Historical Dictionary of Chan Buddhism

by Youru Wang

  It was further claimed by the book that when Wuxiang was dying, he sent Wuzhu Bodhidharma’s robe, which was given to Empress Wu (r. 690–705) as a gift by Huineng, and then passed to Zhishen (609–702), Chuji (669–736 or 648–734), and Wuxiang, indicating Wuzhu as his legitimate dharma heir. This lineage story is a total fabrication without any historical basis. After Wuxiang’s death, Wuzhu’s fame continued to grow during his lifetime, partially because he had the support of regional high-ranking officials who invited him to teach at Konghui Temple and Baotang Temple in Chengdu. Interestingly, when Wuzhu died, no dharma heir was named, and the robe was absent. The Baotang school was very short-lived. Wuzhu’s central teaching was no-thought (wunian) and non-attachment to the forms of practice. Unfortunately, his radical interpretation of no-thought and non-attachment developed into typical iconoclasm and antinomianism, certain aspects of which might have been shared by some members of the Southern school, such as the Hongzhou school. However, the Hongzhou school maintained a kind of mediation between poles of traditional and radical styles, which the Baotang school lacked.

  WUZHUN SHIFAN (1177–1249)

  A Chan master of the Yangqi Fanghui lineage of the Linji school in the Song dynasty, Shifan was a native of Zitong in Sichun. His family name was Yong. He entered his monastic life at the age of 9 and received official ordination at the age of 18. After that, he went on his journey to seek great teachers. He respectively studied with several masters, including Fozhao Deguang (1121–1203) and Songyuan Congyue (1132–1202), and ended up as the disciple of Po’an Zuxian (1136–1211). In 1220, Shifan was invited to be abbot at Qingliang Temple in Mingzhou. In the ensuing years, he was abbot at Zisheng Temple on Mount Xuedou and at Guangli Temple on Mount Ayuwang. Around 1228, he was invited to be abbot at Xingsheng Wanshou Temple on Mount Jing, where he taught 20 years. Emperor Lizong (r. 1224–1264) invited Shifan to give a public lecture at the Pavilion of Benevolent Illumination in the imperial court and granted him the title “Chan Master of Buddha Mirror” (Fojian Chanshi). Shifan’s teachings were preserved in the five-fascicle Fojian Chanshi Yulu. He had many successful disciples. Among them, Xueyan Zuqin’s (1218–1287) lineage extended through Gaofeng Yuanmiao and Zhongfeng Mingben and survived to modern times. Shifan’s disciples, Wu’an Puning (1197–1276) and Wuxue Zuyuan (1226–1286), went to Japan to preach dharma and were respected as patriarchs of the Japanese Rinzai school. Shifan also had Japanese disciples, including the famous Enni Ben’en (1202–1280).

  WUZU FAYAN (d. 1104)

  A Chan master of the Yangqi lineage (Yangqi pai) of the Linji school in the Song dynasty, Fayan was a native of Mianzhou (in present Sichuan). His family name was Deng. He became an ordained monk at the age of 35 and studied the Yogācāra doctrine in Chengdu. Unsatisfied, he left to search for good teachers. He studied respectively with three masters, including Yuanzhao Zongben (1020–1099) of the Yunmen school and Fushan Fayuan (991–1067) of the Linji school, and finally was introduced by Fayuan to Baiyun Shouduan, the disciple of Yangqi Fanghui. Under Shouduan’s instruction, Fayan achieved enlightenment. After leaving Shouduan, Fayan served as abbot at several Chan temples for about 27 years, eventually taking up residence at Wuzu Temple in Hubei (originally called East Mountain Temple) where the fifth patriarch, Hongren, had resided. He remained there until his death. Among his many disciples, the most famous were Yuanwu Keqin (also called Fuguo Keqin), Fuyan Qingyuan (1067–1120), and Fujian Huiqin (1067–1120), commonly known as the “three Buddhas of East Mountain.” The prosperity of the Yangqi lineage was initiated by Fayan. His teachings were preserved in the Wuzu Fayan Chanshi Yulu, which were recorded from different temples during his residences.

