by Youru Wang
GUIFENG ZONGMI
See .
GUISHAN JINGCE
“Guishan’s Admonitions,” a written text attributed to Guishan Lingyou. Recovered from the Dunhuang documents, the earliest extant edition of this text is dated 936, from the late Tang dynasty. Although there is no conclusive historical evidence that Lingyou wrote this text, scholars have found little to doubt about its authenticity. In this text, Lingyou addressed his concern with the existing problems of corruption and lack of discipline among Chan monasteries. While maintaining the highest Chan teaching of sudden enlightenment and “going beyond expedient teachings,” Lingyou elaborated on the necessity of studying scriptures, observing monastic precepts, following mentors, and other traditional cultivation and practices for those who had not been able to attain sudden enlightenment. Moreover, he made clear that cultivation and non-cultivation, which usually means gradual practice and sudden realization, should not be seen as separate or opposite. Cultivation is an ongoing process and, if a student does not give up, it will help him attain Buddhahood. The text is an important document for studying the ethical stance of the Hongzhou school and Guiyang school in particular and of Tang Chan in general. It reveals a truth about Chan: that although for Chan the detachment from conventional moral norms seems indispensable for the enlightened mind, it does not necessarily entail the rejection or abandonment of moral norms and their everyday function. Rather, the enlightened or transcendent perspective supplements the latter and even makes their function more effective. The transcendent perspective presupposes the working of these moral norms. The expression of the former is dependent on the latter.
GUISHAN LINGYOU (771–853)
A Chan master of the Tang dynasty and cofounder of the Guiyang School, Lingyou was born in Changxi of Fuzhou, in present-day Fujian Province. His family name was Zhao. At the age of 15, he entered his monastic life and studied with Fachang, a master of precepts. At 23, he went to Jiangxi to study with Baizhang Huaihai. With Baizhang, he reached enlightenment and became Baizhang’s dharma heir. In about 820, Lingyou arrived at Mount Gui in Tanzhou of Hunan. He later built Tongqing Temple there. His practice was supported by a number of local officials, including Pei Xiu. With these supports, he survived the Huichang persecution, with his students numbering more than 1,500. He died at the age of 83. His posthumous title was Dayuan Chanshi (“Chan Master of Great Circle”).
Lingyou had more than 40 direct dharma heirs, including Yanshan Huiji, the cofounder of the Guiyang School. Lingyou inherited the main teachings of the Hongzhou School, but he was known for his mild and kindly personality. His relationship with his heir Huiji resembled that of father and son, and the emphasis on the harmony of the minds without relying on words (moqi) was characterized as his family style (jiafeng). Lingyou’s teaching on the non-duality of the mind (xin) and form (se) also underlied Huiji’s pedagogical use of the so-called circle-figures (yuanxiang), which became a unique characteristic of the Guiyan school. An extant text called Guishan Jingce (Admonitions of Guishan)—an important document for the study of the ethics of the Hongzhou school—was attributed to Lingyou and is considered relatively reliable. Passages from his sermons and many dialogues are preserved in the Tanzhou Guishan Lingyou Chanshi Yulu (Recorded Sayings of the Chan Master Guishan Lingyou of Tanzhou) as part of the Wujia Yulu (Recorded Sayings of the Five Houses), an edition from the Ming dynasty. More reliable information of this kind can be found in the earlier texts of the transmission of the lamp literature, such as the Zutang Ji and the Jingde Chuandeng Lu.
GUIYANG SCHOOL (Ch. Guiyang zong)
This school is one of the “five houses” of the Southern school of Chan. It is named after its cofounders, Guishan Lingyou and his dharma heir Yangshan Huiji. Lingyou taught disciples at Mount Gui in Hunan and had more than 40 direct dharma heirs, including Yangshan Huiji and Xiangyan Zhixian. Xiangyan Zhixian’s enlightenment story is ranked among the most famous Chan stories by later generations for its iconoclastic element. Yangshan mainly taught at Mount Yang in Jiangxi and had 10 dharma heirs. Both Lingyou and Huiji had influence on and acquired support from many local high officials. Although this school was the earliest to emerge among the five houses and spread to both southern and northern areas of China, its lineage was also the first to die out in the early Song. The teachings of this school kept its legacy from the Hongzhou school. Lingyou and Huiji are not famous for their shouting or beating; they were more mild and calm teachers, but no less prominent than others in using performative actions and gestures of ordinary life to inspire students, with the emphasis on the mutual accord of the minds and experiences beyond words (moqi). Huiji’s use of circle-figure to indirectly convey the insights of Chan was also a characteristic of the Guiyang school. In addition, deconstructing the traditional distinction between sudden enlightenment and gradual cultivation in terms of non-duality is the school’s contribution to the development of Chan teachings.
