fbpx
Wikipedia

Chan Buddhism

January 19, 2023

This article is about Chan/Zen Buddhism in China. For an overview of the school, see Zen.
"Chan school" redirects here. For the Harvard University public health school, see Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Chan (traditional Chinese: 禪; simplified Chinese: 禅; pinyin: Chán; abbr. of Chinese: 禪那; pinyin: chánnà), from Sanskrit dhyāna[1] (meaning "meditation" or "meditative state"[2]), is a Chinese school of Mahāyāna Buddhism. It developed in China from the 6th century CE onwards, becoming especially popular during the Tang and Song dynasties.[3]

Chinese Buddha Character Fo
Chan Buddhism
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese禅
Traditional Chinese禪
Vietnamese name
VietnameseThiền
Hán-Nôm禪
Korean name
Hangul선
Hanja禪
Transcriptions
Revised RomanizationSeon
Japanese name
Kanji禅
Hiraganaぜん
Transcriptions
RomanizationZen

Chan is the originating tradition of Zen Buddhism (the Japanese pronunciation of the same character, which is the most commonly used English name for the school). Chan Buddhism spread from China south to Vietnam as Thiền and north to Korea as Seon, and, in the 13th century, east to Japan as Japanese Zen.

History

See also: Silk Road transmission of Buddhism

The historical records required for a complete, accurate account of early Chan history no longer exist.[4]

Periodisation

The history of Chan in China can be divided into several periods. Zen, as we know it today, is the result of a long history, with many changes and contingent factors. Each period had different types of Zen, some of which remained influential while others vanished.[5][6]

Ferguson distinguishes three periods from the 5th century into the 13th century:

  1. The Legendary period, from Bodhidharma in the late 5th century to the An Lushan Rebellion around 765 CE, in the middle of the Tang dynasty. Little written information is left from this period.[7] It is the time of the Six Patriarchs, including Bodhidharma and Huineng, and the legendary "split" between the Northern and the Southern School of Chan.[5]
  2. The Classical period, from the end of the An Lushan Rebellion around 765 CE to the beginning of the Song dynasty around 950 CE.[7] This is the time of the great masters of Chan, such as Mazu Daoyi and Linji Yixuan, and the creation of the yü-lü genre, the recordings of the sayings and teachings of these great masters.
  3. The Literary period, from around 950 to 1250,[7] which spans the era of the Song dynasty (960–1279). In this time the gong'an-collections were compiled, collections of sayings and deeds by the famous masters, appended with poetry and commentary. This genre reflects the influence of literati on the development of Chan. This period idealized the previous period as the "golden age" of Chan, producing the literature in which the spontaneity of the celebrated masters was portrayed.

Although McRae has reservations about the division of Chan history in phases or periods,[8] he nevertheless distinguishes four phases in the history of Chan:[9]

  1. Proto-Chan (c. 500–600) (Southern and Northern Dynasties (420 to 589) and Sui dynasty (589–618 CE)). In this phase, Chan developed in multiple locations in northern China. It was based on the practice of dhyana and is connected to the figures of Bodhidharma and Huike. Its principal text is the Two Entrances and Four Practices, attributed to Bodhidharma.[10]
  2. Early Chan (c. 600–900) (Tang dynasty (618–907 CE)). In this phase, Chan took its first clear contours. Prime figures are the fifth patriarch Daman Hongren (601–674), his dharma-heir Yuquan Shenxiu (606?–706), the sixth patriarch Huineng (638–713), protagonist of the quintessential Platform Sutra, and Shenhui (670–762), whose propaganda elevated Huineng to the status of sixth patriarch. Prime factions are the Northern School, Southern School and Oxhead School.[11]
  3. Middle Chan (c. 750–1000) (from An Lushan Rebellion (755–763) until Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (907–960/979)). In this phase developed the well-known Chan of the iconoclastic zen-masters. Prime figures are Mazu Daoyi (709–788), Shitou Xiqian (710–790), Linji Yixuan (died 867), and Xuefeng Yicun (822–908). Prime factions are the Hongzhou school and the Hubei faction.[note 1] An important text is the Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall (952), which contains many "encounter-stories" and the canon genealogy of the Chan-school.[14]
  4. Song dynasty Chan (c. 950–1300). In this phase, Chan took its definitive shape including the picture of the "golden age" of the Chan of the Tang-dynasty, and the use of koans for individual study and meditation. Prime figures are Dahui Zonggao (1089–1163) who introduced the Hua Tou practice and Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091–1157) who emphasized Shikantaza. Prime factions are the Linji school and the Caodong school. The classic koan-collections, such as the Blue Cliff Record were assembled in this period,[15] which reflect the influence of the "literati" on the development of Chan.[16][17] In this phase Chan is transported to Japan, and exerts a great influence on Korean Seon via Jinul.

Neither Ferguson nor McRae gives a periodisation for Chinese Chan following the Song-dynasty, though McRae mentions

[5.] "at least a postclassical phase or perhaps multiple phases".[18][note 2]

Introduction of Buddhism in China (c. 200–500)

See also: Han dynasty, Silk Road transmission of Buddhism, and Six Dynasties

Sinification of Buddhism and Taoist influences

When Buddhism came to China, it was adapted to the Chinese culture and understanding. Theories about the influence of other schools in the evolution of Chan vary widely and are heavily reliant upon speculative correlation rather than on written records or histories. Some scholars have argued that Chan developed from the interaction between Mahāyāna Buddhism and Taoism,[20][21][22][23] while one believes that Chan has roots in yogic practices, specifically kammaṭṭhāna, the consideration of objects, and kasiṇa, total fixation of the mind.[24]

