Historical Dictionary of Chan Buddhism

by Youru Wang

  KUANG CHAN

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  LAṄKĀVATĀRA SŪTRA AND CHAN

  An influential Indian Mahayana scripture, this Sūtra on the Descent into Laṅkā was composed around the 4th century CE. It was translated into Chinese three times during the 5th to the 7th centuries, and a Sanskrit recension was found in Nepal. The sūtra is a blending of the major teachings of the Yogācāra school with the tathāgatagarbha thought. It introduces the mind- (or consciousness-) only doctrine, the theory of eightfold consciousness with the storehouse consciousness as the base of ordinary discriminative mental function shaping the world of objects, and the equivalence of the storehouse consciousness with the womb of tathāgata (rulaizang)—the intrinsic possibility of being enlightened. This unique blending perspective could be one of the reasons the sūtra was very popular in China. The early Chan texts of hagiographical writing, such as the Lengqie Shizi Ji, retrospectively connected this sūtra to the first patriarch, Bodhidharma’s preaching and identified it as the most important source of the Chan school. The critical examination of various Chan texts reveals that the Chan ideology is syncretic to the teachings of different Mahayana schools, including Madhyamaka, Yogācāra, and the tathāgatagarbha, and to different Mahayana scriptures, including the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, the Vimalakīrti Sūtra, the Huayan Sūtra, and many others. This is true even of the early patriarchs, such as Bodhidharma, Daoxin, and Hongren. Although the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra’s teaching on the limitation of discriminative language and its focus on the transformation of the mind through the practice of meditation were well taken by Chan patriarchs, no specific attention was given to the major doctrines or theories distinctive to this sūtra.

  LAYMAN PANG (d. 808)

  A famous Chan Buddhist layperson in the Tang dynasty and a disciple of Mazu Daoyi, his full name was Pang Yun and his pen name was Daoxuan. Very little of his biographical information is known. The Zutang Ji and the Jingde Chuandeng Lu include very short sections on him. He was born into a family of Confucian heritage in Hengyang (in present-day Hunan). He married and had children. But he was attracted to Chan Buddhism and could not remain content. On his pilgrimage, he first visited Shitou Xiqian, then Mazu. With Mazu, he attained awakening, stayed there for two years and, following the example of Vimalakīrti, remained as a layman. After that, he lived by selling bamboo utensils, accompanied by his daughter, and continued his wandering life, exchanging his understanding of Chan with many other masters and ordinary people. He left behind more than 300 verses, many of which were popular, such as “The magical power and wonderful function [of the mind] lies in carrying water and chopping firewood,” best conveying the Hongzhou teaching of “the ordinary mind is the way.” An extant text called Pangjushi Yulu (Recorded Sayings of Layman Pang) collected about 20 encounter dialogues of Pang Yun, including his use of physical action, such as holding up or throwing something, beating, and shouting. Although the compilation of this yulu was attributed to Pang’s contemporary, Yu Di (d. 818), some scholars have recently proposed that it was a later creation. His verses, in contrast, did not include any iconoclastic theme or style of the encounter dialogues of the late Tang and Five Dynasties. They are regarded as more credible.

  LENGQIE JING AND CHAN

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  LENGQIE SHIZI JI

  This Chinese title is rendered in English as Records of the Masters and Disciples of the Laṅkā[vatāra]. It is one of the earliest books of hagiographical writing about the early history of Chinese Chan Buddhism, which was long lost and then rediscovered from the Dunhuang documents in the early 20th century by Chinese and Japanese scholars. A critical edition of the book, based on the different extant copies from the Dunhuang documents, was published by Yanagida Seizan in 1971.

  The compiler of the Lengqie Shizi Ji was Jingjue (683–ca. 750). No information is provided about his early years. He was a relative of Weishi, the consort of Emperor Zhongzong (r. 684, 705–710), who later became empress but whose political career ended in misfortune. Jingjue probably only survived because of his position as a monk. At 23, he went to live in a monastery at Mount Taihang, writing commentary on the Diamond Sūtra. He studied with Hongren’s disciples, Shenxiu and Hui’an. Finally, he became a student of Hongren’s other disciple, Xuanze, after the latter was invited to the imperial court at the capital, Luoyang, in 708. Jingjue was under his instruction for about 10 years and eventually became his dharma heir. The Lengqie Shizi Ji was based on Xuanze’s book, Lengqie Renfa Zhi (Records of Men and Methods of the Laṅkā[vatāra]), which has since been lost, and was only quoted in parts by this Lengqie Shizi Ji. The Lengqie Shizi Ji was compiled during Jingjue’s retreat at Mount Taihang, sometime between 712 and 716.

