
*Yamaguchi Zuihō. ''The Core Elements of Indian Buddhism Introduced into Tibet''. In Jamie Hubbard and Paul L. Swanson , ''Pruning the Bodhi Tree: The Storm over Critical Buddhism'' Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-1949-1
*

Mazu Daoyi

Mazu Daoyi was a Ch'an Buddhist master of 8th century China.

Life

Mazu Daoyi was a master of the School of Buddhism. Mazu, whose family name was Ma ,
lived during the flowering of Ch'an under the Tang dynasty of China. A native of Sichuan province , during his years as master Mazu lived in province .

As a young man he studied with the sixth Ch'an , Huineng , near Guangzhou in Guangdong province. Later Mazu became a disciple of Huineng's student and successor, Nanyue Huairang , in Hunan province by . Mazu then became Nanyue's dharma-. Eventually Mazu settled at Kung-kung Mountain by Nankang, southern Kiangsi province, where he founded a monastery and gathered scores of disciples. After the sixth and last Patriarch Huineng, Mazu is perhaps the most influential teaching master in the formation of Ch'an Buddhism in China, from which sprang Zen in Japan.

Predecessors

Mazu Daoyi followed that may be said to commence with the Buddha or . In addition to his discourses recorded in the Sutras, the Buddha in person wordlessly gave Chan knowledge in embryo to , from whom it was passed on through a lineage, making transmissions across many generations. After perhaps a thousand years, these teachings were received by Bodhidharma who then brought them to China where he became known as the First Patriarch of Chan Buddhism. Bodhidharma's Chinese disciples, of course, understood his Buddhism in a Chinese context.

Huineng , the Sixth Patriarch, inspired new approaches, according to some interpretations, a Sinification of Buddhism. Chan Buddhism instructs practicioners to further their spiritual development, not by study of scripture nor by participation in ritual, per se, but chiefly through on-going encounter and the direct experience of his or her own human . It is through direct spiritual experience that might suddenly transform the consciousness of the practicioner. The primary method of putting this teaching into use had been meditation . After Huineng, the Sixth and last Chan Patriarch, a period of fresh experiment with different approaches ensued.

Teachings

Mazu Daoyi, in order to shake his students out of routine consciousness, employed novel and unconventional . He is credited with the innovations of using , surprise , and unexpectedly calling to a person by name as that person is leaving. This last is said to summon ''yeh-shih'' , from which enlightenment. He also employed silent gestures, non-responsive answers to questions, and was know to grab and twist the nose of a disciple. In the ''Transmission of the Lamp'' compiled in 1004, Mazu is described: "His appearance was remarkable. He strode along like a bull and glared about him like a tiger. If he stretched out his tongue, it reached up over his nose; on the soles of his feet were imprinted two circular marks." Utilizing a variety of unexpected shocks, his teaching methods challenged both habit and vanity, a push that might inspire suddenly the ''seeing of one's true nature'' .

Mazu was famous for the subtlety with which he expressed the Ch'an teachings; he was particularly fond of using the "What the mind is, what the Buddha is." In the particular case of Damei Fachang , hearing this brought about a spiritual awakening. Later this was contradicted by Mazu when he taught the kung'an "No mind, No Buddha." These two kung-ans may be seen as crafted paradoxes, meant to dislodge preconceptions, their cutting perplexity causing knots and hinderances to fall away from the mind, making way for spontaneous .

When sick Mazu was asked how he felt; he replied, "Sun Face Buddha. Moon Face Buddha." P'ang asked Mazu, "Who is it who is not dependent upon the ten thousand things?" Matsu answered, "This I'll tell you when you drink up the waters of the West River in one gulp." A monk asked Mazu, "Please indicate the meaning of Ch'an directly, apart from all permutations of assertion and denial." Mazu told him to ask Zhiang. Zhiang said for him to ask Baizhang. Baizhang said he didn't understand. The monk returned to Mazu and related what happened. Mazu replied dryly that Zhiang had white hair, and that Baizhang's was black.

Mazu: "et each of you see into his own mind. ... However eloquently I may talk about all kinds of things as innumerable as the sands of the Ganges, the Mind shows no increase... . You may talk ever so much about , and is still your Mind; you may not at all talk about it, and it is just the same your own Mind." A monk asked why the Master maintained, "The Mind is the Buddha." The Master answered, "Because I want to stop the crying of a baby." The monk persisted, "When the crying has stopped, what is it then?" "Not Mind, not Buddha," was the answer. Mazu listed "falsehood, flattery, self-conceit, arrogance" as impediments.

Successors

Among Mazu's immediate students were Baizhang Huaihai , Nan-ch'üan P'u-yüan , and Damei Fachang . A generation later his came to include Huangbo Xiyun , and his celebrated successor Linji Yixuan , as well as Kuei-shan Ling-yu , first of the Igyo school, and therein Yang-shan Hui-chi . The Igyo school's use of symbols influenced the well-known showing a water buffalo and a herder, which demonstrates various stages of growth in Ch'an awareness. From Linji Yixuan derived the school. These two schools merged in the 10th century. Later, Japanese Buddhists came to China to study at the Linji school. Taken to Japan in the 12th and 13th centuries, thrives today; use of the koan is a characteristic practice, fitting for distant spiritual descedents of Mazu. The long history of Buddhism in China has included forfeiture, and periods of syncretism; nonetheless, the Ch'an Buddhist tradition has been continued, e.g., by T'ai Hsü .

Chinese Sources

Mazu Daoyi's teachings and dialogues were collected and published in his ''Kiangsi Tao-i-ch'an-shih yu-lu'' . Mazu appears in early Chan anthologies, e.g., ''Transmission of the Lamp'' compiled in 1004 by Tao-yüan ; the renowned collection ''The Blue Cliff Record'' '''' compiled with commentary by Yuanwu circa 1125; and ''The Gateless Gate'' '''' compiled circa 1228 by . Other anthologies where Mazu appears include: ''Records of Pointing at the Moon'' , ''Recorded Saying of the Ancient Worthies'' , ''Records of the Regular Transmission of the Dharma'' .

Layman Pang

Layman Pang was a celebrated in the Chinese Chán tradition. Much like , who is said to have lived around the time of the in the 6th to 4th centuries BCE, Layman Pang is considered a model of the potential of the non- Buddhist follower to live an exemplary Buddhist life.

Originally from Hengyang in the province of Hunan, Pang was a successful merchant with a wife, son, and daughter. The family's wealth allowed them to devote their time to study of the Buddhist '','' in which they all became well-versed. Pang's daughter Ling Zhao was particularly adept, and at one point even seems to be have been more advanced and wise than her father, as the following story illustrates:



After Pang had retired from his profession, he is said to have begun to worry about the of his material wealth, and so he placed all of his possessions in a boat which he then sunk in a river. Following this, the family began to lead an itinerant lifestyle, travelling around China and visiting various Buddhist masters while earning a living by making and selling bamboo utensils. It was during this period, beginning around the year 785, that Pang began to study under one of the two preeminent Chan masters of the time, Shítóu Xīqiān , at , one of China's . Upon arriving at the mountain, Pang went directly to Shitou and asked, "Who is the one who is not a companion to the ten thousand ?" At this question, Shitou placed his hand over Pang's mouth. This gesture made a deep impression on Pang and his understanding of Buddhism, and he thereafter spent several months at Nanyue. It was sometime during this period that Shitou asked Pang what he had been doing lately, and Pang responded with a verse whose last two lines are well-known in Chinese Buddhist literature:

:: How miraculous and wondrous,
:: Hauling water and carrying firewood!

Pang eventually moved on from Nanyue to Jiangxi province, and his next teacher was the second preeminent Chan master of the time, . Pang approached Mazu with the same question that he had initially asked Shitou: "Who is the one who is not a companion to the ten thousand dharmas?" Mazu's answer was: "I'll tell you after you've swallowed in one gulp." With this response, Pang was . For this occasion—generally considered among the most important events in a Buddhist practitioner's spiritual life—Pang composed a poem:

:: the ten directions are the same one assembly—
:: Each and every one learns ''wu wei''.
:: This is the very place to select Buddha;
:: Empty-minded having passed the exam, I return.

After staying with Mazu for a time to solidify his initial enlightenment experience, Pang then resumed his itinerant lifestyle, travelling with his family and stopping at various Buddhist temples and in his travels. One encounter that occurred in Guangxi province during this period of travel later became the basis for one of the '''' in the collection ''Blue Cliff Record'' :



In 808, after many years of travel that had made him renowned in southern China, Pang became ill in Xiangzhou county of Guangxi province. His last words were spoken to the governor of Xiangzhou, who had come to inquire about his health: "I ask that you regard everything that is as , nor give substance to that which has none. Farewell. The world is like reflections and echoes."

Kuiji

Kuiji 窺基 , an exponent of Yogācāra, was a Chinese monk and a prominent disciple of Xuanzang.

Kuiji's commentaries on the ''Cheng weishi lun'' and his original treatise on Yogācāra, the ''Fayuan yilin chang'' 大乘法苑義林章 ("Essays on the Forest of Meanings in the Mahāyāna Dharma Garden" became foundations of the Weishi or Faxiang School.

The Faxiang School consider Kuiji to be their first patriarch.

Works

Commentaries

*Amitābha and Maitreya Sūtras
*
*
*
*Vimalakīrtinirde?a-sūtra

Buddhist logic

*Buddhist logic

Commentaries specific to Yogacara

*Madhyāntavibhāga
*Sthiramati's Commentary on Asa?ga's Abhidharmasamuccaya
*Vasubandhu's Twenty Verses
*Vasubandhu's One Hundred Dharmas Treatise
*Yogācārabhūmi

Juzhi Yizhi

Jùzhī Yīzhǐ was a 9th-century Chinese Chán, or Zen, . After , he was the eleventh successor in the line of Nányuè Huáiràng and , as well as—according to some sources— . He was the student of Hángzhōu Tiānlóng .