Buddhist meditation was practiced in China centuries before the rise of Chan, by people such as An Shigao (c. 148–180 CE) and his school, who translated various Dhyāna sutras (Chán-jing, 禪経, "meditation treatises"), which were influential early meditation texts mostly based on the Yogacara meditation teachings of the Sarvāstivāda school of Kashmir circa 1st-4th centuries CE.[25] The five main types of meditation in the Dhyana sutras are anapanasati (mindfulness of breathing); paṭikūlamanasikāra meditation, mindfulness of the impurities of the body; loving-kindness maitrī meditation; the contemplation on the twelve links of pratītyasamutpāda; and the contemplation on the Buddha's thirty-two Characteristics.[26] Other important translators of meditation texts were Kumārajīva (334–413 CE), who translated The Sutra on the Concentration of Sitting Meditation, amongst many other texts; and Buddhabhadra. These Chinese translations of mostly Indian Sarvāstivāda Yogacara meditation manuals were the basis for the meditation techniques of Chinese Chan.[web 1]

Buddhism was exposed to Confucian[27] and Taoist[28][29] influences when it came to China. Goddard quotes D.T. Suzuki,[note 3] calling Chan a "natural evolution of Buddhism under Taoist conditions".[30] Buddhism was first identified to be "a barbarian variant of Taoism", and Taoist terminology was used to express Buddhist doctrines in the oldest translations of Buddhist texts,[29] a practice termed ko-i, "matching the concepts".[31]

Judging from the reception by the Han of the Hinayana works and from the early commentaries, it appears that Buddhism was being perceived and digested through the medium of religious Daoism (Taoism). Buddha was seen as a foreign immortal who had achieved some form of Daoist nondeath. The Buddhists' mindfulness of the breath was regarded as an extension of Daoist breathing exercises.[32]

The first Buddhist recruits in China were Taoists.[29] They developed high esteem for the newly introduced Buddhist meditational techniques,[33] and blended them with Taoist meditation.[34] Representatives of early Chinese Buddhism like Sengzhao and Tao Sheng were deeply influenced by the Taoist keystone works of Laozi and Zhuangzi.[35] Against this background, especially the Taoist concept of naturalness was inherited by the early Chan disciples:[36] they equated – to some extent – the ineffable Tao and Buddha-nature,[37] and thus, rather than feeling bound to the abstract "wisdom of the sūtras", emphasized Buddha-nature to be found in "everyday" human life, just as the Tao.[37]

Chinese Buddhism absorbed Neo-Daoist concepts as well.[31] Concepts such as T'i-yung (體用 Essence and Function) and Li-shih (理事 Noumenon and Phenomenon, or Principle and Practice) first appeared in Hua-yen Buddhism,[31] which consequently influenced Chan deeply.[38] On the other hand, Taoists at first misunderstood sunyata to be akin to the Taoist non-being.[39]

The emerging Chinese Buddhism nevertheless had to compete with Taoism and Confucianism:[27]

Because Buddhism was a foreign influence, however, and everything "barbarian" was suspect, certain Chinese critics were jolted out of complacency by the spread of the dharma [...] In the first four centuries of the Christian Era, this barbarian influence was infiltrating China just when it was least politically stable and more vulnerable to sedition. As the philosophy and practice infiltrated society, many traditionalists banded together to stop the foreign influence, not so much out of intolerance (an attitude flatly rejected by both Taoism and Confucianism), but because they felt that the Chinese worldview was being turned upside down.[27]

One point of confusion for this new emerging Chinese Buddhism was the two truths doctrine. Chinese thinking took this to refer to two ontological truths: reality exists on two levels, a relative level and an absolute level.[40] Taoists at first misunderstood sunyata to be akin to the Taoist non-being.[41] In Indian Madhyamaka philosophy the two truths are two epistemological truths: two different ways to look at reality. Based on their understanding of the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra the Chinese supposed that the teaching of Buddha-nature was, as stated by that sutra, the final Buddhist teaching, and that there is an essential truth above sunyata and the two truths.[42]

Divisions of training

When Buddhism came to China, there were three divisions of training:

  1. The training in virtue and discipline in the precepts (Skt. śīla),
  2. The training in mind through meditation (Skt. dhyāna) to attain a luminous and non-reactive state of mind, and
  3. The training in the recorded teachings (Skt. Dharma).

It was in this context that Buddhism entered into Chinese culture. Three types of teachers with expertise in each training practice developed:

  1. Vinaya masters specialized in all the rules of discipline for monks and nuns,
  2. Dhyāna masters specialized in the practice of meditation, and
  3. Dharma masters specialized in the mastery of the Buddhist texts.

Monasteries and practice centers were created that tended to focus on either the Vinaya and training of monks or the teachings focused on one scripture or a small group of texts. Dhyāna (Chan) masters tended to practice in solitary hermitages, or to be associated with Vinaya training monasteries or the dharma teaching centers. The later naming of the Zen school has its origins in this view of the threefold division of training.

McRae goes so far as to say:

... one important feature must not be overlooked: Chan was not nearly as separate from these other types of Buddhist activities as one might think [...] [T]he monasteries of which Chan monks became abbots were comprehensive institutions, "public monasteries" that supported various types of Buddhist activities other than Chan-style meditation. The reader should bear this point in mind: In contrast to the independent denominations of Soto and Rinzai that emerged (largely by government fiat) in seventeenth-century Japan, there was never any such thing as an institutionally separate Chan "school" at any time in Chinese Buddhist history (emphasis McRae).[43]

Legendary or Proto-Chan (c. 500–600)

See also: Southern and Northern Dynasties and Sui dynasty

Mahākāśyapa and the Flower Sermon

The Chan tradition ascribes the origins of Chan in India to the Flower Sermon, the earliest source for which comes from the 14th century.[44] It is said that Gautama Buddha gathered his disciples one day for a Dharma talk. When they gathered together, the Buddha was completely silent and some speculated that perhaps the Buddha was tired or ill. The Buddha silently held up and twirled a flower and his eyes twinkled; several of his disciples tried to interpret what this meant, though none of them were correct. One of the Buddha's disciples, Mahākāśyapa, gazed at the flower and smiled. The Buddha then acknowledged Mahākāśyapa's insight by saying the following:[24]

I possess the true Dharma eye, the marvelous mind of Nirvāṇa, the true form of the formless, the subtle Dharma gate that does not rest on words or letters but is a special transmission outside of the scriptures. This I entrust to Mahākāśyapa.