  The Lengqie Shizi Ji recorded the biographical information and teachings for the eight generations of the earliest Chan masters in their teacher-student succession, including Bodhidharma, Huike, Sengcan, Daoxin, Hongren, Shenxiu, and some of their outstanding disciples (24 men are mentioned in total). The book focused on the doctrines and teachings of these masters, and for that matter included some essential texts of early Chan, for example, Bodhidharma’s Erru Sixing Lun and Daoxin’s Rudao Anxin Yao Fangbian Famen. It thus became a prototype for the later texts of Chan recorded sayings (yulu) in general. The book attempted to establish its own lineage pattern for the transmission of the early Chan. It placed Guṇabhadra, the India monk and translator of the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, before Bodhidharma as the first patriarch of Chan Buddhism, for the purpose of emphasizing the transmission of this important scriptural tradition. This attribution has no historical basis, nor was it accepted by the later Chan texts. The recent critical study of early Chan history has pointed out the misrepresentation of the importance of the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra to the masters and disciples in Jingjue’s book. The book quoted heavily from different sūtras and texts. Although it did quote from the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, these quotations were all general slogans without any substantial reference to the major doctrines of the scripture. No solid information was provided by Jingjue to support the transmission of the scripture as one single focus of these masters. Despite these problems, the book has become a significant source for the study of early Chan history, especially religious activities and doctrines of the East Mountain teaching and Northern school before they were challenged by the Southern school.

  LENGYAN JING AND CHAN

  Also called Shoulengyan Jing or Dafoding Shoulengyan Jing, the Lengyan Jing’s complete Chinese title is Dafoding Rulai Miyin Xiuzheng Liaoyi Zhupusa Wanxing Shoulengyan Jing. The Sanskrit title reconstructed for it is Śūraṃgama Sūtra (Heroic March Sūtra). The Chinese cataloguer Zhisheng (658–740), in the Kaiyuan Shijiao Lu, indicated that Monk Huaidi cotranslated this scripture with an unknown Western monk. However, in his Xu Gujin Yijing Tuji, Zhisheng contradicted the Kaiyuan Shijiao Lu and recorded that the Indian monk Pāramiti secretly carried this scripture to China and presided over its translation. The very obscure Pāramiti and other uncertain details about its translation have caused an ongoing debate about the authenticity of this scripture since the Tang dynasty. This debate has also involved the questioning of this scripture’s content, since some of its ideas have not been seen in any other Indian Buddhist scriptures. Besides, neither a Sanskrit original text nor a translation from another language was ever discovered. Some scholars regard it as a Chinese apocryphon, while many others, including some Chinese Buddhist masters, defend its authenticity. Despite this long-lasting controversy, the Lengyan Jing was very popular in Chinese Buddhism and became the subject of numerous commentaries produced by many scholar-monks, including famous Buddhist masters from the Song dynasty down to modern time. It was reported that some Chan masters even achieved enlightenment through the study of this scripture.

  The syncretic Lengyan Jing integrated various doctrines from a wide spectrum of Mahayana Buddhist thought, including the prajñāpāramitā literature, the Yogācāra school, the tathāgatagarbha thought, the
Lotus Sūtra, and the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, and related teachings on the practices of meditation, precepts, ritual, and recitation of incantations. Because of this unique characteristic, it became a useful source for all Chinese Buddhist schools, including the Tiantai, Huayan, Chan, Pure Land, Chinese Yogācāra, Lü, and esoteric schools. It is no surprise that Chan Buddhism quite strongly favored this scripture, since Chan Buddhism in general takes a typically syncretic approach to various Buddhist teachings. This point also explains, in particular, why the Ming Chan masters, such as Yunqi Zhuhong, Daguan Zhenke, and Hanshan Deqing, who were unequivocally syncretistic, all wrote commentary on the scripture. However, Chan did appropriate the sūtra in terms of its own need and preference. Many of the sūtra’s teachings, such as the ever-abiding true mind (changzhu zhenxin), freeing from cognitive understanding (zhijian wujian), returning to the non-dualistic original nature (gui yuanxing wu’er) by varied expedients (fangbian you duomen), and acquiring the dharma-body without experiencing [endless] practices of monks (buli sengzhi huo fashen), helped to inspire and justify the Chan ideology of sudden enlightenment and its emphasis on directly pointing to the human mind, seeing one’s own nature, and attaining Buddhahood.