Enlightenment

Gutei spent his time alone in the mountains, and chanting the ''Kannongyō'', the of the Lotus Sutra. One day, he was visited by a young nun who lived nearby. The nun challenged Gutei to utter a word of Zen, but—when he proved unable to do so—she left. Having spent so much time in meditation and study, Gutei became dismayed at his inability to say a single word of Zen to the nun.

Shortly afterwards, Tenryū paid Gutei a visit. Gutei realized that his inability to answer the nun was due to his lack of understanding, and asked Tenryū to teach him. Tenryū held up his finger, and at that moment Gutei was .

Versions of this story are told by Taisen Deshimaru and Susan Ji-on Postal.

Gutei's Finger

Gutei is famous for the following story, which appears as a in various collections. The version here is from the ''Mumonkan'', in the translation by Nyogen Senzaki and Paul Reps .

Gutei raised his finger whenever he was asked a question about Zen. A boy attendant began to imitate him in this way. When anyone asked the boy what his master had preached about, the boy would raise his finger.

Gutei heard about the boy's mischief. He seized him and cut off his finger. The boy cried and ran away. Gutei called and stopped him. When the boy turned his head to Gutei, Gutei raised up his own finger. In that instant the boy was enlightened.

When Gutei was about to pass from this world he gathered his monks around him. "I attained my finger-Zen," he said, "from my teacher Tenryu, and in my whole life I could not exhaust it." Then he passed away.

''Mumon's comment:'' Enlightenment, which Gutei and the boy attained, has nothing to do with a finger. If anyone clings to a finger, Tenryu will be so disappointed that he will annihilate Gutei, the boy and the clinger all together.

::''Gutei cheapens the teaching of Tenyru,''
::''Emancipating the boy with a knife.''
::''Compared to the Chinese god who pushed aside a mountain with one hand''
::''Old Gutei is a poor imitator.''

It is due to this story that Gutei has commonly become known as Gutei Isshi, meaning "Gutei One-finger".

Jianzhen

Jianzhen or Ganjin was a Chinese monk who helped to propagate Buddhism in Japan. In the eleven years from 743 to 754, Jianzhen attempted to visit Japan some six times.

Life

Jianzhen was born in Jiangyin county in Guangling with the surname of Chunyu . At the age of fourteen, he entered the Buddhist church as a disciple of Daming Temple . At twenty he travelled to Chang'an for study and returned six years later, eventually becoming abbot of Daming Temple. Besides his learning in the Tripitaka, Jianzhen is also said to have been expert in medicine. He opened the Buddhist church as a place of healing, creating the Beitian Court —a hospital within Daming Temple.

In autumn 742, an emissary from Japan invited Jianzhen to lecture in his home country. Despite protests from his disciples, Jianzhen made preparations and in spring 743 was ready for the long voyage across the East China Sea to Japan. The crossing failed and in the following years, Jianzhen made three more attempts but was thwarted by unfavourable conditions or government intervention.

In summer 748, Jianzhen made his fifth attempt to reach Japan. Leaving from Yangzhou, he made it to the Zhoushan Archipelago off the coast of modern Zhejiang. But the ship was blown off course and ended up in the Yande commandery on . Jianzhen was then forced to make his way back to Yangzhou by land, lecturing at a number of monasteries on the way. Jianzhen travelled along the Gan River to Jiujiang, and then down the Yangtze River. The entire failed enterprise took him close to three years. By the time Jianzhen returned to Yangzhou, he was blind from an infection.




In the autumn of 753, the blind Jianzhen decided to join a Japanese emissary ship returning to its home country. After an eventful sea journey of several months, the group finally landed at Kagoshima, Kyūshū, on December 20. They reached in the spring of the next year and were welcomed by the Emperor. At Nara, Jianzhen presided over Tōdai-ji, now among the oldest Buddhist establishments in Japan. The Chinese monks who travelled with him introduced Chinese religious sculpture to the Japanese. In 755, the first ordination platform in Japan was constructed at Tōdai-ji, on the place where including former Emperor Shōmu and Empress Kōken received ordination by Jianzhen a year earlier. In 759 he retired to a piece of land granted to him by the imperial court in the western part of Nara. There he founded a school and also set up a private temple, Tōshōdai-ji. In the ten years until his death in Japan, Jianzhen not only propagated the Buddhist faith among the aristocracy, but also served as an important conductor of Chinese culture.

Jianzhen died on the 6th day of the 5th month of 763. A dry-lacquer statue of him made shortly after his death can still be seen at Tōshōdai-ji. Recognised as one of the greatest of its type, the statue was temporarily brought to Jianzhen's original temple in Yangzhou in 1980 as part of a friendship exchange between Japan and China.

Jianzhen is credited with the introduction of the Ritsu school of Buddhism to Japan, which focused on the ''vinaya'', or Buddhist monastic rules.

I Ching (monk)

I Ching or Yi Jing was a Tang Dynasty Buddhist monk, originally named Zhang Wen Ming . The written records of his travels contributed to the world knowledge of the ancient kingdom of Srivijaya, as well as providing information about the other kingdoms lying on the route between China and the Nalanda Buddhist university in India. He was also responsible for the translation of a large numbers of Buddhist scriptures from Sanskrit into Chinese.

Journey to Srivijaya and Nalanda

Zhang Wen Ming became a monk at age 14 and was an admirer of Fa Xian and Xuanzang, both famous monks of his childhood. Provided funding by an otherwise unknown benefactor named Fong, he decided to visit the famous Buddhist university of Nalanda, in Bihar, India, to further study Buddhism. Traveling by a boat out of Guangzhou, he arrived in Srivijaya after 22 days, where he spent the next 6 months learning Sanskrit grammar and Malay language. He went on to record visits to the nations of and Kiteh , and in 673 after ten days additional travel reached the 'naked kingdom' . Yi Jing recorded his impression of the 'Kunlun peoples', using an ancient Chinese word for Malay peoples. "Kunlun people have curly hair, dark bodies, bare feet and wear sarongs." He then arrived at the East coast of India, where he met a senior monk and stayed a year to study Sanskrit. Both later followed a group of merchants and visited 30 other principalities. Halfway to Nalanda, Yi Jing fell sick and was unable to walk; gradually he was left behind by the group. He was looted by bandits and stripped naked. He heard the natives would catch white skins to offer sacrifice to the gods, so he jumped into mud and used leaves to cover his lower body; he walked slowly to Nalanda where he stayed 11 years. Yi Jing praises the high level of Buddhist scholarship in Srivijaya, he advised Chinese monks to study there prior to making the journey to Nalanda India.

Return home

In the year 687, Yi Jing stopped in the kingdom of Srivijaya on his way back to . At that time Palembang was a centre of Buddhism where foreign scholars gathered, and Yi Jing stayed there for two years to translate original Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures to Chinese. In the year 689 he returned to Guangzhou to obtain ink and papers and returned again to Srivijaya the same year. In year 695, he completed all translation works and finally returned back to Tang China at Luoyang, and received a grand welcome back by Empress Wu. His total journey took 25 years. He brought back some 400 Buddhist translated texts. & are two of Yi Jing's best travel diaries, describing his adventurous journey to Srivijaya and India, the society of India, the lifestyles of various local peoples, and more. He translated more than 60 sutras into Chinese, including:
*Saravanabhava Vinaya
*Avadana, i.e. ''stories of great deeds'' in 710.
*Suvarnaprabhascottamaraja-sutra, i.e. Sutra of the Most Honored King in 703.

Buddhism in Srivijaya

Yi Jing praised the high level of Buddhist scholarship in Srivijaya and advised Chinese monks to study there prior to making the journey to Nalanda, India.

"In the fortified city of Bhoga, Buddhist priests number more than 1,000, whose minds are bent on learning and good practice. They investigate and study all the subjects that exist just as in India; the rules and ceremonies are not at all different. If a Chinese priest wishes to go to the West in order to hear and read the original scriptures, he had better stay here one or two years and practice the proper rules...."

Yi Jing's visits to Srivijaya gave him the opportunity to meet with others who had come from other neighboring islands. According to him, the Javanese kingdom of Ho-ling was due east of the city of Bhoga at a distance that could be spanned by a 4-5 days journey by sea. He also wrote that Buddhism was flourishing throughout the islands of Southeast Asia. "Many of the kings and chieftains in the islands of the Southern Sea admire and believe in Buddhism, and their hearts are set on accumulating good actions."

Huangbo Xiyun

Huángbò Xīyùn was an influential master of Zen Buddhism. He was born in Fujian, China in the Tang Dynasty. Huángbò was a disciple of Baizhang Huaihai and the teacher of Linji Yixuan .

Biography

Very little about Huángbò ‘s life is known for certain as, unlike other ''Transmission of the Lamp'' literature, there is no biographical information included with Huángbò ‘s collection of sayings and sermons, the ''Ch’uan-hsin Fa-yao'' and the ''Wan-ling Lu'' . The records indicated that Huángbò was extraordinarily tall

Huángbò began his monastic life on Mt. Huangbo in Fuzhou province, receiving the Buddhist name Hsi-yun. As was the custom of the times, he traveled around seeking instructions from various Chan masters. He visited Mt. Tiantai and sought teachings from the National Teacher Nanyang Huizhong. At some point he may also have studied under Nanquan Puyuan , a student of Mazu Daoyi

However, Huángbò’s main teacher was Baizhang Huaihai , another Mazu student, and it was from Baizhang that Huángbò received Dharma transmission. According to the Yuanwu Keqin commentary in The Blue Cliff Record when Huángbò first met Baizhang, Baizhang exclaimed, “Magnificent! Imposing! Where have you come from?” Huángbò replied, “Magnificent and imposing, I’ve come from the mountains.”

