by Youru Wang
See also .
QIHUI
A classical Chan term referring to the experience and realization of enlightenment. The crucial and unique element of this word is qi, which is also often used independently. Qi, when used as a verb, involves a strong sense of “to accord or to harmonize with each other” and “to get along with each other.” It contains, as well, the meanings of “to attain” and “to experience and to understand.” By using the word qihui, Chan masters, such as Huangbo Xiyun in the Chuanxin Fayao, emphasized the existential-practical dimension of enlightenment. Everyone must experience and realize one’s own enlightenment. This experience and realization of one’s own enlightenment is like a person’s drinking of water (ruren yinshui). Whether the water is cold or warm, one must experience it by himself or herself (lengnuan zizhi). Nobody can do it for another, or hand it to him or her (e.g., through words). It involves one’s existential choice, the conversion of one’s life outlook and attitude, goodwill, and decision making; in short, transformation of the entire personhood. The Chan transmission of mind is thus understood as the mutual realization or verification of enlightenment in everyday activities. The mind of the master and the mind of the disciple are brought into harmony or accord by each one’s enlightenment.
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QINGLIANG TEMPLE (Ch. Qingliang Si)
Located on Mount Qingliang in Nanjing in Jiangsu Province, China, this temple was built by Xu Wen during the Five Dynasties and called Xingjiao Temple. Around 937, it was renamed Shicheng Qingliang Dadaochang. It's other name was Qingliang Bao’en Chan Monastery. The king of Nantang invited Fayan Wenyi, the founder of the Fayan school, to preach dharma there. Wenyi therefore earned the nickname Qingliang Wenyi. In 980, Qingliang Guanghui Temple moved to this location from Mount Mufu. In the early Ming dynasty, the imperial court renamed it Qingliang Temple. It was eventually destroyed by war, but in the late Qing dynasty it was rebuilt, although smaller. It was destroyed again, this time during the Japanese invasion in World War II, and was rebuilt later.
QINGYI LU
Record of Requesting Additional Instruction, a collection of the Chan gong’an, compiled by the early Yuan Chan master Wansong Xingxiu of the Caodong school in 1230. It is Xingxiu’s commentary on the Song Caodong Chan master Hongzhi Zhengjue’s Niangu Baize (Commentaries on One Hundred Old Cases). The full title is Wansong Laoren Pingchang Tiantong Jue Heshang Niangu Qingyi Lu (Record of Requesting Additional Instruction through Old Man Wansong’s Promoting Commentaries on Monk Tiantong Jue’s Commentaries on One Hundred Old Cases). To each original gong’an case (benze) and Zhengjue’s commentary (niangu), Xingxiu added his zhuyu (“brief explanatory notes”) and pingchang (“promoting commentaries”).
QINGYUAN XINGSI (d. 740)
A very obscure Chan master of the Tang dynasty and a link between Huineng and Shitou Xiqian in the lineage of the Southern school, Xingsi was a native of Luling in Jizhou (in present-day Ji’an, Jiangxi province). His family name was Liu. At a very young age, he became a monk and was enlightened under Huineng’s instruction. The Platform Sūtra did not list him as Huineng’s disciple. The Song Gaoseng Zhuan and Zutang Ji confirm Huineng’s role in Xingsi’s enlightenment, but offer very little information about it. It is only mentioned that, after receiving Huineng’s “secret” teaching, Xingsi returned to his hometown and taught a large congregation there. His only famous disciple was Shitou Xiqian, from whose lineage three schools out of “five houses” are derived. Probably for this reason, he became increasingly important. Emperor Xizong (r. 873–888) granted him the posthumous title Hongji nearly 150 years after his death.