GUIYANG ZONG
See .
GUZUNSU YULU
Records of Sayings of Ancient Worthies, a collection of the recorded sayings (yulu) of individual Chan masters, was compiled by Ze Zangzhu of the Southern Song dynasty, also known as Shouze Sengting (d.u.), a Linji Chan master. The original text was called Fuzhou Gushansi Guzunsu Yuyao (Essential Sayings of Ancient Worthies from Mount Gu Temple in Fuzhou) and was compiled by Shouze during the Shaoxing era (1131–1138). This text has four fascicles and holds the recorded sayings of 20 Chan masters. In 1267, during the Xianchun era of the Southern Song dynasty, a reprint was issued under the sponsorship of the lay Chan Buddhist Juexin, and the number of collected sayings of the Chan masters was increased to 28. In 1414, when it was included in the Ming Buddhist canon, the number of the collected records of sayings was increased to 37, and the book to 48 fascicles. The current version included in the Xuzang Jing (Reprint of Dai Nihon zokuzōkyō) is a Ming edition of 1617. It involves five Chan masters from the lineage of Qingyuan Xingsi and 32 masters from the lineage of Nanyue Huairang. Most of the collected records are those of the Linji school. The number of the collected Chan masters is much smaller than those in the lamp histories, but it is an influential collection of the texts of the yulu genre, many of which were not included in the lamp history texts.
H
HANSHAN DEQING (1546–1623)
Also called Chengyin. A Chan master of the Linji school and one of the most eminent monks in the Ming dynasty, Deqing was a native of Quanjiao (in present-day Anhui). His family name was Cai. At the age of 12, he devoted himself to learning Buddhist scriptures and Confucian classics with the master Xilin Yongning (1453–1535) at Bao’en Temple. At the age of 19, he turned to the study of Chan with the master Yungu Fahui (d.u.) at Mount Xixia, and he was officially ordained. He also listened to the lecture on the Huayan texts by Wuji Mingxin (1512–1574). At the age of 26, he started his pilgrimage. In 1573, he visited Mount Wutai. Impressed by the serenity of Mount Han in northern Wutai, he gave himself the name Hanshan. In 1581, he organized an “unrestricted dharma congregation (wuzhe dahui)” on Mount Wutai, which was also used to pray for the genealogical prosperity of the royal family. In 1583, he moved to Mount Lao (in present-day Shandong). The empress dowager provided patronage, building Haiyin Temple for him. Due to losing favor with Emperor Shenzong (r. 1572–1620), Deqing was put in jail and later exiled to Laizhou (in present Guagndong) for about 20 years. Even during his exile, he involved himself in restoring Huineng’s legacy, the Baolin Temple in Caoxi. In 1616, he went to Wuru Peak on Mount Lu, then returned to Caoxi in 1622. He died at the age of 78 and was mummified at Caoxi.
Because of his prolific writing, his disciples collected all his works into a 55-fascicle Hanshan Laoren Mengyou Quanji (Complete Works of the Dream Journey of Old Man Hanshan). In his teaching, he used the Chan notion of one mind to unify all three Chinese learnings of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism; to unify all Buddhist schools and doctrines; and to reconcile Chan and Pure Land. He borrowed the Tiantai notion of t
he three contemplations of the empty, the provisional, and the middle in one mind to interpret the nianfo Chan (Chan of reciting the Buddha’s name). In contrast to Zhuhong’s stress on the Pure Land practice, Deqing reemphasized the realization of the pure mind through the nianfo as opposed to focusing on one’s future life. His syncretism of the three Chinese traditions displayed a uniquely pragmatic perspective of integrating the practices of different traditions to meet different human existential needs. This perspective was best expressed in Deqing’s famous dictum that one must be equipped with all three teachings, since one cannot involve oneself in the world without understanding Confucius’s Spring and Autumn Annals, cannot be forgetful of the world without familiarizing oneself with Laozi and Zhuangzi, and cannot transcend the world without studying Chan.