In 842, a prominent government official in Kiangsi province, Pei Xiangguo , invited Huángbò to take up residence at Lung-hsing Monastery. Pei Xiangguo was an ardent student of Chan and received teachings from Huángbò, eventually building a monastery for Huángbò around 846, which the master named Huang-po after the mountain where he had been a novice monk. Before Huángbò died, he named thirteen successors, the most prominent of which was Linji Yixuan. He was given the posthumous title of “Chan Master Without Limits” .

Teachings

What is known of Huángbò’s teachings comes from two texts, the ''Ch’uan-hsin Fa-yao'' and the ''Wan-ling Lu'' written by Huángbò’s student, Pei Xiangguo. These two texts are unique in early Chan literature as they can be precisely dated by Pei Xiangguo who wrote the preface on October 8, 857. They are also the first full-length Zen texts translated in English. Pei Xiangguo compiled the teachings from his own notes and sent the manuscript to the senior monks on Mount Huangbo for further editing and emendation. The “official” version of the Huángbò literature was published as part of the ''Ching-te ch’üan-teng lu'' in 1004. The record of Huángbò is more or less equally split between sermons by the master and question and answer dialogues between the master and his disciples and lay people.

Although Huángbò often railed against traditional Buddhist textual practices, pointing to the necessity of direct experience over sutra study, his record shows that he was familiar with a wide selection of Buddhist doctrines and texts, including the Diamond Sutra, the Vimalakīrti Sutra and the Lotus Sutra. Huángbò’s disdain for written texts is exemplified by the story of Pei Xiangguo presenting Huángbò with a text he had written on his understanding of Chan. Huángbò placed the text down without looking at and after a long pause asked, “Do you understand?” Pei replied, “I don’t understand.” Huángbò said, “If it can be understood in this manner, then it isn’t the true teaching. If it can be seen in paper and ink, then it’s not the essence of our order.” Huángbò was also noted for the manner of his teaching, incorporating the hitting and shouting pioneered by Mazu. There are a number of instances in the record of Huángbò slapping students. The Blue Cliff Record tells the story of the future emperor of China, hiding in the Chan community as a novice monk, receiving slaps from Huángbò for questioning why Huángbò was bowing to an image of the Buddha. The most famous instance was when Linji was directed by the head monk, Muzhou Daoming, to question Huángbò on the meaning of Buddhism after he had been practicing in Huángbò’s monastery for three years without an interview. Three times Linji went to Huángbò and three times the only answer he got was a slap.

Huángbò’s teaching centered on the concept of “mind” , a central issue for Buddhism in China for the previous two centuries or more. He taught that mind cannot be sought by the mind and one of his most important sayings was “mind is the Buddha”. He said: “All the Buddhas and all sentient beings are nothing but the One Mind, beside which nothing exists. …The One Mind alone is the Buddha, and there is no distinction between the Buddha and sentient beings…” He also said: “…to awaken suddenly to the fact that your own Mind is the Buddha, that there is nothing to be attained or a single action to be performed---this is the Supreme Way.”

If, as Huángbò taught, all is Buddha-mind, then all actions would reflect the Buddha, be actions of a Buddha. Huángbò’s teaching on this reflected the Indian concept of the tathāgatagarbha, the idea that within all beings is the nature of the Buddha. Therefore, Huángbò taught that seeking the Buddha was futile as the Buddha resided within: “If you know positively that all sentient beings already one with Bodhi , you will cease thinking of Bodhi as something to be attained” Huángbò was adamant that any form of “seeking” was not only useless, but obstructed clarity: “…sentient beings are attached to forms and so seek externally for Buddhahood. By their very seeking they lose it.” Furthermore, he claimed that “’Studying the Way’ is just a figure of speech….In fact, the Way is not something which can be studied. …You must not allow this name to lead you into forming a mental concept of a road.” ”…any search is doomed to failure”

What Huángbò knew was that students of Chan often became attached to “seeking” enlightenment and he constantly warned against this as an obstruction to enlightenment: “If you students of the Way wish to become Buddhas, you need study no doctrines whatever, but learn only how to avoid seeking for and attaching yourselves to anything.”

He also firmly rejected all dualism, especially between the “ordinary” and “enlightened” states: “If you would only rid yourselves of the concepts of ordinary and Enlightened, you would find that there is no other Buddha than the Buddha in your own Mind. …The arising and the elimination of illusion are both illusory. Illusion is not something rooted in Reality; it exists because of your dualistic thinking. If you will only cease to indulge in opposed concepts such as ‘ordinary’ and ‘Enlightened’, illusion will cease of itself.”

While Huángbò was an uncompromising and somewhat fearsome Chan teacher, he understood the nature of fear in students when they heard the doctrine of emptiness and the Void: “Those who hasten towards it dare not enter, fearing to hurtle down through the void with nothing to cling to or to stay their fall. So they look to the brink and retreat.” He taught that ‘no activity’ was the gateway of his Dharma but that “all who reach this gate fear to enter.” To overcome this fear, one “must enter it with the suddenness of a knife-thrust”

References & Further Readings

Blofeld, John, 1958, The Zen Teachings of Huang Po On the Transmission of Mind, Grove Press, New York, ISBN 0-8021-5092-6

Chang Chung-yuan, 1971, Original Teachings of Ch’an Buddhism, Vintage Books, ISBN0-394-71333-8

Cleary, Thomas & Cleary, J.C., 1992, The Blue Cliff Record, translated by, Shambhala Publications, Boston, ISBN 0-87773-622-7

Dumoulin, Heinrich Zen Buddhism: A History, Volume I, India and China, Simon & Schuster and Prentice Hall International ISBN 0 02 897109 4

Foster, Nelson & Shoemaker, Jack , 1996, The Roaring Stream: a new Zen reader, The Ecco Press, Hopewell, ISBN 0-88001-344-3

Wright, Dale S., 2004, The Huang-po Literature, in The Zen Canon: Understanding the Classic Zen Texts, Dale Wright & Steven Heine, eds., Oxford University Press, ISBN-10: 0195150678

Huaiyi

Huaiyi , né Feng Xiaobao , sometimes referred to as Xue Huaiyi , was a Buddhist monk who was known for being the lover of Wu Zetian, the only woman to be commonly recognized as "emperor" in the history of China.

Background

Huaiyi, whose birth name was Feng Xiaobao, was from Hu County . He was making a living by selling medicines on the streets of Tang Dynasty's eastern capital Luoyang, when he was spotted by Princess Qianjin, a daughter of Tang's founder , and in or before 685, she recommended him to , then regent over her son . Empress Dowager Wu favored him greatly, and in order to facilitate his being able to come in and out of the palace, had him undertake tonsure to become a Buddhist monk with the name Huaiyi. Because Huaiyi came from a lowly household, in order to elevate his status, Empress Dowager Wu had him adopted into the clan of her son-in-law Xue Shao and had Xue Shao treat Huaiyi as an uncle.

As Wu Zetian's lover

It was said that when Huaiyi entered and exited the palace, he would ride on an imperial steed and have some 10 eunuchs attend to him. Whenever people saw him, they avoided him -- because he was accustomed to batter those who came near him and toss them aside. He was particularly hateful of Taoist monks, and whenever he encountered them, he would batter them severely, sometimes cutting their hair off. Even the most honored governmental officials, including Empress Dowager Wu's powerful nephews Wu Chengsi and Wu Sansi prostrated themselves before him. He gathered a group of young thugs and had them also undertake tonsure but serve as his followers. When these followers carried out unlawful deeds, few officials dared to speak about this. One exception was the assistant censor Feng Sixu , who punished them according to their deeds, and on one occasion, when Huaiyi encountered Feng Sixu on the road, he had Feng Sixu battered so severely that Feng Sixu nearly died. In or around 686, however, there was an incident when Huaiyi encountered the Su Liangsi. Huaiyi did not greet Su and displayed himself arrogantly. In anger, Su ordered his guards to seize Huaiyi and slap him. When Huaiyi complained to Empress Dowager Wu, she responded semi-jocularly, "Your Eminence should enter through the North Gate . The Southern Palace is where chancellors gather; do not violate it."

In 688, Empress Dowager Wu tore down Qianyuan Hall , and commissioned the construction of the imperial meeting hall over the same location. She commissioned Huaiyi to oversee the project and conscripted several tens of thousands of men to serve as construction workers. After the imperial meeting hall was completed later that year, for his contributions, she gave him a general title and created him the Duke of Liang.

In 689, Empress Dowager Wu commissioned Huaiyi to serve as the commander of an army against Eastern Tujue. He advanced to Zi River but did not encounter Eastern Tujue forces. He erected a monument at Chanyu Tower before withdrawing.

In 690, Empress Dowager Wu changed Huaiyi's title to Duke of E. Later that year, she took the throne from Emperor Ruizong, establishing a new Zhou Dynasty with herself as "emperor."

In 694, Eastern Tujue's khan Ashina Mochuo attacked Ling Prefecture , and Wu Zetian commissioned Huaiyi, assisted by the chancellors Li Zhaode and Su Weidao, to defend against Ashina Mochuo's attack, but before the army could set out, Ashina Mochuo withdrew, and therefore Huaiyi's army never launched.

Death

In late 694, Wu Zetian held a grand Buddhist gathering at the imperial meeting hall, and she commissioned a giant painting of drawn with cattle blood, but claimed that it was miraculous drawn with just the blood from Huaiyi's knee, and she hung the portrait at one of the bridges entering Luoyang, Tianjin Bridge . However, at that time, she had another lover, the imperial physician Shen Nanqiu , and this drew jealousy from Huaiyi. Huaiyi secretly set fire to the Heavenly Hall , north of the imperial meeting hall, and the fire burned both halls to the ground. However, when Wu Zetian subsequently ordered the reconstruction of both halls, she still put Huaiyi in charge of the construction.