  X

  XIANGYAN ZHIXIAN (?–898)

  A Chan master of the Guiyang school in the Tang dynasty and a disciple of Guishan Lingyou, Zhixian was a native of Qingzhou in present-day Shandong province. He studied hard with Lingyou, but although he was considered a very intelligent person, there was no resonance between the two minds. In despair, he burned all of the written materials he had studied, declaring them useless, and left his teacher. One day, when he was cleaning the garden, he hit the roof tiles. Laughing uncontrollably, he all of a sudden attained realization. He thus felt grateful to his teacher for not expressing the dharma plainly to him but giving him the opportunity to work it out on his own—a story about the earliest hint of the Chan teaching method of “never explaining plainly (bushuopo)” from the Zutang Ji. Zhixian took up residence at Mount Xiangyan in Dengzhou (in present-day Henan province). There is not much biographical information about him in the various Chan texts. His answers to his students’ questions were always short, simple, elusive, and enigmatic. One of his teaching stories became a famous gong’an case. But he left numerous poems, which are more revealing of his insights than his conversations to many readers. Some of his stories are often used as examples of the zushi Chan and its criticism of the rulai Chan. Many of his stories also became the symbol of Chan iconoclasm in the late Tang and Five Dynasties and became the favorites of Song Chan Buddhism. He was granted the posthumous title “Chan Master of Inheriting the Lamp” (Xideng Chanshi).

  XIAOYAN DEBAO (1512–1581)

  A Chan master of the Linji school of the Ming dynasty, Debao was a native of Jintai (in present-day Beijing). His family name was Wu. At the age of 20, he was inspired by a lecture on the Lengyan Jing. At the age of 22, he went to Guanghui Temple to study with Daji (d.u.) and received official ordination. He then traveled to various places and visited more than 30 masters. At Longquan Temple, he studied with the Linji Chan master Wuwen Mingcong (?–1543 or 1544). After his realization was verified by his teacher, he became Mingcong’s dharma heir. He taught at a number of monasteries and gained great fame. He lived out his last years in a hermitage at Liuxiang in Beijing. His recorded sayings were preserved in the Yuexin Xiaoyan Baozu Nanbei Ji of four fascicles. In practice, he continued the approach of the kanhua Chan, but improved on it by starting a new method that combined contemplating (kan) the huatou with reciting (nian) the huatou. Furthermore, he treated the recitation of the name of the Buddha as equal to using a huatou. Thus, he contributed to the tendency of developing the kanhua Chan into the nianfo Chan, which was initiated by Zhongfeng Mingben in the Yuan dynasty.

  XIN

  The Chinese word for “mind.” For the classical Chan concept of mind, see ; ; ; and .

  XING

  This Chinese term is translated into English as “nature,” as often appears in such compounds as “Buddha-nature” (foxing) and “self-nature” (zixing). However, the translation is somewhat misleading, since the xing in these uses does not denote any changeless essence or essential, inherent nature deeply rooted in every human mind. In Chinese philosophical-religious, including Chan, context, xing denotes the changeability and growth of the human mind and personhood, among other things. Xing includes the meanings of directionality, relationality, and existential-practical development and accomplishment.

  XINGHUA CUNJIANG (830–888)

  A Chan master of the Tang dynasty, Cunjiang was considered by the Linji school to be the second patriarch after its founder. According to his epitaph, written by Gongcheng Yi (d.u.), Cunjiang’s surname was Kong and his family was descended from Confucius. Cunjiang was born at Youzhou in Hebei. He entered his monastic life at the age of 7 and was officially ordained at the age of 21. In 861, he became Linji’s disciple in Zhenzhou. After leaving Linji, he made an extended pilgrimage to the south, including a visit to Yangshan Huiji, who admired his exceptional understanding. Upon hearing that Linji was leaving Zhenzhou, Cunjiang returned to the north, accompanied Linji to Weizhou, and remained there until Linji’s death. Later, he rejected the invitation to return to Youzhou, accepted a continuation of his stay in the city of Wei, and moved to a new temple built by the governor for him. He died in 888. Cunjiang was also considered by the tradition to be the editor of the Linji Lu. The later development of the Linji school was basically from his l
ineage.

  XINGJIAO

  This Chinese word includes the meaning of “travel” or “pilgrimage,” an important method of Chan practice. As its oft-used Chinese synonym youfang (“travel from place to place”) in Chan literature indicates, for students of Chan, xingjiao has no fixed place as its goal. It is a homeless peregrination, a wandering from one place to the other, its destination singular or plural, in search of a master, a spiritual inspiration, or a kind of triggering experience, for the realization of personal enlightenment. There is a dialectic between the journey (or the path) and its goal, between freedom and constraint. For many students, the xingjiao is an open-ended process, and this transformative process constitutes the nature of their “quest.” A student’s planned visit to a sacred site could be subverted by his or her traveling experiences. On the other hand, each travel experience has its own constraints, being conditioned and influenced by time and each particular place and its environment, or structured by popular ideas or patterns. Thus, emphasis was placed on breaking with a plan or pattern, on encountering with or discovering living Buddhas or patriarchs within each unique individual experience. This perhaps explains why many accomplished “students” often stayed with different masters, visited different places, and returned to the xingjiao even after becoming abbots.