QISONG (1007–1072)
Also called Fori Qisong or Mingjiao Qisong. A scholar-monk of the Yunment school in the Song dynasty, Qisong was a native of Tanjin in Tengzhou (in present-day Guangxi province). His family name was Li. He entered his monastic life at the age of 13 and was ordained at the age of 14. From the age of 19, he traveled to various places seeking great teachers. He studied with the Yunmen Chan master Xiaocong (?–1030) at Dongshan in Gao’an (in present-day Jiangxi) and achieved realization under Xiaocong’s verification. Later, he went to Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou to preach. During that time, he wrote the Fujiao Bian (Essays on Assisting the Teaching [of Buddhism]) to refute criticisms of Buddhism from Confucian scholars and elaborate on his belief that both Buddhism and Confucianism came from the minds of sages, and that Buddhism could help, in its unique way, to achieve the goal of Confucianism. He sent this book to some ministers; they were impressed and petitioned Emperor Renzong (r. 1022–1063), who granted the purple robe to Qisong. During this time, Qisong also composed the Chuanfa Zhengzong Ji (Record of the True Lineage of Dharma Transmission), the Chuanfa Zhengzong Lun (Treatise on the True Lineage of Dharma Transmission), and the Chuanfa Zhengzong Dingzu Tu (Portraits of the Established Patriarchs of the True Lineage of Dharma Transmission) to clarify the traditional theory of Chan lineage, and successfully petitioned Emperor Renzong to include these books in the Song Buddhist canon (Dazang Jing). Renzong honored him as Mingjiao Dashi (“Great Master of Illuminating Teaching”). He was then invited to take up residence at Fori Chan Monastery in Hangzhou. He died at the age of 66, leaving written works of more than 100 fascicles. Some were lost. During the Southern Song dynasty, Monk Huaiwu edited his works as Tanjin Wenji (Collection of the Works of Tanjin).
QIYUAN XINGGANG (1597–1654)
An abbess in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, Xinggang was a rare female Chan master, whose record of sayings (yulu), including sermons, letters, poems, biographical accounts, inscriptions, and prefaces, was compiled by her female disciples, published in 1655, and preserved in the Jiaxing Edition of the Ming Buddhist Canon (Jiaxing Dazang Jing). Xinggang was born into a literatus family of Hu in Jiaxing (in present-day Zhejiang province). She received an education during her youth and showed a gift for poetry. Fond of reciting the Buddha’s name, she practiced religious worship at home. She wanted to remain unmarried but was forced to be engaged to a young man. Widowed even before she was a bride, she still had to fulfill her duties as a filial daughter-in-law. At the age of 26, she went on a hunger strike to oppose her parents’ wishes, and succeeded in becoming a student of the master Tiantong Cixing (d.u.). Five years later, she paid a visit to Cixing’s teacher, the Linji Chan master Miyun Yuanwu. The latter recognized her spiritual potential, but it was not until after her mother’s death that she formally became a nun. She started to study with Yuanwu’s senior disciple Shiche Tongsheng (1593–1638). Under Tongsheng’s instruction, Xinggang attained enlightenment, received symbols of the transmission, and became his dharma heir at the age of 42. She then went into retreat for nine years, but eventually was invited to be abbess of Fushi Chan Temple in 1647. During her abbacy, she attracted a great number of both lay and monastic followers through her charisma, compassion, and generosity, as well as her emphasis on the kanhua Chan practice. She especially advised her female disciples to overcome obstacles by single-minded concentration on one’s huatou, even in the midst of leisure or business, such as holding a baby boy or playing with a baby girl, supervising maids, or socializing. Xinggang had seven dharma heirs; several of them were women, who became masters themselves, including Yigong Chaoke (1620–1667) and Yikui Chaochen (1625–1679).
R
RENTIAN YANMU
Eyes of Human and Nature, a book of the essential teachings of the “five schools” (wuzong gangyao) of Chan, was compiled in 1188 after 20 years of editorial work by Huiyan Zhizhao (d.u.), a disciple of the fourth generation from Dahui Zonggao in the lineage of Yangqi Fanghui of the Linji school in the Southern Song dynasty. To reveal and explain these essential teachings and methods for human beings and even gods to practice, namely, to open their eyes, the book collected the founding Chan masters’ most important sayings and poems and the later masters’ prosaic and poetic commentaries on them. The book was revised by Wuchu Daguan (1201–1268) in 1258 and by Tianfeng Zhiyou (d.u.) in 1317. The book st
arted with the Linji school, which occupied the longest section, followed by the Guiyang school, the Caodong school, the Yunmen school, and the Fayan school. It consisted of three fascicles. However, by the time of the book’s reprinting in Korea in 1368, it had six fascicles and followed the sequence Linji, Yunmen, Caodong, Guiyang, and Fayan schools. In the edition with six fascicles, the fifth and sixth fascicles were newly added, previously neglected materials. This edition of six fascicles became the basis for the version included in the Ming continuous Buddhist canon (Xuzang Jing) and the one included in the modern Taisho. There appears to have been another revised and enriched version of the Rentian Yanmu of two fascicles in 1703, which was very different in content.