After this incident, however, Huaiyi grew increasingly arrogant and unreasonable, and Wu Zetian began to despise him. To guard herself, she selected a group of strong . She then had Wu Youning the Prince of Jianchang lead a group of strong soldiers to set an ambush at Yaoguang Hall , and when Huaiyi went to Yaoguang Hall, Wu Youning and his soldiers overpowered him and battered him to death. Huaiyi's body was taken to White Horse Temple and cremated, and then mixed into mud that was set to be used to construct a pagoda.

Fazang

Fazang was the third of the five patriarchs of the Huayan school. He is said to have authored over a hundred volumes of essays and commentaries. He is famed for his empirical demonstrations in the court of Empress Wu Zetian. His essays "On a Golden Lion" and "On a Mote of Dust" are among the most celebrated ruminations from the Hua-yen school. Huayan school.

Scholars have observed the influence of Taoism on , and Fazang is believed to have drawn on a mode of thought derived from the I Ching.

Empress Zhang (Suzong)

Empress Zhang was an empress of the Tang Dynasty. She was the second wife of and gained great power during his reign, in alliance with the eunuch Li Fuguo, but eventually she and Li Fuguo turned against each other late in Emperor Suzong's reign, as the emperor grew gravely ill. Zhang tried to have Li Fuguo put to death, but instead was captured and killed by Li Fuguo.

Background

The future Empress Zhang's family was originally from Deng Prefecture . Her grandmother Lady Dou was a younger sister of Consort Dou, a concubine of , whose son later became emperor . Consort Dou was put to death by Emperor Ruizong's mother Wu Zetian in 693, while Li Longji was just eight. Lady Dou spent much time raising Li Longji, and later, after Emperor Ruizong returned to the throne in 710, he created Lady Dou the Lady of Deng and honored her greatly. Her sons Zhang Quhuo , Zhang Quyí , Zhang Qushe , Zhang Quyì , and Zhang Quying all became key officials, and Zhang Quyì would become the father of the future Empress Zhang.

As princely consort

During Emperor Xuanzong's ''Tianbao'' era , the future Empress Zhang was selected to be a concubine for Emperor Xuanzong's son and crown prince , and she carried the title of ''Liangdi'', the highest rank for the Crown Prince's concubines. It was said that after he was forced to divorce his wife Crown Princess Wei in 746, she became his favorite consort. She was said to be intelligent and well-spoken, and she knew how to please him.

In 755, the general An Lushan launched a major rebellion against Emperor Xuanzong's rule, and in 756 was approaching the capital Chang'an, forcing Emperor Xuanzong and Li Heng to flee. On the way to Jiannan Circuit , however, Li Heng left Emperor Xuanzong's train and instead, following the suggestion of his son Li Tan the Prince of Jianning, decided to head for important border military outpost Lingwu to gather troops there to prepare for counterattack. On the way there, he had very few guards, and at night, Consort Zhang would always sleep to the outside of the Crown Prince. When Li Heng told her, "It is not a woman's responsibility to fight the bandits," she responded, "I am afraid that sudden disaster would occur. If it does, I can use my body to shield you, and Your Royal Highness can get away." Once they got to Lingwu, she gave birth to a child, but immediately got up just three days after birth to sew clothes for soldiers. When Li Heng asked her to rest, she responded, "This is no time for me to be idle." He thereafter favored her even more. She would eventually bear two sons for him, Li Shao and Li Tong .

As imperial consort

Soon after Li Heng arrived in Lingwu, the officials and generals there urged him to take the throne, and he did . He considered creating Consort Zhang empress, but at the advice of his key advisor , decided that it was inappropriate to do so before he had a chance to seek the approval of Emperor Xuanzong . Meanwhile, however, around this time Emperor Xuanzong sent her a saddle with seven kinds of jewels studded on it as a gift. Li Mi opined that in the difficult times, it would be inappropriate for her to use such a luxurious item, and therefore suggested instead that the jewels be removed and rewarded to those soldiers with accomplishments. Emperor Suzong agreed -- and Li Tan publicly praised the decision, causing Consort Zhang to thereafter bear much resentment toward Li Mi and Li Tan. Meanwhile, she entered into an alliance with Emperor Suzong's trusted eunuch Li Fuguo, and together the two became powerful inside the palace, purportedly carrying out much misdeeds. Li Tan considered trying to kill them, and despite Li Mi's advice to the contrary, Li Tan did not stop his planning. In 757, Consort Zhang and Li Fuguo struck first, accusing Li Tan of plotting to kill his older brother the Prince of Guangping, and Emperor Suzong, believing their accusation, forced Li Tan to commit suicide. This caused Li Chu and Li Mi to be fearful of her as well, although at Li Mi's urging, Li Chu did not himself try to kill them. Later that year, after a joint Tang-Huige force recaptured Chang'an under Li Chu's command, she was resentful of Li Chu's accomplishment and therefore spread rumors about Li Chu. Li Mi took this opportunity to resign to become a hermit, but before doing so, urged Emperor Suzong strongly not to listen to false accusations against Li Chu.

In winter 757, after Emperor Suzong returned to Chang'an, he created Consort Zhang the imperial consort rank of ''Shufei'' , the second highest rank for imperial concubines, but did not immediately create her empress. He also created her sons Li Shao the Prince of Xing and Li Tong the Prince of Ding. Her sisters were created ladies, and her brothers Zhang Qing and Zhang Qian married the Ladies Da'ning and Yanhe, respectively. Emperor Suzong created her empress in spring 758.

As empress

After Empress Zhang became empress, she tried to have her son Li Shao, who was said to be only a few years old, made crown prince. Emperor Suzong, who favored Li Chu as crown prince, could not decide immediately, but after consulting with the official , he created Li Chu crown prince later in 758 and changed Li Chu's name to Li Yu. She nevertheless thereafter tried to have Li Yu replaced with Li Shao, but after Li Shao died in 760, because Li Tong was even younger, Li Yu's position was secure.

Throughout the years, Empress Zhang and Li Fuguo's alliance held, and in 760, they together persuaded Emperor Suzong to acquiesce to forcibly moving Emperor Xuanzong, who was then at his preferred subsidiary palace Xingqing Palace , back to the main palace, and exiling Emperor Xuanzong's staff members. However, as of spring 762, when both Emperors Xuanzong and Suzong were seriously ill, Empress Zhang and Li Fuguo had begun to be rivals. She summoned Li Yu and tried to persuade him to join her in killing Li Fuguo and his ally Cheng Yuanzhen. Li Yu declined, and she instead tried to persuade his younger brother Li Xi the Prince of Yue, to join her. Li Xi agreed. (Her biographies in ''Book of Tang'' and the ''New Book of Tang'' also indicated that she offered to make Li Xi emperor. Empress Zhang issued an order in Emperor Suzong's name, summoning Li Yu. Cheng found out and informed Li Fuguo, who intercepted Li Yu at the palace gate and then escorted him to the camp of the imperial guards under Li Fuguo's command. The guards under LI Fuguo's command then entered the palace and arrested Empress Zhang and Li Xi; the other eunuchs and fled, leaving Emperor Suzong without care. On May 16, Emperor Suzong died, and Li Fuguo thereafter executed Empress Zhang and Li Xi, as well as Li Xian the Prince of Yan, and then declared Li Yu emperor . Many of her associates were executed, while Zhang Qing, Zhang Qian, and her uncle Dou Lüxin were exiled. She was posthumously demoted to commoner rank.

Empress Wei (Zhongzong)

Empress Wei was an empress of the dynasty Tang Dynasty. She was the second wife of , who reigned twice, and during his second reign, she tried to emulate the example of her mother-in-law Wu Zetian and seize power. After Emperor Zhongzong's death in 710 -- a death traditionally believed to be a poisoning carried out by her and her daughter the Princess Anle -- she initially took power as empress dowager, but in short order was overthrown and killed in a coup led by Emperor Zhongzong's nephew and Emperor Zhongzong's sister Princess Taiping.

First stint as crown princess

It is not known when Empress Wei was born. During the reign of her husband's grandfather , her grandfather Wei Hongbiao served as the military advisor to Emperor Taizong's son Li Ming the Prince of Cao. Sometime during the time when Emperor Zhongzong, then using the name Li Zhe, was crown prince, he married her as his second wife (as his first wife, Princess Zhao, was starved to death when her mother Princess Changle offended Li Zhe's mother and crown princess. At the time that they were married, Li Zhe's father promoted her father Wei Xuanzhen from being the military advisor to the prefect of Pu Prefecture to be the much more important post of being prefect of Yu Prefecture . In 682, she gave birth to their only son, . Sometime during her stint as crown princess, she also gave birth to at least one daughter and possibly another .

First stint as empress

Emperor Gaozong died in late 683, and Li Zhe took the throne . However, actual power was in the hands of his mother Empress Wu, now empress dowager. In spring 684, Emperor Zhongzong created Crown Princess Wei empress. He soon wanted to promote Wei Xuanzhen to be ''Shizhong'' , the head of the examination bureau of government and a post considered one for a . This move, as well as another wish of his -- to make the son of his wet nurse an official of the fifth rank -- were opposed by the chancellor Pei Yan. As they argued, Emperor Zhongzong, in anger, remarked:



Pei, in fear, informed this to Empress Dowager Wu. Just less than two months after Emperor Zhongzong had taken the throne, Empress Dowager Wu summoned the officials and generals and issued an edict deposing Emperor Zhongzong and reducing to the title of Prince of Luling. She instead created his younger brother the Prince of Yu emperor . Li Chongzhao, who had been given the title of Deputy Crown Prince by Emperor Gaozong, was reduced to commoner rank, and Wei Xuanzhen, along with his family, were exiled to Qin Prefecture . Empress Dowager Wu soon ordered that Li Zhe and his family first be delivered to Fang Prefecture , and then Jun Prefecture , to be held under house arrest at the house that his uncle Li Tai had been placed after Li Tai was deposed in 643.