First six patriarchs (c. 500 – early 8th century)

Main article: Lineage (Buddhism)

Traditionally the origin of Chan in China is credited to Bodhidharma, an Iranian-language speaking Central Asian monk[45] or an Indian monk.[46] The story of his life, and of the Six Patriarchs, was constructed during the Tang dynasty to lend credibility to the growing Chan-school.[5] Only scarce historical information is available about him, but his hagiography developed when the Chan tradition grew stronger and gained prominence in the early 8th century. By this time a lineage of the six ancestral founders of Chan in China was developed.[47]

The actual origins of Chan may lie in ascetic practitioners of Buddhism, who found refuge in forests and mountains.[48] Huike, "a dhuta (extreme ascetic) who schooled others"[48] and used the Srimala Sutra,[49] one of the Tathāgatagarbha sūtras ,[50] figures in the stories about Bodhidharma. Huike is regarded as the second Chan patriarch, appointed by Bodhidharma to succeed him. One of Huike's students, Sengcan, to whom is ascribed the Xinxin Ming, is regarded as the third patriarch.

By the late 8th century, under the influence of Huineng's student Shenhui, the traditional list of patriarchs of the Chan lineage had been established:[47]

  1. Bodhidharma (達摩) c. 440 – c. 528
  2. Dazu Huike (慧可) 487–593
  3. Sengcan (僧燦) ?–606
  4. Dayi Daoxin (道信) 580–651
  5. Daman Hongren (弘忍) 601–674
  6. Huineng (惠能) 638–713

In later writings, this lineage was extended to include 28 Indian patriarchs. In the Song of Enlightenment (證道歌 Zhèngdào gē) of Yongjia Xuanjue (永嘉玄覺, 665–713), one of the chief disciples of Huìnéng, it is written that Bodhidharma was the 28th patriarch in a line of descent from Mahākāśyapa, a disciple of Śākyamuni Buddha, and the first patriarch of Chan Buddhism.[51]

Mahākāśyapa was the first, leading the line of transmission;
Twenty-eight Fathers followed him in the West;
The Lamp was then brought over the sea to this country;
And Bodhidharma became the First Father here:
His mantle, as we all know, passed over six Fathers,
And by them many minds came to see the Light.[52]

Lankavatara Sutra

In its beginnings in China, Chan primarily referred to the Mahāyāna sūtras and especially to the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra.[53] As a result, early masters of the Chan tradition were referred to as "Laṅkāvatāra masters". As the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra teaches the doctrine of the Ekayāna "One Vehicle", the early Chan school was sometimes referred to as the "One Vehicle School".[54] In other early texts, the school that would later become known as Chan is sometimes even referred to as simply the "Laṅkāvatāra school" (Ch. 楞伽宗, Léngqié Zōng).[55] Accounts recording the history of this early period are to be found in the Records of the Laṅkāvatāra Masters (Chinese: 楞伽師資記).

Bodhidharma

Main article: Bodhidharma
 
Bodhidharma with Dazu Huike. Painting by Sesshū Tōyō, 15th century.

Bodhidharma is recorded as having come into China during the time of Southern and Northern Dynasties to teach a "special transmission outside scriptures" which "did not stand upon words".[56] Throughout Buddhist art, Bodhidharma is depicted as a rather ill-tempered, profusely bearded and wide-eyed barbarian. He is referred to as "The Blue-Eyed Barbarian" (碧眼胡:Bìyǎn hú) in Chinese Chan texts.[web 2] Only scarce historical information is available about him but his hagiography developed when the Chan tradition grew stronger and gained prominence in the early 8th century. By this time a lineage of the six ancestral founders of Chan in China was developed.[5]

Little contemporary biographical information on Bodhidharma is extant, and subsequent accounts became layered with legend.[47] There are three principal sources for Bodhidharma's biography:[57] The Record of the Buddhist Monasteries of Luoyang by Yáng Xuànzhī's (楊衒之, 547), Tan Lin's preface to the Long Scroll of the Treatise on the Two Entrances and Four Practices (6th century CE), and Dayi Daoxin's Further Biographies of Eminent Monks (7th century CE).

These sources vary in their account of Bodhidharma being either "from Persia" (547 CE), "a Brahman monk from South India" (645 CE), "the third son of a Brahman king of South India" (c. 715 CE).[47] Some traditions specifically describe Bodhidharma to be the third son of a Pallava king from Kanchipuram.[web 3][58]

The Long Scroll of the Treatise on the Two Entrances and Four Practices written by Tan Lin (曇林; 506–574), contains teachings that are attributed to Bodhidharma. The text is known from the Dunhuang manuscripts. The two entrances to enlightenment are the entrance of principle and the entrance of practice:

The entrance of principle is to become enlightened to the Truth on the basis of the teaching. One must have a profound faith in the fact that one and the same True Nature is possessed by all sentient beings, both ordinary and enlightened, and that this True Nature is only covered up and made imperceptible [in the case of ordinary people] by false sense impressions".[59]

The entrance of practice includes the following four increments:

  1. Practice of the retribution of enmity: to accept all suffering as the fruition of past transgressions, without enmity or complaint
  2. Practice of the acceptance of circumstances: to remain unmoved even by good fortune, recognizing it as evanescent
  3. Practice of the absence of craving: to be without craving, which is the source of all suffering
  4. Practice of accordance with the Dharma: to eradicate wrong thoughts and practice the six perfections, without having any "practice".[60]

This text was used and studied by Huike and his students. The True Nature refers to the Buddha-nature.[59]

Huike

Bodhidharma settled in Northern Wei China. Shortly before his death, Bodhidharma appointed his disciple Dazu Huike to succeed him, making Huike the first Chinese-born ancestral founder and the second ancestral founder of Chan in China. Bodhidharma is said to have passed three items to Huike as a sign of transmission of the Dharma: a robe, a bowl, and a copy of the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra. The transmission then passed to the second ancestral founder Dazu Huike, the third Sengcan, the fourth ancestral founder Dayi Daoxin, and the fifth ancestral founder Daman Hongren.