RENYUN
This Chinese word was most noticeably used by the masters of the Hongzhou School and later became a popular Chan term. It means to follow along with the movement of all things or circumstances. Zongmi, in his critical examination of Chan schools, characterized the position of the Hongzhou School quite accurately as “following along with the movement of all things or circumstances and being free (renyun zizai).” The use of the word renyun by Mazu Daoyi and Huangbo Xiyun is recorded in their sermons. With the notion of renyun the masters instructed Chan students that the living process of change and flux ruthlessly undercuts every fixed position and every attachment to self or self-identity without ever stopping. Reality itself is flowing and deconstructing. Enlightenment can neither occur nor last outside this flow. Enlightenment is nothing but being harmonious with change and flux. An enlightened person would find inexhaustible wonders by living a life in harmony with change and flux.
RAOLU SHUOCHAN
This Chinese phrase can be translated into English as “express (or teach) Chan by taking a detour.” It was first coined by the Song Linji Chan master Yuanwu Keqin in his commentary on the first gong’an case of Xuedou Chongxian’s Songgu Baize (Verses on One Hundred Old Cases), collected in Yuanwu’s famous gong’an anthology, Blue Cliff Record (Biyan Lu). It is a mature and influential characterization of Chan linguistic strategy, based on the unconventional and extraordinary use of language by numerous Chan masters from the Tang and Five Dynasties, and Song Chan masters’ understanding and further development of it.
It is true that the Chan rhetoric of non-establishment of words (buli wenzi) and its critique of conventional discursive or descriptive ways of using words were never abandoned by mainstream Chan. But many Chan masters since the Tang dynasty have either clarified the non-dualistic perspective on speaking and silence (e.g., Huangbo Xiyun in his notion of yumo bu’er), provided a new interpretation of the slogan buli wenzi (Baizhang Huaihai in his buju wenzi—“not being fettered by words”), or emphasized the middle way between opposite extremes (Dazhu Huihai in his feili yuyan, feibuli yuyan—“neither separate from, nor tied to language”). These insights laid the foundation for the Chan formation of successful linguistic strategies. A noticeable example is the strategy of “bushuopo (never tell too plainly),” first brought up by Xiangyan Zhixian and Dongshan Liangjie. Bushuopo clearly indicates the indirect nature of Chan communication in soteriological practice, as well as strategies for teaching Chan indirectly or suggestively, like using finger pointing at the moon without confusing the finger with the moon, in order for students to experience their own awakening without being misled by words. Much of Chan negation of words or double negation serves the same purpose.
As Chan Buddhists entered into the mainstream of Song society, a society dominated by literati culture, and the interactions between Chan and this culture grew stronger, the Chan Buddhist use of various literary genres to convey Chan spirit also became unprecedentedly prosperous. It was in this period that the study of Chan gong’an, including prosaic or poetic commentaries on old Chan stories, anecdotes, or dialogues, became popular. As a master of using gong’an, Yuanwu Keqin’s outlining of raolu shuochan further developed the early formulation of bushuopo by making the more evident point that there is no direct path of teaching or expressing Chan by words. Words and concepts are discriminative or dualistic, but the reality of enlightenment is holistic and transcends all conventionally dualistic or oppositional distinctions. Enlightenment or Buddha-mind is not an objective or external entity for words to designate or represent.