In exile

Li Zhe was constantly in fear in exile, as Empress Dowager Wu had previously shown willingness to kill her own children -- having forced his older brother to commit suicide in 684 and having been rumored to have poisoned another older brother, Li Hong, in 675 -- and whenever there would be imperial messengers arriving from then-capital Luoyang, he would consider committing suicide, fearing that they brought orders for even worse fates. Princess Wei would repeatedly tell him:



At this point, they were deeply in love with each other, and at another point, he told her:



While they in exile, she gave birth to their youngest daughter, -- whose name Guo'er meant, "child who was wrapped" and referred to how, when she was born, Li Zhe was required to take off his shirt and wrap her in the shirt. Li Zhe and Princess Wei both greatly favored this child born in distress.

Meanwhile, while Li Zhe and Princess Wei were in exile, so were Wei Xuanzhen and his family. After Wei Xuanzhen died soon thereafter, a local tribal chief, Ning Chengji , demanded to marry Princess Wei's younger sister. When Princess Wei's mother Lady Cui refused, Ning killed her and her four sons Wei Xun , Wei Hao , Wei Dong , and Wei Ci .

While Li Zhe and Princess Wei were in exile, Empress Dowager Wu had, in 690, forced Li Zhe's brother Li Dan to yield the throne to her, interrupting Tang Dynasty and establishing her own Zhou Dynasty with her as "emperor" . She created the now-removed Li Dan as her crown prince, but constantly suspected him of secretly plotting against her, and in 693, she killed his wife and concubine Consort Dou, and further investigated him for treason, stopping the investigation only when his servant, An Jinzang , cut open his own belly to swear that Li Dan would never commit treason. She nevertheless repeatedly consider replacing him with her nephews Wu Chengsi the Prince of Wei and Wu Sansi the Prince of Liang.

By 698, however, the chancellor Di Renjie had convinced Wu Zetian that it was to her sons, not her nephews, that she should turn for support. Di's fellow chancellors Wang Fangqing and Wang Jishan, as well as Wu Zetian's lovers Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong and her confidant Ji Xu also supported the idea of summoning Li Zhe from exile. In spring 698, Wu Zetian summoned Li Zhe and his family back to Luoyang.

Second stint as crown princess

Once Li Zhe was back in Luoyang, Li Dan offered to yield the crown prince position to his older brother, and Wu Zetian agreed. In fall 698, she created Li Zhe crown prince and had him change his name back to the original name Li Xiǎn . Princess Wei again became crown princess. Her son Li Chongzhao -- who had by now changed his name to Li Chongrun to observe naming taboo for Wu Zetian's personal name Zhao -- was created the Prince of Shao.

Meanwhile, Wu Zetian, in her old age, had entrusted much of the affairs of state to Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong -- something that Li Chongrun discussed with his sister Li Xianhui and her husband, Wu Zetian's grandnephew Wu Yanji the Prince of Wei at times. Zhang Yizhi found out and informed Wu Zetian. Wu Zetian, believing that she was being criticized, in fall 701, ordered Li Chongrun, Li Xianhui, and Wu Yanji to commit suicide. Li Chongrun's death would leave Crown Princess Wei without a son, as his other sons Li Chongfu, Li Chongjun, and were all born of concubines.

In spring 705, with Wu Zetian being ill, the officials Zhang Jianzhi, Cui Xuanwei, Jing Hui, Huan Yanfan, and Yuan Shuji initiated a coup and killed Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong. They forced Wu Zetian to yield the throne back to Wu Xiǎn, and he returned to the throne, restoring Tang Dynasty. He created Crown Princess Wei empress again. He also posthumously honored her father Wei Xuanzhen as the Prince of Shangluo and her mother Lady Cui as the Princess of Shangluo, reburying them in grand ceremonies. In addition, he posthumously honored Li Chongrun as Crown Princess Yide and Li Xianhui as Princess Yongtai, reburying them with ceremonies due emperors.

Second stint as empress

Zhang Jianzhi and his colleagues next wanted to suppress the power of that the Wu clan princes had, but at this time, Emperor Zhongzong's concubine , who had been Wu Zetian's secretary and who had carried on an affair with Wu Zetian's nephew Wu Sansi, helped kindle an affair between Wu Sansi and Empress Wei as well. Wu Sansi became a trusted advisor of Emperor Zhongzong. Meanwhile, Empress Wei disliked her husband's son Li Chongfu the Prince of Qiao , and falsely accused him of being implicit in Li Chongrun's death; Emperor Zhongzong responded by exiling Li Chongfu to Jun Prefecture to serve as prefect. It was said that both Empress Wei and her daughter Li Guo'er were powerful and corrupt, offering offices for sale and influencing legal decisions. it was even said that Li Guo'er often wrote edicts in Emperor Zhongzong's name, and then covered up the contents and had him sign them -- and that he would do so despite not reading the edicts. She also requested to be made his heir, as crown princess -- which would be an unprecedented act in Chinese history, although he declined and created her brother Li Chongjun crown prince instead.

Wu Sansi and Empress Wei, who despised Zhang and his colleagues, accused them of being overly arrogant in light of their achievements, and at Wu Sansi's suggestion, Emperor Zhongzong created Zhang, Jing Hui, Huan Yanfan, Yuan Shuji, and Cui Xuanwei princes, ostensibly to honor them, but instead was intending to remove them from positions of power. Soon, the five princes were made prefectural prefects and sent out of Luoyang.

In spring 706, after Emperor Zhongzong's son-in-law Wang Tongjiao , who despised Empress Wei and Wu Sansi, was accused of plotting to kill them, Empress Wei and Wu Sansi took this opportunity to implicate Jing, Cui, Huan , Yuan, and Zhang, of being involved in the plot, and had them further reduced to be prefectural military advisors in distant prefects. Wu Sansi then intentionally inflamed Emperor Zhongzong by having people publicly accuse Empress Wei of adultery and then accusing the five princes of this. Emperor Zhongzong responded by ordering the five of them permanently exiled; Wu then sent the official Zhou Lizhen to have the five of them killed cruelly .

Meanwhile, to avenge her mother's and brothers' deaths, Empress Wei had Emperor Zhongzong order Zhou Rengui , the commandant at Guang Prefecture , to attack Ning Chengji and his brothers; Zhou defeated Ning and slaughtered his people. In gratitude, Empress Wei bowed to Zhou, honoring him like a father, and Emperor Zhongzong created Zhou the Duke of Ru'nan.

Despite Li Chongjun's status as crown prince, Li Guo'er and her husband Wu Chongxun often humiliated and harassed him, sometimes referring to him as a slave. Further, Li Guo'er was continuing to try to persuade Emperor Zhongzong to depose Li Chongjun and create her crown princess instead. Li Chongjun finally erupted in anger in fall 707, rising with the ethnically Mohe general Li Duozuo and Emperor Zhongzong's cousin Li Qianli the Prince of Cheng. Li Chongjun's forces killed Wu Sansi and Wu Chengxu, and next headed to the palace, hoping to capture Consort Shangguan and Empress Wei. However, after Li Duozuo's son-in-law Ye Huli was killed by the eunuch guard commander Yang Sixu , Li Chongjun's army collapsed, and he was soon killed by his own subordinates.

It was said by 708, Empress Wei, Li Guo'er, Empress Wei's other daughter Princess Changning, Consort Shangguan, Empress Wei's sister Lady of Cheng, Consort Shangguan's mother Lady Zheng, along with senior Ladies Chai and Helou, the sorceress Diwu Ying'er , and Lady Zhao of Longxi, were all powerful and corrupt, selling offices at will. They, along with Emperor Zhongzong's sister Princess Taiping, were often involved in partisan struggles, a phenomenon that Emperor Zhongzong was concerned about, but could do little to curb. Empress Wei's power was such that around the new year 709, when Emperor Zhongzong offered to have her old wet nurse Lady Wang marry the widower chancellor , Dou, seeing the opportunity for even more power, gleefully agreed notwithstanding Lady Wang's otherwise low status. Meanwhile, Empress Wei and the Princesses Changning and Anle were also building many Buddhist temples.

By fall 710, it was said that Empress Wei had been having affairs with the officials Ma Qinke and Yang Jun , and Ma and Yang were concerned that if the affairs became known they would be killed. Meanwhile, Li Guo'er hoped that if Empress Wei became the sovereign she would be crown princess. They conspired to poison a cake, and after Emperor Zhongzong ate the cake, he died, on July 3, 710. Empress Wei did not initially announce his death, but instead a number of her cousins in charge of the imperial guards, to secure power, before she announced Emperor Zhongzong's death two days after his death. By an edict that Princess Taiping and Consort Shangguan drafted , Emperor Zhongzong's son Li Chongmao the Prince of Wen was created crown prince, and Li Chongmao then took the throne on July 8. Empress Wei retained power as empress dowager.

As empress dowager

Meanwhile, Empress Dowager Wei's clan members, along with the chancellor Zong Chuke, Wu Yanxiu, and other officials Zhao Lüwen and Ye Jingneng were advising her to take the throne, like Wu Zetian did, and they also advised her to eliminate Li Dan and Princess Taiping. The official Cui Riyong leaked their plan to Li Dan's son the Prince of Linzi. Li Longji responded by conspiring with Princess Taiping, Princess Taiping's son Xue Chongjian , as well as several low level officials close to him -- Zhong Shaojing, Wang Chongye , Liu Youqiu, and Ma Sizong -- to act first. Meanwhile, Empress Wei's nephews Wei Bo and Gao Song , who had recently been put in command of imperial guards and who had tried to establish their authority by dealing with the guards harshly, had alienated the guards, and the guard officers Ge Fushun , Chen Xuanli , and Li Xianfu thereafter also joined the plot.