HANSHAN TEMPLE (Ch. Hanshan Si)
Temple of “Cold Mountain.” Located at the town of Fengqiao outside the Chang Gate of the city of Suzhou in Jiangsu Province in China, it was also called Fengqiao Temple. Built during the Tianjian Era (502–519) of the Liang dynasty, its original name was Miaoli Puming Tayuan. It was said that during the Zhen’guan era (627–649) of the Tang dynasty, the two famous iconoclast poet-monks, Hanshan and Shide, came from Guoqing Temple of Mount Tiantai to live there, causing it to be renamed Hanshan Temple. The Tang poet Zhangji’s (ca. 715–779) poem Night Harboring in Fengqiao (Fengqiao Yepo), depicting the scenery and the sound of the bell at Hanshan Temple, was one of the most popular Tang poems for generations. In 976, a local official, Sun Chengyou (936–985), built a seven-floored pagoda there. During the Jiayou era (1056–1063) of the Song dynasty, the temple was renamed Puming Chan Monastery. During the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, the temple was destroyed and rebuilt several times. Many calligraphical works and stone inscriptions survived to modern times.
HANYUE FAZANG (1573–1635)
A Chan master of the Linji school in the Ming dynasty and a disciple of Miyun Yuanwu, Fazang was born into the Su family in Wuxi. At the age of nine, he decided to join the Buddhist order after reading Yunqi Zhuhong’s essay on releasing animals. At age 15, he became a novice at Deqing Monastery, and at 29, he received precepts from Zhuhong. When he was 37, he received full ordination. He achieved enlightenment by himself through studying the recorded sayings of Gaofeng Yuanmiao, and he claimed that it was verified by his reading of Juefan Huihong. When he met with Miyun Yuanwu, he was already an influential master. Having agreed to recognize Fazang as his dharma heir, Yuanwu let him be his assistant. Later, Fazang took abbacy at Sanfeng Qingliang Temple in Suzhou. Fazang’s teaching was quite heavily influenced by Dahui Zonggao’s kanhua Chan. In 1625, Fazang wrote the Wuzong Yuan (Origins of the Five Chan Schools), in which he argued that all five Chan schools had their distinctive principles, and criticized his teacher Miyun Yuanwu for reducing principles into just beating and shouting. This caused a public debate between the two masters and their disciples. After Fazang’s death, his lineage continued to grow. However, in the early 18th century, the Qing emperor Yongzheng sided with Miyun Yuanwu and his disciples and condemned Fazang’s lineage.
HEZE SCHOOL (Ch. Heze zong)
This name refers to the lineage of Heze Shenhui and his disciples in the Tang dynasty. Shenhui studied with both Shenxiu and Huineng, but later started a campaign against Shenxiu and the so-called Northern school. This campaign helped legitimize Huineng as the sixth patriarch and the founder of the Southern school, and Shenhui as the dharma heir of Huineng and the Southern school. Shenhui had many students; among them, more than 20 were his direct disciples. His lineage continued for five generations. The patriarchs for the lineage after Shenhui were Cizhou Zhiru (723–811), Yizhou Nanyin (705–782), Suizhou Daoyuan (d.u.), and Guifeng Zongmi. None of these disciples was renowned except for Zongmi. It was Zongmi who called the lineage of Shenhui the Heze school and distinguished it from the Northern school, the Ox-Head school, and the Hongzhou school. Zongmi saw his Heze school as more synthetic and perfect than the other schools, although he did acknowledge the relative value of the other schools’ approaches. He justified and developed Shenhui’s view of sudden enlightenment followed by gradual cultivation. He also summarized the “one word of intuitive cognition (zhizhi yizi)” as the key to the teaching of the Heze school. This aspect of Shenhui’s teaching, in fact, invited criticism from the other schools. Although Shenhui’s subitist rhetoric had a huge impact on the later generations of the Southern school, the Heze school did not become mainstream and in fact died out with Zongmi.