  XINGSHAN WEIKUAN (754–817)

  A native of Xin’an in Quzhou (in present-day Zhejiang), whose family name was Zhu, Weikuan was one of Mazu Daoyi’s disciples. He entered a monastery when he was age 12 and received the monastery precepts at the age of 23. Having studied the Vinaya and the Tiantai teaching of calming and contemplation, he went to Hongzhou to study with Mazu. After Mazu’s death, he went to the Minyue area (parts of present-day Fujian and Zhejiang) to preach. In 797, he arrived at Shaolin Temple on Mount Song. In 805 and 806, he appeared at Weiguo Temple and Tiangong Temple in Luoyang. In 809, Emperor Xianzong (r. 805–820) invited Weikuan to the capital to preach at the imperial court. Weikuan took up residence at Anguo Temple in Chang’an. The following year, he was invited to lecture to the emperor at the Linde Hall. Later he moved to Xingshan Temple, one of the largest official monasteries in Chang’an, and remained there until his death.

  In his last years, he attracted a large number of monastic and lay disciples, including many officials and literati, and emerged as one of the most influential Chan teachers in the capital. According to his epitaph, written by Bai Juyi (772–846), one of his famous lay disciples, he was a charismatic figure with superhuman powers and had over 1,000 disciples. In his instruction on “true cultivation” to Bai Juyi, he advised the latter “not to move” and “not to forget things,” contrary to many Chan masters’ popular sayings on “moving long with things” and “being forgetful.” His influence helped to advance the recognition of Mazu and the Hongzhou school’s orthodoxy. It was when Weikuan’s prestige in Chang’an was at its peak that Emperor Xianzong granted an honorary posthumous title to Mazu, “Chan Master of Great Tranquility.”

  XITANG ZHIZANG (735–814)

  A Chinese Chan monk in the Tang dynasty, he was one of the most senior disciples of Mazu Daoyi. Chan chronicles often describe him as one of Mazu’s two leading disciples, along with Baizhang Huaihai. In Mazu’s epitaph, Zhizang was ranked second, following only Dazhu Huihai, in the list of Mazu’s senior disciples. However, Chan sources provide little information about the biography of Zhizang. His own epitaph was not widely circulated and was not included in the standard collections of documents from the Tang dynasty. Except for a few short stories about Zhizang preserved in some Chan texts, of questionable provenances, there are no extant records of his teachings.

  His family name was Liao. He was born in Qianzhou (present-day Ganzhou) in Jiangxi province. At the age of 8, he entered monastic life. At the age of 12, he joined his teacher Mazu at Xili Mountain and then followed Mazu to Gonggong Mountain. At the age of 23, he received full monastic ordination. When Mazu received the invitation to take up residence in Hongzhou, Mazu let Zhizang be in charge of the monastery at Gonggong Mountain. Zhizang spent his last years there and died at the age of 79. In 824, Emperor Muzong (r. 820–824) granted him the posthumous title Dajue (“great awakening”). His lay disciples included some powerful local officials, and some reputed founders of Korean Chan/Sŏn schools were among his disciples.

  XIUXIN YAOLUN

  Treatise on the Essentials of Cultivating the Mind, an early Chan text of instructions on meditation practice attributed to the fifth patriarch of Chan, Hongren. Like his teacher Daoxin, Hongren taught his approach of meditation without writing down any words. It was his students who recorded his teaching, creating the basis for this text, which was discovered among the Dunhuang documents in the 20th century. An important idea in this text is “maintaining [the awareness of] the mind” (shouxin). It means to be constantly aware of, or concentrate on, the true mind or Buddha-nature in meditation. By maintaining the awareness of the mind without false thoughts or illusions, the true mind or Buddha-nature will, like the sun, shine forth naturally. However, there is a tension between this inherent perfection of human existence and the necessary struggle for the realization of enlightenment to many beginners. To achieve shouxin thus requires vigorous effort in meditation, involving the visualization of the golden orb of the sun (the image of Buddha-nature or enlightenment) and calmly observing the clouds, or dusts of ignorance, that cover the sun until they cease to function. The result is an undistorted contact with the everyday world through the undeluded mind. The teaching of shouxin is a further development of the themes first elaborated by Bodhidharma’s Erru Sixing Lun. The way Hongren uses the metaphor of the sun and clouds is also reminiscent of the metaphor of mirror and dusts used in a similar fashion by the Platform Sūtra.