Without first informing Li Dan, the conspirators rose on July 21, first killing Wei Bo, Gao, and Empress Wei's cousin Wei Gui . They then attacked the palace. When Empress Dowager Wei panicked and fled to an imperial guard camp, a guard beheaded her. Li Guo'er, Wu Yanxiu, and Lady Helou were killed as well. Li Longji soon slaughtered a number of officials in Empress Dowager's faction as well as her clan, while displaying Empress Dowager Wei's body on the street. At the urging of Princess Taiping, Li Longji, and Li Longji's brother Li Chengqi, Li Dan soon took the throne from Li Chongmao and again became emperor . Empress Dowager Wei was posthumously reduced to commoner rank. Emperor Ruizong still buried her with honors, but not with honors due an empress, but rather with honors due an official of the first rank.

Dongshan Shouchu

Dongshan Shouchu was a Zen teacher and an heir to Yunmen Wenyan. Dongshan is the subject of Case 18 "Three Pounds of Flax" in the Mumonkan, a collection of authored by in 1228.

Daman Hongren

Daman Hongren was the 5th Chan Chán Patriarch in the traditional lineage of Chinese Chan. He is said to have received Dharma transmission from Daoxin and passed on the symbolic bowl and robe of transmission to Huineng, the Sixth and last Chan Patriarch. As with all the early Chan patriarchs, many of the details of Hongren’s life are uncertain and much of his biography is layered with legend added well after his death. The following biography is based on Chan traditional sources.

Biography

Hongren was born in Huangmei with the family name Chou and one source says that his father abandoned the family but Hongren displayed exemplary filial duty in supporting his mother. However, at the age of either seven or twelve, Hongren left home to become a monk and began his studies under Daoxin.

The following legendary meeting between Daoxin and Hongren is recorded in the ''Transmission of Light'' .

:Daoxin met Hongren on a road in Huangmei. Daoxin asked his name. Hongren replied, “I have essence but it is not a common name.” The Chan master asked, “What name is it?” Hongren said, “It is the essence of Buddhahood.” Daoxin replied, “Have you no name?” Hongren said, “None, because essence is empty.” With this, Daoxin passed on the teaching and the robe .

Hongren stayed with Daoxin until the latter’s death in 651. Presumably, he was with Daoxin when the master was at Ta-lin ssu on Mount Lou and followed him to Mount Shuangfeng, one of the “twin peaks” of Huangmei. Later tradition has it that Hongren, after Daoxin’s death, moved the community of monks to Dong- Shan, “”, the easterly of the “twin peaks”. The teachings of Daoxin and Hongren became known as the “East Mountain Teachings” .

The Ch’üan fa pao chi , written approximately 712, says that Hongren was quiet and withdrawn, diligent in his menial labors, and sat in meditation throughout the night. He “never looked at the Buddhist scriptures” but understood everything he heard. After some ten years of teaching, the record claims that “eight or nine of every ten ordained and lay aspirants in the country had studied under him.”

Although the ''Records of the Teachers and Disciples of the Lankavatara'' claim that Hongren’s father abandoned the family, Chan scholar John McRae points out that Hongren’s residence was converted to a monastery, implying that Hongren’s family was probably wealthy and prominent locally. Furthermore, mention of Hongren doing menial labour would only be of significance if this were unusual, indicating that Hongren was of upper-class birth.

Hongren’s Teaching

Hongren was a brilliant Chan master and was significant in the development of early Chinese Chan. The teachings of both Daoxin and Hongren became known as the “East Mountain Teachings”, but Hongren was the more prominent of the two. He was held in high esteem by later Chan figures in the ancient capital cities of Chang'an and Luoyang in the early eighth century, when Chan moved from a rural base to the centre of Chinese power in the major urban areas and the imperial court. The East Mountain Teachings were seen as the “authentic” Chan Buddhist teachings, promoted by Hongren’s student, Shenxiu , the most prominent Buddhist monk of his time. Hongren’s significance can be noted by the fact that a compilation of his teachings, presumably shortly after his death, the ''Treatise on the Essentials of Cultivating the Mind'', is the earliest collection of the teachings of a Chan master.

Although Hongren’s students included Vinaya specialists, sutra translators, and Lotus Sutra and Pure Land devotees, Hongren’s teaching focused on meditation practice. According to the ''Treatise on the Essentials of Cultivating the Mind'', Hongren's basic teaching was that the Pure Mind was obscured by “discriminating thinking, false thoughts, and ascriptive views.” Eliminating false thoughts and maintaining a constant awareness of one’s natural enlightenment ensures Nirvana naturally arises.

Two meditation techniques are specifically mention in the Treatise. Hongren is said to have instructed, "Look to where the horizon disappears beyond the sky and behold the figure ''one''. … It is good for those beginning to sit in meditation, when they find their mind distracted, to focus their mind on the figure ''one''."

He also taught that the meditator should observe the mental processes within: "View your own consciousness tranquilly and attentively, so that you can see how it is always moving, like flowing water or a glittering mirage. …until its fluctuations dissolve into peaceful stability. This flowing consciousness will disappear like a gust of wind. When this consciousness disappears, all one’s illusions will disappear along with it…"

=Further reading

*Ferguson, Andy Zen’s Chinese heritage: the masters and their teachings, ISBN 0 86171 163 7

Dajian Huineng

Dajian Huineng was a monastic who is one of the most important figures in the entire tradition. Huineng is the Sixth Patriarch of Chán Buddhism, as well as the last official patriarch. Since then, there are unofficial "patriarchs" of different lineages derived from Chán. He is known as Daikan Enō in Japan and as Hyeneung in Korea

He is said to have advocated an immediate and direct approach to Buddhist practice and enlightenment, and in this regard, is considered the founder of the "" Southern Chan school of Buddhism. While these are the legendary accounts handed down by the tradition, it is believed by some that the actual history of the situation may have been quite different, to the extent that some believe that the primary work attributed to Huineng, the '''' , which ended up becoming one of the most influential texts in the East Asian meditative tradition, has no true association with him. His foremost students were Nanyue Huairang, Qingyuan Xingsi, Nanyang Huizhong, Yongia Xuanjue and Heze Shenhui.

Biography

Huineng was born into the Lu family in 638 A.D. in the town of Xing in province. His father died when he was young and his family was poor, so he did not have the chance to learn to read or write. He may have been a Hmong or a Miao. One day, while he was delivering firewood to an inn, he heard a guest reciting the ''Diamond Sutra'' and he had an awakening. He immediately decided to seek the Way of Buddhahood. The guest gave him ten taels of silver to provide for his mother, and Huineng embarked on his journey. Thus began a remarkable page in Chán history in China.

After travelling for thirty days on foot, Huineng arrived at Huang Mei Mountain, where the Fifth Patriarch Hongren presided.

From Chapter I of the ''Platform Sutra'':

:I then went to pay homage to the Patriarch, and was asked where I came from and what I expected to get from him. I replied, "I am a commoner from Hsin Chou of Kwangtung. I have travelled far to pay you respect and I ask for nothing but Buddhahood." "You are a native of Kwangtung, a barbarian? How can you expect to be a Buddha?" asked the Patriarch. I replied, "Although there are northern men and southern men, north and south make no difference to their Buddha-nature. A barbarian is different from Your Holiness physically, but there is no difference in our Buddha-nature."

:Hongren immediately asked him to do chores in the rice mill. Huineng stayed to chop wood and pound rice for eight months.

Becoming the Sixth Patriarch

One day, Hongren announced,

The question of incessant rebirth is a momentous one. Day after day, instead of trying to free yourselves from this bitter sea of , you seem to go after tainted merits only . Yet merits will be of no help if your Essence of Mind is obscured. Go and seek for Prajna in your own mind and then write me a stanza about it. He who understands what the Essence of Mind is will be given the robe and the Dharma , and I shall make him the Sixth Patriarch. Go away quickly.

Delay not in writing the stanza, as deliberation is quite unnecessary and of no use. The man who has realized the Essence of Mind can speak of it at once, as soon as he is spoken to about it; and he cannot lose sight of it, even when engaged in battle.

However, the disciples said to each other that they didn't need to write any gathas, and that surely their teacher and head monk, Venerable Shenxiu, would become the Sixth Patriarch. So only Shenxiu wrote a gatha for Hongren. As the head monk, Shenxiu was well-respected and under great pressure to produce a gatha that would qualify him as the next patriarch. However, he was uncertain as to his own understanding, and eventually decided to write a poem anonymously on the wall in the middle of the night, announcing his authorship only if Hongren approved. It stated:

:''The body is a Bodhi tree,''
:''the mind a standing mirror bright.''
:''At all times polish it diligently,''
:''and let no dust alight.''

When the disciples saw this gatha on the wall, there was a great stir. When Hongren
saw it, he told them, "Practice according to this gatha, you will not fall into the evil realms, and you will receive great benefits. Light incense and pay respect to this gatha, recite it and you will see your essential nature." All the disciples praised and memorized the gatha.

However, privately, Hongren told Shenxiu, "You have arrived at the gate, but haven’t entered it. With this level of understanding, you still have no idea what the supreme Bodhi mind is. Upon hearing my words, you should immediately recognize the original mind, the essential nature, which is unborn and unceasing. At all times, see it clearly in every thought, with the mind free from all hindrances. In the One Reality, everything is real, and all phenomena are just as they are."

Hongren asked Shenxiu to compose another gatha that demonstrated true understanding. Shenxiu tried hard but couldn’t come up with another verse.