HEZE SHENHUI (684–758)
A Chinese Chan monk of the Tang dynasty, and the initiator of the Northern–Southern school controversy, Shenhui was regarded as the dharma heir of the sixth patriarch Huineng and the founder of the Heze school by his followers. He had a great impact on the rhetoric of classical Chan Buddhism. According to some historical sources, Shenhui was attracted to Buddhism from his very youth. He studied, respectively, with Shenxiu and Huineng in different periods of his early years and went to Chang’an to take full ordination at the age of 20. When Huineng died in 713 at Chaoxi, Shenhui was about 30 years old and had been there for some years. The Platform Sūtra places Shenhui among Huineng’s top 10 disciples. In 720, Shenhui started to teach at Longxing Temple in Nanyang (in modern Hubei province).
Around 732, about two decades after Huineng’s death, Shenhui went to the north to wage his campaign against the Northern school by publicly attacking the teachings and legitimacy of Shenxiu and his disciples. In his sermons, and in the many debates he participated in, especially the famous debate at Huatai with the master Chongyuan (d.u.), an influential figure of the Northern school, Shenhui subverted the Northern school’s establishment of Shenxiu as the sixth patriarch of Chan and declared the supremacy of the Southern school and the legitimacy of Huineng as the true sixth patriarch. Shenhui provided one of the justifications for this assertion in a dramatic and unprecedented fashion by inventing the story of the transmission of Bodhidharma’s robe from Hongren to Huineng. He also revised the early Chan theory of transmission by strictly limiting it to a one-to-one patriarchal succession from Bodhidharma to Huineng and making up a list of Indian patriarchs. In 745, Shenhui was invited to take residence at Heze Temple in Luoyang, but due to the influence of his opponents, he was banished from the capital in 753. Because he had helped in the Tang government’s fund-raising by selling certificates of ordination, to aid the military crackdown on the An Lushan rebellion, Emperor Suzong (r. 756–762) awarded him imperial patronage and a special Chan building in his temple. After his death, he was further granted the title of National Teacher and made the seventh patriarch of Chan.
However, his Heze school did not last long enough to become the main line of classical Chan Buddhism. While it is true that Shenhui’s legacy—his emphasis on sudden enlightenment, his use of apophatic rhetoric, his criticism of dualistic formulations of the Northern school and its static tendency, his invention of a new theory of Chan genealogy, and his claim for the orthodoxy of Huineng—was well carried on by the later generations of Chan Buddhism, his attempt to “establish awareness and cognition (li zhijian)” in his teaching still left room for privileging intuitive knowledge over ordinary activities, the ti (essence or the whole) over the yong (function), and therefore invited criticism from the other Chan sects and individuals. As a central controversial figure during his time, Shenhui was soon marginalized by the development of classical Chan. The later generations of Chan were not interested in following his sectarianism of separating the Northern and Southern schools, and a form of Chan ecumenism and inclusivism that tolerated multilineal transmission emerged with the members of the Hongzhou school.
Shenhui’s main works were recovered from the Dunhuang documents in the 20th century, including the Nanyang Heshang Wenda Zazhengyi (The Nanyang Monk’s Question-Answer Examination of Various Points of Doctrine), the Nanyang Heshang Dunjiao Jietuo Chanmen Zhiliaoxing Tanyu (The Platform Sermon of Nanyang Monk on the Chan Gate of Sudden Teaching and
Liberation and Directly Realizing the Nature), and the Putidamo Nanzong Dingshifei Lun (Treatise on Establishing the True and False According to the Southern school of Bodhidharma). Chinese and Japanese scholars have completed extensive editorial work on these documents of Shenhui discovered from Dunhuang, the most recent being Shenhui Heshang Chanhua Lu by Yang Zengwen.
HEZE ZONG
See
HONGREN (601–674)
A disciple of Daoxin and the fifth patriarch of Chan Buddhism, Hongren was born in Huangmei (in present-day Hubei). His family name was Zhou. At the age of 7, he started his monastic life, and at the age of 12, he became Daoxin’s student. In 651, he took over leadership of the Huangmei community following Daoxin’s death. No details of his life are available for the time between his assumption of this leadership and his death in 674. His biographies from the sources of the early 8th century focused on his unusual personality: silent, tolerant, hard working in menial labor and sitting meditation, and never reading scriptures by himself. Once selected as the successor to Daoxin, Hongren immediately demonstrated his profound understanding of doctrine and his skillful and spontaneous style of teaching—a prototype for the more popular story about Huineng later in the Platform Sūtra.