Early Chan in Tang China (c. 600–900)

East Mountain Teachings

With the fourth patriarch, Daoxin (道信 580–651),[61] Chan began to take shape as a distinct school. The link between Huike and Sengcan, and the fourth patriarch Daoxin "is far from clear and remains tenuous".[48] With Daoxin and his successor, the fifth patriarch Hongren (弘忍 601–674), there emerged a new style of teaching, which was inspired by the Chinese text Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana.[61] According to John R. McRae the "first explicit statement of the sudden and direct approach that was to become the hallmark of Ch'an religious practice" is associated with the East Mountain School.[62] It is a method named "Maintaining the one without wavering" (shou-i pu i, 守一不移),[62] the one being the nature of mind, which is equated with Buddha-nature.[63] In this practice, one turns the attention from the objects of experience, to the perceiving subject itself.[64] According to McRae, this type of meditation resembles the methods of "virtually all schools of Mahayana Buddhism," but differs in that "no preparatory requirements, no moral prerequisites or preliminary exercises are given," and is "without steps or gradations. One concentrates, understands, and is enlightened, all in one undifferentiated practice."[62][note 4] Sharf notes that the notion of "Mind" came to be criticised by radical subitists, and was replaced by "No Mind," to avoid any reifications.[66][note 5]

A large group of students gathered at a permanent residence, and extreme asceticism became outdated.[48] The period of Daoxin and Hongren came to be called the East Mountain Teaching, due to the location of the residence of Hongren at Huangmei.[68][5] The term was used by Yuquan Shenxiu (神秀 606?–706), the most important successor to Hongren.[69] By this time the group had grown into a matured congregation that became significant enough to be reckoned with by the ruling forces.[61] The East Mountain community was a specialized meditation training centre. Hongren was a plain meditation teacher, who taught students of "various religious interests", including "practitioners of the Lotus Sutra, students of Madhyamaka philosophy, or specialists in the monastic regulations of Buddhist Vinaya".[70] The school was typified by a "loose practice,"[71] aiming to make meditation accessible to a larger audience.[71] Shenxiu used short formulas extracted from various sutras to package the teachings,[71] a style which is also used in the Platform Sutra.[71] The establishment of a community in one location was a change from the wandering lives of Bodhidharma and Huike and their followers.[70] It fitted better into the Chinese society, which highly valued community-oriented behaviour, instead of solitary practice.[72]

In 701 Shenxiu was invited to the Imperial Court by Zhou Empress Wu Zetian, who paid him due to imperial reverence. The first lineage documents were produced in this period:

[T]he genealogical presentation of the Chan transmission was first recorded on paper in the early years of metropolitan Chan activity. The earliest recorded instance of this was in the epitaph for a certain Faru, a student of Hongren's who died in 689, and by the second decade of the 8th century, the later followers of Hongren had produced two separate texts describing the transmission from Bodhidharma to Shenxiu.[73]

The transition from the East Mountain to the two capitals changed the character of Chan:

[I]t was only when Hongren's successors moved into the environment of the two capitals, with its literate society and incomparably larger urban scale, that well-written texts were required for disseminating the teaching.[74]

Members of the "East Mountain Teaching" shifted the alleged scriptural basis, realizing that the Awakening of Faith is not a sutra but a sastra, commentary, and fabricated a lineage of Lankavatara Sutra masters, as being the sutra that preluded the Awakening of Faith.[49]

Southern School – Huineng and Shenhui

 
Huineng tearing sutras
See also: Subitism

According to tradition, the sixth and last ancestral founder, Huineng (惠能; 638–713), was one of the giants of Chan history, and all surviving schools regard him as their ancestor.[75] The dramatic story of Huineng's life tells that there was a controversy over his claim to the title of patriarch. After being chosen by Hongren, the fifth ancestral founder, Huineng had to flee by night to Nanhua Temple in the south to avoid the wrath of Hongren's jealous senior disciples.

Modern scholarship, however, has questioned this narrative. Historic research reveals that this story was created around the middle of the 8th century, as part of a campaign to win influence at the Imperial Court in 731 by a successor to Huineng called Shenhui. He claimed Huineng to be the successor of Hongren instead of Shenxiu, the recognized successor.[47] A dramatic story of Huineng's life was created, as narrated in the Platform Sutra, which tells that there was a contest for the transmission of the title of patriarch. After being chosen by Hongren, the fifth patriarch, Huineng had to flee by night to Nanhua Temple in the south to avoid the wrath of Hongren's jealous senior disciples.[5][68] Shenhui succeeded in his campaign, and Huineng eventually came to be regarded as the Sixth Patriarch.[68][5] In 745 Shenhui was invited to take up residence in the Heze Temple in the capital, Dongdu (modern Luoyang) In 753, he fell out of grace and had to leave Dongdu to go into exile.