When a young novice passed the rice mill chanting Shenxiu's gatha, Huineng immediately
knew this verse lacked true insight. He went to the wall, and asked a district officer there to write a poem of his own for him. The officer was surprised, "How extraordinary! You are illiterate, and you want to compose a poem?" Whereupon Huineng said, "If you seek supreme enlightenment, do not slight anyone. The lowest class may have great insights, and the highest class may commit foolish acts." In veneration, the officer wrote Huineng’s gatha on the wall for him, next to Shenxiu's, which stated:

:''Bodhi is no tree,''
:''nor is the mind a standing mirror bright.''
:''Since all is originally empty,''
:''where does the dust alight?''

:菩提本無樹，
:明鏡亦非台；
:本來無一物，
:何處惹塵埃?

Huineng then went back to rice pounding. However, this gatha created a bigger stir;
everyone was saying, "Amazing! You can’t judge a person by his looks! Maybe he will become a living bodhisattva soon!" However, when the alarmed Hongren came out, he just casually said, "This hasn’t seen the essential nature either," and proceeded to wipe the gatha off with his shoe.

One night, Hongren received Huineng in his abode, and expounded the ''Diamond Sutra'' to him. When he came to the passage, "to use the mind yet be free from any attachment," Huineng came to great enlightenment—that all dharmas are inseparable from the self nature. He exclaimed, "How amazing that the self nature is originally pure! How amazing that the self nature is unborn and undying! How amazing that the self nature is inherently complete! How amazing that the self nature neither moves nor stays! How amazing that all dharmas come from this self nature!"

Hongren told Huineng, "If one recognizes the original mind and the original nature, he
is called a great man, teacher of gods and humans, and a Buddha." He passed the robe and begging bowl as a symbol of the Dharma Seal of Sudden Enlightenment to Huineng.

Although this story is as clearly stated as it can be, it should also be noted that Huineng was not permitted to make himself known as the Sixth Patriarch until later on. This was due to the fear that his fellow monks might be angered that he had been made the Sixth Patriarch and not Shenxiu or one of the other monks that had seniority.

Quotes

When alive, one keeps sitting without lying down.

When dead, one lies without sitting up.

In both cases, a set of stinking bones!

What has it do with the great lesson of life?

With those who are sympathetic

Let us have discussion on Buddhism.

As for those whose point of view differs from ours

Let us treat them politely and thus make them happy.

disputes are alien to our School,

For they are incompatible with its doctrine.

Bianji

Bianji was a Chinese Buddhist monk, translator and the author of ''Great Tang Records on the Western Regions'' lived during the Tang Dynasty. Little is known about his life, he was a translator of several Buddhist scriptures and sutras before he was executed by , who was angry about his affair with Emperor Taizong's daughter Princess Gaoyang.

Zongmi

Guifeng Zongmi , was a Tang dynasty scholar-monk, installed as fifth patriarch of the Huayan school as well as a patriarch of the lineage of Southern .

He wrote a number of vitally important essays on the contemporary situation of Buddhism in China, and is one of the most important figures in history in terms of providing modern scholars with a clear analysis of the development of Chan and Huayan and the general intellectual/religious climate of his times.

A meticulous scholar, Zongmi wrote extensive critical analyses of the various Chan and scholastic sects of the period, as well as numerous scriptural exegeses. He was deeply affected by Huayan thought and is famous for his work in the area of doctrinal classification: the attempt to account for the apparent disparities in the Buddhist doctrines by categorizing them according to their specific aims. Zongmi, like many later Korean monks on whom he extended his influence, was deeply interested in both the practical and doctrinal aspects of Buddhism, and was especially concerned about harmonizing the views of those that tended toward exclusivity in either direction.

Biography

Zongmi was born in 780 into the powerful and influential Ho family in Hsi-ch’ung County of present-day central Szechwan. In his early years, he studied the Confucian classics, hoping to for a career in the provincial government. When he was seventeen or eighteen, Zongmi lost his father and took up Buddhist studies. In an 811 letter to a friend, he wrote that for three years he "gave up eating meat, examined scriptures and treatises, became familiar with the virtues of meditation and sought out the acquaintance of noted monks." At the age of twenty-two, he returned to the Confucian classics and deepened his understanding, studying at the I-hsüeh yüan Confucian Academy in Sui-chou. His later writings reveal a detailed familiarity with the Confucian ''Analects'', the ''Classic of Filial Piety'' , the ''Classic of Rites'' as well as historical texts and Taoist classics such as the works of Lao tzu.

At the age of twenty-four, Zongmi met the Chan master Sui-chou Tao-yüan and trained in Zen Buddhism for two or three years, receiving Tao-yuan’s seal in 807, the year he was fully ordained as a Buddhist monk. In his autobiographical summary he states that it was the ''Sūtra of Perfect Enlightenment'' which led him to enlightenment, his "mind-ground opened thoroughly…its meaning was as clear and bright as the heavens." Zongmi’s sudden awakening after reading only two or three pages of the scripture had a profound impact upon his subsequent scholarly career. He propounded the necessity of scriptural studies in Chan and was highly critical of what he saw as the antinomianism of the Hung-chou lineage derived from Mazu Daoyi which practiced "entrusting oneself to act freely according to the nature of one’s feelings". Zongmi’s Confucian moral values never left him and he spent much of his career attempting to integrate Confucian ethics with Buddhism.

In 810, at the age of thirty, Zongmi met Ling-feng, a disciple of the preeminent Buddhist scholar and Huayan exegete Ch’eng-kuan . Ling-feng gave Zongmi a copy of Ch’eng-kuan’s commentary and subcommentary on the ''Huayan Sūtra''. The two texts were to have a profound impact on Zongmi. He studied these texts and the sūtra with great intensity, declaring later that due to his assiduous efforts, finally "all remaining doubts were completely washed away." In 812 Zongmi travelled to the western capital, Chang’an, where he spent two years studying with Ch’eng-kuan, who was not only the undisputed authority on Huayan, but was also highly knowledgeable in Chan, Tientai, the Vinaya and San-lun.

Zongmi withdrew to Mount Chung-nan, southwest of Chang’an, in 816 and began his writing career, composing an annotated outline of the ''Sūtra of Perfect Enlightenment'' and a compilation of passages from four commentaries on the sūtra. For the next three years Zongmi continued his research into Buddhism, reading the entire Buddhist canon, the ''Tripitaka'', and traveling to various temples on Mount Chung-nan. He returned Chang’an in 819 and continued his studies utilizing the extensive libraries of various monasteries in the capital city. In late 819 he completed a commentary and subcommentary on the ''Diamond Sūtra''. In early 821 he returned to Ts’ao-t’ang temple beneath Kuei Peak and hence became known as Guifeng Zongmi the teaching of men and gods, 2) the teachings of the Hinayana, 3) the teaching of phenomenal appearances, 4) the teaching of the negation of phenomenal appearances and 5) the teaching that reveals the true nature of phenomena . Zongmi saw enlightenment and its opposite, delusion, as ten reciprocal steps that are not so much separate but parallel processes moving in opposite directions.

Zongmi’s classification also included the various Chan schools of the day. He provided a critique of the various practices which reveal not only the nature of Chan in Tang Dynasty, but also Zongmi’s understanding of Buddhist doctrine.

Zongmi’s critique of Northern Chan was based on its practice of removing impurities of the mind to reach enlightenment. Zongmi criticized this on the basis that the Northern school was under the misconception that impurities were "real" as opposed to "empty" and therefore this was a dualistic teaching. Zongmi, on the other hand, saw impurities of the mind as intrinsically "empty" and but a manifestation of the intrinsically pure nature of the mind. This understanding of Zongmi came from the ''Awakening of Faith'' scripture which espoused the ''tathagatagarbha doctrine'' of the intrinsically enlightened nature possessed by all beings.

His criticism of another prominent Chan lineage of the time, the Ox-head School, was also based on the tathāgatagarbha doctrine but in this case Zongmi saw their teaching as a one-sided understanding of emptiness. He claimed that the Ox-head School taught "no mind" but did not recognize the functioning of the mind, assuming that the intrinsically enlightened nature is likewise "empty" and "that there is nothing to be cognized". Zongmi went on to say, "we know that this teaching merely destroys our attachment to feelings but does not yet reveal the nature that is true and luminous".

In all, Zongmi gave critiques on seven Chan schools in his ''Prolegomenon to the Collection of Expressions of the Zen Source'' and although he promoted his own Ho-tse school as exemplifying the highest practice, his accounts of the other schools were balanced and unbiased. It is clear from his writings that in many cases he visited the various Chan monasteries he wrote about and took notes of his discussions with teachers and adapts. His work had an enduring influence on the adaptation of Indian Buddhism to the philosophy of traditional Chinese culture. The writings that remain have proved to be an invaluable source for modern scholars of the history of the development of Buddhism in China.

References & Further Readings

Broughton, J., Tsung-mi’s Zen Prolegomenon: Introduction to an Exemplary Zen Canon, in The Zen Canon: Understanding the Classic Texts, eds., S. Heine & D. S. Wright, Oxford University Press, Oxford & New York ISBN 0-19-515068-6

Gregory, Peter N., Tsung-mi and the Sinification of Buddhism, University of Hawai’i Press, Kuroda Institute, ISBN 0-8248-2623-X

____________ Inquiry into the Origin of Humanity: An Annotated Translation of Tsung-mi’s Yüan jen lun with a Modern Commentary, University of Hawai’i Press, Kuroda Institute ISBN 0-8248-1764-8

Zhaozhou

Zhàozhōu Cōngshěn , was a master especially known for his "paradoxical statements and strange deeds".

Zhaozhou became ordained as a at an early age. At the age of 18, he met Nánquán Pǔyuàn , a successor of , and eventually received the Dharma from him. When Nanquan asked Zhaozhou the koan "What is the Way?", the two had a dialogue, at the height of which Zhaozhou attained . Zhaozhou continued to practice under Nanquan until the latter's death.