  XUANSHA SHIBEI (835–908)

  A Chan master of the Xuefeng Yicun lineage in the Tang dynasty, Shibei was a native of Fuzhou in Fujian. His family name was Xie. In 860, Shibei left home to study with the Chan master Lingxun (d.u.) of the Mazu lineage at Mount Furong. In 864, he received official ordination from the preceptor, Daoxuan, at Kaiyuan Temple in Jiangxi. A year later, he met his dharma brother, Xuefeng Yichun, and their relationship became almost like teacher and student. Shibei achieved enlightenment by reading the Lengyan Jing (Śūraṃgama Sūtra), and his strict practice of asceticism won him the nickname “Bei Toutuo.” He took up residence at Puying Monastery after leaving Yichun, then moved to Xuansha Monastery, where he taught and practiced for many years. He received the honorific title “Great Master of the Best from Tradition” (Zongyi Dashi) from the king of Min. Among his 13 disciples, Luohan Guichen (867–928) was the teacher of Fayan Wenyi, the founder of the Fayan school.

  Shibei’s sayings were preserved in the Xuansha Guanglu and the Xuansha Shibei Chanshi Yulu. Among his teachings, the formulation “three sentences of principle (sanju gangzong)” was most influential. It includes three perspectives or stages of the realization of true suchness in a dialectical or deconstructive relationship. The first perspective acknowledges the usefulness and limitation of seeing Buddha-nature through one’s ordinary cognitive activities. The second perspective places emphasis on the original nature (yuanchang) of going beyond ordinary activities of affirmation and negation. With the realization of emptiness and true suchness, the third perspective attains the harmonization and free functioning of all everyday activities. This combination of the Lengyan Jing’s theory of Buddha-nature with the Huayan notion of the non-obstruction of all phenomena became the precursor for the teaching of the Fayan school. Scholars have noted the structural similarity between Baizhang Huaihai’s “three sentences” and Shibei’s. Both represent the post-Mazu approach of Chan to the problems of misunderstanding of Mazu’s identification between ordinary activities and Buddha-nature.

  XUEDOU CHONGXIAN (980–1052)

  A Chan master of the Song dynasty, Chongxian was a native of Suizhou (in present-day Sichuan). His family name was Li. He was ordained at Pu’an Temple in Chengdu. He studied
with the Linji Chan master Guyin Yuncong (965–1032) in Xiangzhou (in present-day Hubei) for three years. Later, he studied with the Yunmen Chan master Zhimen Guangzuo (d.u.) for five years in Fuzhou (in present-day Hubei) and reached enlightenment under Guangzuo’s instruction. After leaving Guangzuo, he continued to practice at Luohan Temple on Mount Lu, Jingde Temple in Chizhou (in present-day Anhui), and Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou. With the support of Zenghui (952–1033), a local official and his old friend, Chongxian became abbot at Cuifeng Chan Temple in Suzhou. He was then invited to take up residence at Zisheng Temple on Mount Xuedou (in present-day Zhejiang). He preached there for about 29 years and achieved great fame. Emperor Renzong (r. 1022–1063) granted him a purple robe and honored him as Mingjue Dashi (“Great Master of Illumination and Enlightenment”). He died at the age of 73. His epitaph, written by an official, Lu Xiaqing (1015–1068), reported that he had 150 disciples. Among them, 11 are famous. Chongxian’s success had been called a renaissance of the Yunmen school in the Song, although his epitaph assigned him to the ninth generation of Mazu’s lineage.

  His sermons and short conversations at different temples, prosaic and poetic commentaries on old cases (jugu and niangu), and other poems (jizan) were preserved in the Mingjue Chanshi Yulu of six fascicles, compiled by his disciples. He is famous for authoring his Verses on One Hundred Old Cases (Songgu Baize, also called Xuedou Songgu), which became the foundation for Yuanwu Keqin’s Blue Cliff Record, a further commentary on these verses and the cases Chongxian chose. Chongxian’s Songgu Baize is often considered one of the earliest examples of a new Chan genre—the gong’an literature—and the Song “Chan of letters and words” (wenzi Chan), even though Chongxian, at the same time, still preached the central Chan notion that the true dharma is beyond words and expressions. The key to understanding the relationship of these two sides of a Chan master like Chongxian could be what Yuanwu Keqin characterized as “raolu shuochan (to take a detour in talking about Chan),” an indirect way of expressing the inexpressible for helping students.