The most prominent of the successors of Shenhui's lineage was Guifeng Zongmi.[76] According to Zongmi, Shenhui's approach was officially sanctioned in 796, when "an imperial commission determined that the Southern line of Ch'an represented the orthodox transmission and established Shen-hui as the seventh patriarch, placing an inscription to that effect in the Shen-lung temple".[77]

Doctrinally, Shenhui's "Southern School" is associated with the teaching that enlightenment is sudden while the "Northern" or East Mountain school is associated with the teaching that enlightenment is gradual. This was a polemical exaggeration since both schools were derived from the same tradition, and the so-called Southern School incorporated many teachings of the more influential Northern School.[47] Eventually both schools died out, but the influence of Shenhui was so immense that all later Chan schools traced their origin to Huineng, and "sudden enlightenment" became a standard doctrine of Chan.[47]

Shenhui's influence is traceable in the Platform Sutra, which gives a popular account of the story of Huineng but also reconciles the antagonism created by Shenhui. Salient is that Shenhui himself does not figure in the Platform Sutra; he was effectively written out of Chan history.[78] The Platform Sutra also reflects the growing popularity of the Diamond Sūtra (Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra) in 8th-century Chinese Buddhism.[79][80] Thereafter, the essential texts of the Chan school were often considered to be both the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra and the Diamond Sūtra.[81] The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, which endorses the Buddha-nature, emphasized purity of mind, which can be attained in gradations. The Diamond-sutra emphasizes sunyata, which "must be realized totally or not at all".[80] David Kalupahana associates the later Caodong school (Japanese Sōtō, gradual) and Linji school (Japanese Rinzai school, sudden) schools with the Yogacara and Madhyamaka philosophies respectively.[82] The same comparison has been made by McRae.[83] The Madhyamaka school elaborated on the theme of śūnyatā, which was set forth in the prajnaparamita sutras, to which the Diamond Sutra also belongs.[82] The shift from the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra to the Diamond Sutra also signifies a tension between Buddha-nature teachings, which imply a transcendental reality, versus śūnyatā, which denies such a transcendental reality.

Tibetan Chan

Chinese Chan Buddhist teachers such as Moheyan first went to Tibet in the eighth century during the height of the Tibetan Empire.[84] There seems to have been disputes between them and Indian Buddhists, as exemplified by the Samye debate. Many Tibetan Chan texts have been recovered from the caves at Dunhuang, where Chan and Tantric Buddhists lived side by side and this led to religious syncretism in some cases.[85] Chan Buddhism survived in Tibet for several centuries,[86] but had mostly been replaced by the 10th century developments in Tibetan Buddhism. According to Sam Van Schaik:

After the 'dark period', all visible influences of Chan were eliminated from Tibetan Buddhism, and Mahayoga and Chan were carefully distinguished from each other. This trend can already be observed in the tenth-century Lamp for the Eyes in Contemplation by the great central Tibetan scholar Gnubs chen Sangs rgyas ye shes. This influential work represented a crucial step in the codification of Chan, Mahayoga and the Great Perfection as distinct vehicles to enlightenment. In comparison, our group of [Dunhuang] manuscripts exhibits remarkable freedom, blurring the lines between meditation systems that were elsewhere kept quite distinct. The system of practice set out in these manuscripts did not survive into the later Tibetan tradition. Indeed, this creative integration of meditation practices derived from both Indic and Chinese traditions could only have been possible during the earliest years of Tibetan Buddhism, when doctrinal categories were still forming, and in this sense, it represents an important stage in the Tibetan assimilation of Buddhism.[85]

Classical or Middle Chan – Tang dynasty (c. 750–1000)

Daoxin, Hongren, Shenxiu, Huineng and Shenhui all lived during the early Tang. The later period of the Tang dynasty is traditionally regarded as the "golden age" of Chan. This proliferation is described in a famous saying:[87]

Look at the territory of the house of Tang —
The whole of it is the realm of the Chan school.

An Lu-shan rebellion

The An Lushan Rebellion (755–763) led to a loss of control by the Tang dynasty, and changed the Chan scene again. Metropolitan Chan began to lose its status, while "other schools were arising in outlying areas controlled by warlords. These are the forerunners of the Chan we know today. Their origins are obscure; the power of Shen-hui's preaching is shown by the fact that they all trace themselves to Hui-neng."[88]

Hung-chou School

Main article: Hongzhou school
 
Rinzai

The most important of these schools is the Hongzhou school (洪州宗) of Mazu, to which also belong Shitou, Baizhang Huaihai, Huangbo and Linji (Rinzai). Linji is also regarded as the founder of one of the Five Houses.

This school developed "shock techniques such as shouting, beating, and using irrational retorts to startle their students into realization".[89][51] Some of these are common today, while others are found mostly in anecdotes. It is common in many Chan traditions today for Chan teachers to have a stick with them during formal ceremonies which is a symbol of authority and which can be also used to strike on the table during a talk.

These shock techniques became part of the traditional and still popular image of Chan masters displaying irrational and strange behaviour to aid their students.[47][90] Part of this image was due to later misinterpretations and translation errors, such as the loud belly shout known as katsu. "Katsu" means "to shout", which has traditionally been translated as "yelled 'katsu'" – which should mean "yelled a yell".[web 4]

A well-known story depicts Mazu practicing dhyana, but being rebuked by his teacher Nanyue Huairang, comparing seated meditation with polishing a tile.[91] According to Faure, the criticism is not about dhyana as such, but "the idea of "becoming a Buddha" by means of any practice, lowered to the standing of a "means" to achieve an "end"".[91] The criticism of seated dhyana reflects a change in the role and position of monks in Tang society, who "undertook only pious works, reciting sacred texts and remaining seated in dhyana".[92] Nevertheless, seated dhyana remained an important part of the Chan tradition, also due to the influence of Guifeng Zongmi, who tried to balance dhyana and insight.[92]