Subsequently, Zhaozhou began to travel throughout , visiting the prominent Chan masters of the time before finally, at the age of eighty, settling in Guānyīnyuàn , a ruined temple in northern China. Here, for the next 40 years, he taught a small group of monks.

Zhaozhou is sometimes touted as the greatest Chan master of Tang dynasty China during a time when its hegemony was disintegrating as more and more regional military governors began to assert their power. Zhaozhou's died out quickly due to the many wars and frequent purges of Buddhism in China at the time, and cannot be documented beyond the year 1000.

Many koans in both the ''Blue Cliff Record'' and ''The Gateless Gate'' concern Zhaozhou, with twelve cases in the former and five in the latter being attributed to him. He is, however, probably best known for the first koan in ''The Gateless Gate'':

Yunmen Wenyan

Yúnmén Wényǎn , , was a major Zen master in -era China. He founded one of the five major schools of , the "Yunmen School", after succeeding his famous master, Xuefeng Yicun , for whom he had served as a head monk. When founding his school, he taught at the ''Yunmen'' monastery of , from which he received his name. The Yunmen school flourished into the early Song Dynasty, with particular influence on the upper classes, and eventually culminating in the compilation and writing of the ''Hekiganroku''. The school would eventually be absorbed by the Rinzai school later in the Song.

Biography

Yunmen was born in the town of Jiaxing near Suzhou and southwest of Shanghai, which usually refers to a specialist in vinaya: monastic rules and discipline; S?rensen mentions that some sources say that Chih-Ch'eng/Zhi Cheng was actually a ''Ch'an'' master) in Jiaxing. He studied there for several years, taking his monastic vows at age 20, in 883 CE. The teachings there did not satisfy him, and he went to Daozong's school . Suhotsu became abbot in 990 CE; although at the time, his foremost disciple was accounted Pai-yün Shih-hsing, who had founded his own temple on the nearby Mt. Pai-yün. His corpse would be venerated until the 20th-century, when it would disappear during the chaos of the Cultural Revolution.

Teachings

:''"Ummon's school is deep and difficult to understand since its mode of expression is indirect; while it talks about the south, it is looking at the north."'' — Gyomay Kubose

Yunmen was renowned for his forceful and direct yet subtle teaching, often expressed through sudden shouts and blows with a staff, and for his wisdom and skill at oratory: he was "the most eloquent of the Ch'an masters." Fittingly, Yunmen is one of the greatest pioneers of "live words", "old cases", and paradoxical statements that would later evolve into the koan tradition, along with Zhaozhou . He also famously specialized in apparently meaningless short sharp single word answers, like ''"Guan!"'' — these were called "Yunmen's One Word Barriers". These one-word barriers "...were meant to aid practice, to spur insight, and thus to promote realization. Not only his punchy one-syllable retorts, but also his more extended conversation and stories came to be used as koan." While his short ones were popular, some of his longer ones were iconic and among the most famous koans:
:''Yun-men addressed the assembly and said: "I am not asking you about the days before the fifteenth of the month. But what about after the fifteenth? Come and give me a word about those days."''
:''And he himself gave the answer for them: "Every day is a good day."''

Most were collected in the ''Yúnmén kuāngzhēn chánshī guǎnglù'' . But not all were — 18 were later discovered when a subsequent master of the Yunmen school, one Xuetou Chongxian published his ''Boze songgu'', which contained one hundred "old cases" popular in his teaching line, in which the 18 Yunmen koans were included. Of the many stories and koans in ''Blue Cliff Records'', 18 involve Yunmen; eight of Yunmen's sayings are included in ''Records of Serenity'', and five in The Gateless Gate; further examples could be found in the ''Ninden gammoku'', and the ''Ummonroku''. He was also considerably more mystical than certain other teachers who tended to concrete description; an apocryphal anecdote that began circulating around the beginning of the 1100s has Yunmen going so far as to forbid any of his sayings or teachings from being recorded by his many pupils :



:"''Ch'an Master Yunju of Foyin had said:''
::''When Master Yunmen expounded the Dharma he was like a cloud. He decidedly did not like people to note down his words. Whenever he saw someone doing this he scolded him and chased him out of the hall with the words, "Because your own mouth is not good for anything you come to note down my words. It is certain that some day you'll sell me!"''
::''As to the records of "Corresponding to the Occasion" and "Inside the Master's Room" : Xianglin and Mingjiao had fashioned robes out of paper and wrote down immediately whenever they heard them."''''

His disciples reputedly numbered 790, an unusual number of whom became . These successors would spread the Yunmen school widely; it flourished as one of the ''Five Schools'' for about 300 years, after which it was absorbed into the towards the end of the Southern Song dynasty .

Mention in later media

Yunmen's Japanese name, Ummon, was the namesake for a character which was featured prominently in Dan Simmons' acclaimed Hyperion Cantos science fiction series; Simmon's Ummon was a vastly advanced, intelligent from the "TechnoCore", who reveals key plot elements to the main characters, through koans and mondo .

=General

* ''Jingde Chuandeng Lu'' 《景德傳燈錄》
* The Gateless Gate
*
* ''Records of Serenity''
*
*
*
* S?rensen, Henrik Hjort. "The Life and Times of the Ch'an Master Yūn-men Wen-yan", pp. 105-131, Vol. 49 of ''Acta orientalia'', ISSN 0001-6438
*

Yi Xing

Yi Xing , born Zhang Sui , was a astronomer, mathematician, , and Buddhist monk of the Tang Dynasty . His astronomical celestial globe was the first to feature a clockwork escapement mechanism, the first in a long tradition of Chinese .

Terrestrial-astronomical survey

In the early 8th century, the Tang court put Yi Xing in charge of a . This survey had many purposes. It was established in order to obtain new astronomical data that would aid in the prediction of solar eclipses. There were three observations done for each site, one for the height of polaris, one for the shadow lengths of summer, and one for the shadow lengths of winter. With this, the slow computational movement rotated the armillary sphere according to the recorded movements of the planets and stars. Yi Xing also owed much to the scholarly followers of Ma Jun, who had employed horizontal jack-wheels and other mechanical toys worked by waterwheels. The historian Joseph Needham states :


When the first escapement came, in +725 , I-Hsing and Liang Ling-tsan arranged for two jacks to strike the hours, standing on the horizon surface of their sphere or globe.



In this apparatus the constant-level tank of the clepsydra provided the major part of the chronometry delivering water or into the scoops of a water-wheel. A minor part was provided by the adjustability of a steelyard or weighbridge which held up each scoop until it was full or nearly so. The essence of the new invention added by I-Hsing and Liang Ling-tsan in +725 was the parallel linkage device which constituted the ancestor of all escapements.


In regards to mercury instead of water , the first to apply liquid mercury for motive power of an armillary sphere was Zhang Sixun in 979 AD . During his age, the Song Dynasty era historical text of the ''Song Shi'' mentions Yi Xing and the reason why his armillary sphere did not survive the ages after the Tang Dynasty :


A jade balancing mechanism is erected behind a curtain, holding and resisting the main scoops . Water pours down rotating the wheel . Lower, there is a cog-wheel with 43 . There are also hooks, pins, and interlocking rods one holding another . Each moves the next without reliance on any human force. The fastest wheel turns round each day through 2928 teeth , the slowest one moves by 1 tooth in every 5 days. Such a great difference is there between the speed of the wheels, yet all of them depend on one single driving mechanism. In precision, the engine can be compared with Nature itself . As for the rest, it is much the same as the apparatus made by I-Hsing. But that old design employed mainly bronze and iron, which corroded and rusted so that the machine ceased to be able to move automatically. The modern plan substitutes hard wood for these parts, as beautiful as jade...


Earlier Tang era historical texts of the 9th century have this to say of Yi Xing's work in astronomical instruments in the 8th century :


One was made in the image of the round heavens and on it were shown the lunar mansions in their order, the equator and the degrees of the heavenly circumference. Water, flowing , turned a wheel automatically , rotating it one complete revolution in one day and night. Besides this, there were two rings fitted round the celestial outside, having the sun and moon threaded on them, and there were made to move in circling orbit . Each day as the celestial turned one revolution westwards, the sun made its way one degree eastwards, and the moon 13 and 7/19 degrees . After 29 and a fraction rotations the sun and moon met. After it made 365 rotations the sun accomplished its complete circuit. And they made a wooden casing the surface of which represented the horizon, since the instrument was half sunk in it. This permitted the exact determinations of the times of dawns and dusks, full and new moons, tarrying and hurrying. Moreover there were two wooden jacks standing on the horizon surface, having one a bell and the other a drum in front of it, the bell being struck automatically to indicate the hours, and the drum being beaten automatically to indicate the quarters.



All these motions were brought about within the casing, each depending on wheels and shafts , hooks, pins and interlocking rods , coupling devices and locks checking mutually . Since showed good agreement with the Tao of Heaven, everyone at that time praised its ingenuity. When it was all completed it was called the 'Water-Driven Spherical Bird's-Eye-View Map of the Heavens or 'Celestial Sphere Model Water-Engine' and was set up in front of the Wu Chheng Hall to be seen by the multitude of officials. Candidates in the imperial examinations were asked to write an essay on the new armillary . But not very long afterwards the mechanism of bronze and iron began to corrode and rust, so that the instrument could no longer rotate automatically. It was therefore relegated to the College of All Sages and went out of use.

In his honor

At the Tiantai-Buddhist Guoqing Temple of Tiantai Mountain in Zhejiang province, there is a Chinese pagoda erected directly outside of the temple, known as the Memorial Pagoda of Monk Yi Xing. His tomb is also located at Tiantai Mountain.