  LIANDENG HUIYAO

  “Essentials of the Linked [Records of] the Lamp [Transmission],” also called Zongmen Liandeng Huiyao (“Essentials of the Linked [Records of] the Lamp [Transmission] of the [Chan] School”). It was a book of 30 fascicles in the Song genre of the Chan lamp history, compiled by Huiweng Wuming (d.u.), a dharma heir in the lineage of the Linji Chan master Dahui Zonggao, in 1183. This book attempted to pull together all materials from the previous Jingde Chuandeng Lu, Tiansheng Guangdeng Lu, and Jianzhong Jingguo Xudeng Lu, with its own supplements, including new coverage of contemporary masters. Although the book reiterates many previously published materials, it does so sometimes with bold reinvention. For example, in order to further portray the Buddha as a Chan master, it goes so far as to directly put into the mouth of the Buddha himself the famous Chan slogans “a separate transmission apart from the teachings (jiaowai biechuan)” and “not establishing letters and words (buli wenzi),” a reinvention that no other Chan text has ever done.

  LIDAI FABAO JI

  The English translation of this Chinese book title is Records of the Dharma-Jewel through the Generations. The book was composed by an anonymous disciple, or disciples, of the Chan master Wuzhu, the founder of the Baotang school, sometime during 774 and 780 at the Baotang Temple in Chengdu, Sichuan. Although the book was still read and criticized by masters of other schools decades later, for most of the next part of history it was never mentioned, and it was believed lost until its rediscovery among the Dunhuang documents in the early 20th century. The book can be roughly divided into two parts. The first part is the narrative on the history of the origins and lineage of Chinese Chan Buddhism. It starts with a list of 37 titles of sources (Buddhist scriptures, including apocryphal texts) for the authors’ writing and explains how Buddhism was introduced to China by telling the two legends related to Emperor Ming (r. 57–75) of the Han dynasty. It then focuses its narrative on the 29 Indian patriarchs and the 6 Chinese Chan patriarchs. The second part consists of biographical stories about the master Wuzhu and a collection of his sermons and dialogues.

  The Lidai Fabao Ji is the earliest extant Chan text that attempted to overcome the insufficiency of Shenhui’s version of the unbroken transmission of the 8 Indian patriarchs and the 6 Chinese patriarchs. Using a list of 23 Indian patriarchs from a putative 5th-century work, Fu Fazang Yinyuan Zhuan (Traditions of the Causes and Conditions of Transmission of the Dharma Treasury), with its own alteration and supplement, the Lidai Fabao Ji created a one-to-one succession of 29 Indian patriarchs. This format obviously laid a foundation for the later standard version of 28 Indian patriarchs used by the Baolin Zhuan (Biographies from the Treasure Groves) and retained by the Jingde Chuandeng Lu. The Lidai Fabao Ji is also the only text in which Bodhidharma’s robe still played an important role, outside of the lineage story of the six Chinese patriarchs. While endorsing Shenhui’s version of lineal succession, this book added up a lineage of its own to branch off from the lineage of the six patriarchs by claiming that Empress Wu (r. 690–705), given Bodhidharma’s robe by Huineng, then passed it on to Hongren’s disciple Zhishen (609–702), and it was then passed from Zhishen to Chuji (669–736 or 648–734), to Wuxiang, and finally to Wuzhu. Without any historical basis, this is an extreme example of how Chan narrative was used to promote the legitimacy of lineage.

  In addition, the narrative of the book is stylistically inconsistent and unpolished compared with the later Chan texts, but the formats of the two parts nonetheless are respectively analogous to, and anticipate, the transmission of the lamp literature and the yulu literature in later Chan history. The Lidai Fabao Ji is the only source that preserves master Wuzhu’s teaching. It shows, on the one hand, the radical iconoclastic, antinomian, or ascetic aspect of his practice, and on the other, his challenge to ritualism, devotionalism, and the fixed distinctions between lay and monastic, and male and female, practitioners.