The Hung-chou school has been criticised for its radical subitism. Guifeng Zongmi (圭峰 宗密) (780–841), an influential teacher-scholar and patriarch of both the Chan and the Huayan school, claimed that the Hongzhou school teaching led to a radical nondualism that denies the need for spiritual cultivation and moral discipline. While Zongmi acknowledged that the essence of Buddha-nature and its functioning in the day-to-day reality are but different aspects of the same reality, he insisted that there is a difference.[93]

Shitou Xiqian

Traditionally Shítóu Xīqiān (Ch. 石頭希遷, c. 700 – c.790) is seen as the other great figure of this period. In the Chan lineages he is regarded as the predecessor of the Caodong (Sōtō) school.[94] He is also regarded as the author of the Sandokai, a poem which formed the basis for the Song of the Precious Mirror Samadhi of Dongshan Liangjie (Jp. Tōzan Ryōkan) and the teaching of the Five Ranks.[95][96]

The Great Persecution

During 845–846 Emperor Wuzong persecuted the Buddhist schools in China:

It was a desperate attempt on the part of the hard-pressed central government, which had been in disarray since the An Lu-shan rebellion of 756, to gain some measure of political, economic, and military relief by preying on the Buddhist temples with their immense wealth and extensive lands.[97]

This persecution was devastating for metropolitan Chan, but the Chan school of Ma-tsu and his likes had survived, and took a leading role in the Chan of the later Tang.[97]

Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period (907–960/979)

See also: Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period

After the fall of the Tang dynasty, China was without effective central control during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. China was divided into several autonomous regions. Support for Buddhism was limited to a few areas. The Hua-yen and T'ient-tai schools suffered from the changing circumstances, since they had depended on imperial support. The collapse of T'ang society also deprived the aristocratic classes of wealth and influence, which meant a further drawback for Buddhism. Shenxiu's Northern School and Henshui's Southern School didn't survive the changing circumstances. Nevertheless, Chan emerged as the dominant stream within Chinese Buddhism, but with various schools developing various emphasises in their teachings, due to the regional orientation of the period. The Fayan school, named after Fa-yen Wen-i (885–958) became the dominant school in the southern kingdoms of Nan-T'ang (Jiangxi, Chiang-hsi) and Wuyue (Che-chiang).[98]

Literary Chan – Song dynasty (c. 960–1300)

See also: Song dynasty

The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period was followed by the Song dynasty, which established a strong central government. During the Song dynasty, Chan (禪) was used by the government to strengthen its control over the country, and Chan grew to become the largest sect in Chinese Buddhism. An ideal picture of the Chan of the Tang period was produced, which served the legacy of this newly acquired status:

In the Song dynasty (960–1279), Chinese Chan Buddhism reached something of a climax paradigm. By "climax paradigm", I mean a conceptual configuration by which Chan was described in written texts, practiced by its adherents, and by extension understood as a religious entity by the Chinese population as a whole ... Previous events in Chan were interpreted through the lens of the Song dynasty configuration, and subsequent developments in China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam were evaluated, even as they occurred, against what was known of the standards established during the Song. Thus the romanticized image of the great Tang dynasty masters – Mazu and his students, Caoshan, Dongshan, and their students, and of course Linji – was generated by Song dynasty authors and functioned within Song dynasty texts. Similarly, even where subsequent figures throughout East Asia – Hakuin Ekaku (1685–1769), the famous reviver of Japanese Rinzai, is the best example – evoke the examples of Bodhidharma, the Sixth Patriarch Huineng, Mazu, and the others, they do so through the conceptual filter of Song-dynasty Chan.[99]

Five Houses of Chan

See also: Five Houses of Chan

During the Song the Five Houses (Ch. 五家) of Chan, or five "schools", were recognized. These were not originally regarded as "schools" or "sects", but based on the various Chan-genealogies. Historically they have come to be understood as "schools".

The Five Houses of Chan are:[4]

Rise of the Linji-school

Main article: Linji school

The Linji-school became the dominant school within Chan, due to support from the literati and the court.[101] Before the Song dynasty, the Linji-school is rather obscure, and very little is known about its early history.[68] The first mention of Linji is in the Zutang ji, compiled in 952, 86 years after Linji's death.[101] But the Zutang ji pictures the Xuefeng Yicun lineage as heir to the legacy of Mazu and the Hongzhou-school.[101]

According to Welter, the real founder of the Linji-school was Shoushan (or Baoying) Shengnian (首山省念) (926–993), a fourth generation dharma-heir of Linji. The Tiansheng Guangdeng lu (天聖廣燈錄), "Tiansheng Era Expanded Lamp Record", compiled by the official Li Zunxu (李遵勗) (988–1038) confirms the status of Shoushan Shengnian, but also pictures Linji as a major Chan patriarch and heir to the Mazu, displacing the prominence of the Fayan-lineage.[101] It also established the slogan of "a special transmission outside the teaching", supporting the Linji-school claim of "Chan as separate from and superior to all other Buddhist teachings".[103]

Dahui Zonggao

Over the course of Song dynasty (960–1279), the Guiyang, Fayan, and Yunmen schools were gradually absorbed into the Linji. Song Chan was dominated by the Linji school of Dahui Zonggao, which in turn became strongly affiliated to the Imperial Court:

... the Ta-hui school of Sung Chan had become closely associated with the Sung court, high officials, and the literati [...] With the establishment of the Wu-shan (Gozan) system during the Southern Sung the school of Ta-hui took precedence. The Chinese bureaucratic system entered into Chan temples throughout the country, and a highly organized system of temple rank and administration developed.[104]

The Wu-shan system was a system of state-controlled temples, which were established by the Song government in all provinces.[105]

Koan-system

The teaching styles and words of the classical masters were recorded in the so-called "encounter dialogues".[47] Snippets of these encounter dialogues were collected in texts as the Blue Cliff Record (1125) of Yuanwu, The Gateless Gate (1228) of Wumen, both of the Linji lineage, and the Book of Equanimity (1223) by Wansong Xingxiu of the Caodong lineage.