Moreover, communication between a master and a student aims at the triggering or realization of the resonance of two enlightened minds, which breaks away from all conventional ways of objectification and representation. There is no direct, straightforward relationship of correspondence between words and the realization of Buddha mind, which achieves the existential-practical transformation of the personhood and lives a life of dynamic functioning in the world. To utilize words for the above-mentioned Chan soteriological practice, one must take a detour, work with the twisting of words, or make an indirect path by suggestive, poetic, enigmatic, elusive, or paradoxical words with shocking or overturning effects. Such a detour avoids objectifying words, or words that mislead students and cause their attachments, through a self-erasing performance, and at the same time skillfully uses words to point to the meaning that is often absent in the words themselves or to what cannot be adequately described in the words. It is a play of “living words” at the limit of language. Raolu shuochan is thus an important principle and strategy characteristic of the use of Chan gong’an and the rise of the wenzi Chan (Chan of letters and words).
RUJING (1163–1228)
Also called Tiantong Rujing or Changweng Rujing. A Congdong Chan master of the Song dynasty, Rujing was a native of Mingzhou (in present-day Ningbo, Zhejiang province). His family name was Yu. He entered monastic life in his youth. At the age of 19, he started to visit great teachers. At Mount Xuedou, he studied with the Caodong master Zu’an Zhijian (1105–1192), who was a disciple of the fifth generation of the Song Caodong reviver, Furong Daokai. Rujing reached enlightenment and became Zhijian’s dharma heir. After that, he continued his practice at various monasteries. At the age of 48, he took abbacy at Qingliang Temple in Jiankang (in present-day Jiangsu province). He then took up residence in several other temples. In 1225, by imperial edict, he became abbot of the famous Jingde Temple at Mount Tiantong. However, it was said that Rujing refused to accept the purple robe granted by imperial edict. Rujing’s teachings are preserved in the Rujing Hershang Yulu of two fascicles and the one-fascicle Rujing Chanshi Xu Yulu. He had several known disciples, but his lineage did not continue after them. Although Rujing did not have a huge influence on Chinese Chan Buddhism, his Japanese disciple Dōgen Kigen (1200–1253) became the founder of the Japanese Sōtō Zen school. Dōgen regarded Rujing as the only orthodoxy for the Japanese Sōtō school and greatly promoted Rujing’s teaching of “just sitting” and “body and mind dropped off,” as well as Rujing’s negation of other Chan lineages.
RULAI CHAN
See .
RULAIZANG
Literally embryo-container of Buddha. It is a Chinese translation of the Sanskrit word tathāgatagarbha, which means the womb or matrix of Tathāgata (Buddha). Rulaizang is a synonym of another Chinese word, foxing (Buddha-nature), which also translates tathāgatagarbha. Rulaizang and foxing are interchangeable and often used together in Chinese Buddhist and Chan texts.
RUSHI
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S
SANXUAN SANYAO
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SELF-NATURE (Ch. zixing)
A Chan soteriological term referring to a person’s Buddha-nature. It does not denote any self-existence or any changeless essence existent in and by itself. No such metaphysical meaning is involved in the original use of this term. A notable case of the traditional Chan usage of this term is in the Platform Sūtra, where Buddha-nature is equivalent to self-nature (zixing) in the sense that Buddha-nature cannot be objectified and realized outside each person. Seeing or realizing the Buddha-nature is the existential transformation of the human mind and entire personhood, being able to understand and appreciate what constitutes a person—elements of imperm
anence and non-abiding—and then acting accordingly. The realization of self-nature thus requires the accomplishment of action, the practical-behavioral carrying out of non-attachment, rather than identifying a metaphysical object or discovering subjectivity through knowledge. The usage also indicates the Chan appropriation of positive or kataphatic language in its teachings without abandoning the use of negative or apophatic language: the Chan walk on two roads.
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SENGCAN
A very obscure figure in the Northern Zhou dynasty (557–581) and Sui dynasty (581–617) and one of the disciples of the second patriarch, Huike, Sengcan was considered by the later Chan generations to be the dharma heir to Huike and the third patriarch of Chan Buddhism. He is the weakest link in the lineage of early Chinese Chan authorized by the Chan tradition. No biographical information is provided by contemporary sources or reliable documents to support such a status, except for a list of Huike’s followers in which his name appeared and a vague mention of his meeting with Daoxin, who was claimed as his dharma heir by later sources. More details of his biography came from later sources that were produced in the 8th century. The work Inscription on the Faith in Mind (Xinxin Ming), attributed to Sengcan, has been deemed a forgery from the late 8th century, although it was widely used in the Tang and later Chan texts.