  LINGYIN TEMPLE (Ch. Lingyin Si)

  Located on Lingyin Mountain near West Lake in the city of Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, this temple is among the greatest Chan Buddhist temples in China, especially in the south. Legend says that an Indian monk, Huili, traveled to this place in 326. Believing that the Peak of Feilai had flown from the Lingjiu Mountain in India, he built a temple to face the Peak of Feilai. As there were many spirits hidden in the Lingjiu mountain that the peak originated from, he named his temple Lingyin (“spirits hidden”). During the Five Dynasties, the temple was expanded greatly. In later years, it was destroyed by wars and rebuilt many times. During the Northern Song dynasty, its name was changed to Lingyin Chansi (Lingyin Chan Temple). Later, the Emperor Kangxi (r. 1661–1722) of the Qing dynasty granted a new name, Yunlin Chansi, to this temple. Despite its vicissitudes, the temple currently preserves many buildings and artifacts of highly historical and artistic value, such as pagodas and sculptures made in the Five Dynasties and Song dynasty. It remains an important Buddhist center.

  LINIAN

  This term literally means “being free from thoughts.” This concept was used originally by the Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana (Dasheng Qixin Lun) to describe the realization of emptiness and the enlightened mind that is pure and free from all deluded thoughts. Shenxiu directly quoted this concept from the Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana and integrated it into his teaching of Chan. As a consequence of their criticisms of Shenxiu, Shenhui and the Platform Sūtra developed the idea of wunian by emphasizing the practice of non-attachment to thoughts without cutting off all thoughts and movements. The tendency to isolate the mind from thoughts and movements was attributed to Shenxiu.

  See also .

  LINJI

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  LINJI LU

  Literally, “Record of Linji.” It is a compilation of the recorded sermons, conversations, and actions of the Tang Dynasty Chan master Linji Yixuan, who has been claimed as the patriarch of the Linji school of Chan since the Song dynasty. Linji Lu is a popular abbreviation of the complete Chinese title, Zhenzhou Linji Huizhao Chanshi Yulu (The Recorded Sayings of Chan Master Linji Huizhao of Zhenzhou). Scholars have long regarded the Linji Lu not only as the principal text for the Linji school, but also as a vital document in the history of both Buddhist and East Asian thought. What Yanagida Seizan wrote of the Linji Lu in 1975 still seems appropriate: “Few works in the Buddhist canon match it in simplicity, directness, and force of expression, and few retain such immediate appeal for the reader of today” (“Historical Introduction to the Record of Linji”).

  The extant version of the text involves three parts: sermons (given at times when Linji ascended to the hall), corrected (kanbian) stories of encounter dialogues, and records of his pilgrimages involving his conversations and various actions. This version is based on an edition compiled in 1120 by Yuanjue
Zongyan (d.u.) and has become the standard Linji Lu since then. The standard version was printed independent of the Chan “records of the lamp (denglu)” for the first time and gave priority to Linji’s sermons in its sequence of contents. It marked the continuous rise of Linji’s status as one of the major Chan patriarchs and reflected the increasing interest in the new genre of yulu, which had more appeal to Song literati and officials. Beyond that, the standard edition is not too different from the 1029 version of the Linji Lu, which is the earliest complete edition involving the sermons, dialogues, and records of pilgrimages, compiled by Li Zunxu (?–1038), a member of the imperial family and a lay disciple of the Linji school, and included in the Tiansheng Guangdeng Lu.

  Although the standard edition of the Linji Lu indicated that Linji’s disciple, Sansheng Huiran (d.u.), compiled the text, and another disciple, Xinghua Cunjiang, edited it, modern scholars have found no evidence to either support or refute this claim. The names of the original note-takers are still unknown. Rather than continuing to wait for new evidence to solve the problem of the text’s origin, recent study of the Linji Lu has begun to look into its forming and editorial processes; comparison of the earlier and later textual materials; and how revisions and additions were made to them under the impact of a wide range of sectarian, political, and ideological forces during the Song dynasty. The result is an astonishing revelation of how the evolution of the rhetoric and details of the stories, from relatively early texts such as the Zutang Ji and Jingde Chuandeng Lu, to the more complete editions of 1029 and 1120, reflects and serves the Linji sect’s need to forge its new identity through the image and teachings of Linji.