These texts became classic gōng'àn cases, together with verse and prose commentaries, which crystallized into the systematized gōng'àn (koan) practice. According to Miura and Sasaki, "[I]t was during the lifetime of Yüan-wu's successor, Dahui Zonggao (大慧宗杲; 1089–1163) that Koan Chan entered its determinative stage."[106] Gōng'àn practice was prevalent in the Linji school, to which Yuanwu and Dahui belonged, but it was also employed on a more limited basis by the Caodong school.

The recorded encounter dialogues, and the koan collections which derived from this genre, mark a shift from solitary practice to the interaction between master and student:

The essence of enlightenment came to be identified with the interaction between masters and students. Whatever insight dhyana might bring, its verification was always interpersonal. In effect, enlightenment came to be understood not so much as an insight, but as a way of acting in the world with other people[107]

This mutual enquiry of the meaning of the encounters of masters and students of the past gave students a role model:

One looked at the enlightened activities of one's lineal forebears in order to understand one's own identity [...] taking the role of the participants and engaging in their dialogues instead[108][note 6] Koan practice was a literary practice, styling snippets of encounter-dialogue into well-edited stories. It arose in interaction with "educated literati".[109]

There were dangers involved in such a literary approach, such as fixing specific meanings to the cases.[109] Dahui Zonggao is even said to have burned the woodblocks of the Blue Cliff Record, for the hindrance it had become to study of Chan by his students[110]

Silent illumination

The Caodong was the other school to survive into the Song period. Its main protagonist was Hung-chih Cheng-chueh, a contemporary of Dahui Zonggao. It put emphasis on "silent illumination", or "just sitting". This approach was attacked by Dahui as being mere passivity, and lacking emphasis on gaining insight into one's true nature. Cheng-chueh in his turn criticized the emphasis on koan study.[111]

Post-classical Chan (c. 1300–present)

Yuan dynasty (1279–1368)

The Yuan dynasty was the empire established by Kublai Khan, the leader of the Borjigin clan, after the Mongol Empire conquered the Jin dynasty (1115–1234) and the Southern Song dynasty. Chan began to be mixed with Pure Land Buddhism as in the teachings of Zhongfeng Mingben (1263–1323). During this period, other Chan lineages, not necessarily connected with the original lineage, began to emerge with the 108th Chan Patriarch, Dhyānabhadra active in both China and Korea.[112]

Ming dynasty (1368–1644)

Chan Buddhism enjoyed something of a revival in the Ming dynasty, with teachers such as Hanshan Deqing (憨山德清), who wrote and taught extensively on both Chan and Pure Land Buddhism; Miyun Yuanwu (密雲圓悟), who came to be seen posthumously as the first patriarch of the Ōbaku school of Zen; and as Yunqi Zhuhong (雲棲祩宏) and Ouyi Zhixu (蕅益智旭).

Chan was taught alongside other Buddhist traditions such as Pure Land, Huayan, Tiantai and Chinese Esoteric Buddhism in many monasteries. In continuity with Buddhism in the previous dynasties, Buddhist masters taught integrated teachings from the various traditions as opposed to advocating for any sectarian delineation between the various schools of thought.[113][114][115]

With the downfall of the Ming, several Chan masters fled to Japan, founding the Ōbaku school.[116]

Qing dynasty (1644–1912)

At the beginning of the Qing dynasty, Chan was "reinvented", by the "revival of beating and shouting practices" by Miyun Yuanwu (1566–1642), and the publication of the Wudeng yantong ("The strict transmission of the five Chan schools") by Feiyin Tongrong's (1593–1662), a dharma heir of Miyun Yuanwu. The book placed self-proclaimed Chan monks without proper Dharma transmission in the category of "lineage unknown" (sifa weixiang), thereby excluding several prominent Caodong monks.[117]

Modernisation

19th century (late Qing dynasty)

Around 1900, Buddhists from other Asian countries showed a growing interest in Chinese Buddhism. Anagarika Dharmapala visited Shanghai in 1893,[web 5] intending "to make a tour of China, to arouse the Chinese Buddhists to send missionaries to India to restore Buddhism there, and then to start a propaganda throughout the whole world", but eventually limiting his stay to Shanghai.[web 5] Japanese Buddhist missionaries were active in China in the beginning of the 20th century.[web 5]

Republic of China (1912–1949) – First Buddhist Revival

See also: Republic of China (1912–49)
 
Traditional Chan Buddhist Grand Master Wei Chueh in Taiwan, sitting in meditation.

The modernisation of China led to the end of the Chinese Empire, and the installation of the Republic of China, which lasted on the mainland until the Communist Revolution and the installation of the People's Republic of China in 1949.

After further centuries of decline during the Qing, Chan was revived again in the early 20th century by Hsu Yun (虛雲), a well-known figure of 20th-century Chinese Buddhism. Many Chan teachers today trace their lineage to Hsu Yun, including Sheng Yen (聖嚴) and Hsuan Hua (宣化), who have propagated Chan in the West where it has grown steadily through the 20th and 21st century.

The Buddhist reformist Taixu propagated a Chan-influenced humanistic Buddhism, which is endorsed by Jing Hui, former abbot of Bailin Monastery.[118]

Until 1949, monasteries were built in the Southeast Asian countries, for example by monks of Guanghua Monastery, to spread Chinese Buddhism. Presently, Guanghua Monastery has seven branches in the Malay Peninsula and Indonesia.[web 6]

People's Republic of China (1949–present) – Second Buddhist Revival

See also: China

Chan was repressed in China during the recent modern era in the early periods of the People's Republic, but subsequently has been re-asserting itself on the mainland, and has a significant following in Taiwan and Hong Kong as well as among Overseas Chinese.

Since the Chinese economic reform of the 1970s, a new revival of Chinese Buddhism has been ongoing.[119][42][web 7][web 8] Ancient Buddhist temples, such as Bailin Monastery and Guanghua Monastery have been refurbished.

Bailin Monastery was ruined long before 1949.[118] In 1988, Jing Hui was persuaded to take over the Hebei Buddhist Association, and start rebuilding the Monastery.[118] Jing Hui is a student[118] and dharma successor[web 9] of Hsu Yun, but has also adopted the Humanistic Buddhism of Taixu.[118][note 7][note 8]

Guanghua Monastery was restored beginning in 1979, when a six-year restoration program began under the supervision of then 70-year-old Venerable Master Yuanzhou (圆拙老法师). In 1983 the temple became one of the Chinese Buddhism Regional Temples (汉族地区全国重点寺院) whilst 36-year-old Master Yiran (毅然法師) became abbot. The same year, Venerable Master Yuanzhou funded the establishment of the new Fujian Buddhism Academy (福建佛学院) on the site.

Taiwan

See also: Taiwan and Buddhism in Taiwan

Several Chinese Buddhist teachers left China during the Communist Revolution, and settled in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Sheng Yen (1930–2009) was the founder of the Dharma Drum Mountain, a Buddhist organization based in Taiwan. During his time in Taiwan, Sheng Yen was well known as one of the progressive Buddhist teachers who sought to teach Buddhism in a modern and Western-influenced world. As such, Sheng yen published over 30 Chan texts in English.[120][121][122]

Wei Chueh (1928–2016) was born in Sichuan, China, and ordained in Taiwan. In 1982, he founded Lin Quan Temple in Taipei County and became known for his teaching on Ch'an practices by offering many lectures and seven-day Ch'an retreats. His order is called Chung Tai Shan.

Two additional traditions emerged in the 1960s, based their teaching on Ch'an practices.

Cheng Yen (born 1937), a Buddhist nun, founded the Tzu Chi Foundation as a charity organization with Buddhist origins on 14 May 1966 in Hualien, Taiwan. She was inspired by her master and mentor, the late Venerable Master Yin Shun (印順導師, Yìn Shùn dǎoshī) a proponent of Humanistic Buddhism, who exhorted her to "work for Buddhism and for all sentient beings". The organisation began with a motto of "instructing the rich and saving the poor" as a group of thirty housewives who donated a small amount of money each day to care for needy families.[123]

Hsing Yun (born 1927), founded the Fo Guang Shan an international Chinese Buddhist new religious movement based in Taiwan in 1967. The order promotes Humanistic Buddhism. Fo Guang Shan also calls itself the International Buddhist Progress Society. The headquarters of Fo Guang Shan, located in Dashu District, Kaohsiung, is the largest Buddhist monastery in Taiwan. Hsing Yun's stated position within Fo Guang Shan is that it is an "amalgam of all Eight Schools of Chinese Buddhism" (八宗兼弘), including Chan. Fo Guang Shan is the most comprehensive of the major Buddhist organizations of Taiwan, focusing extensively on both social works and religious engagement.[124]

In Taiwan, these four masters are popularly referred to as the "Four Heavenly Kings" of Taiwanese Buddhism, with their respective organizations Dharma Drum Mountain, Chung Tai Shan, Tzu Chi, and Fo Guang Shan being referred to as the "Four Great Mountains".[125][126]

Spread of Chan Buddhism in Asia

See also: Spread of Chan Buddhism in Asia

Thiền in Vietnam

See also: Vietnamese Thiền and Buddhism in Vietnam

According to traditional accounts of Vietnam, in 580 an Indian monk named Vinītaruci (Vietnamese: Tì-ni-đa-lưu-chi) traveled to Vietnam after completing his studies with Sengcan, the third patriarch of Chinese Chan. This, then, would be the first appearance of Thiền Buddhism. Other early Thiền schools included that of Wu Yantong (Chinese: 無言通; Vietnamese: Vô Ngôn Thông), which was associated with the teachings of Mazu Daoyi, and the Thảo Đường (Caodong), which incorporated nianfo chanting techniques; both were founded by Chinese monks.

Seon in Korea

See also: Korean Seon and Korean Buddhism

Seon was gradually transmitted into Korea during the late Silla period (7th through 9th centuries) as Korean monks of predominantly Hwaeom (Korean: 화엄종; Hanja: 華嚴宗) and East Asian Yogācāra (Korean: 유식종; Hanja: 唯識宗) background began to travel to China to learn the newly developing tradition. Seon received its most significant impetus and consolidation from the Goryeo monk Jinul (知訥) (1158–1210), who established a reform movement and introduced kōan practice to Korea. Jinul established the Songgwangsa (松廣寺) as a new center of pure practice.

Zen in Japan

See also: Japanese Zen

Zen was not introduced as a separate school in Japan until the 12th century when Eisai traveled to China and returned to establish a Linji lineage, which is known in Japan as the Rinzai. In 1215, Dōgen, a younger contemporary of Eisai's, journeyed to China himself, where he became a disciple of the Caodong master Rujing. After his return, Dōgen established the Sōtō school, the Japanese branch of Caodong.

The schools of Zen that currently exist in Japan are the Sōtō, Rinzai and Ōbaku. Of these, Sōtō is the largest and Ōbaku the smallest. Rinzai is itself divided into several subschools based on temple affiliation, including Myōshin-ji, Nanzen-ji, Tenryū-ji, Daitoku-ji, and Tōfuku-ji.

Chan in Indonesia

See also: Buddhism in Indonesia and Ashin Jinarakkhita

In the 20th century, during the First Buddhist revival, missionaries were sent to Indonesia and Malaysia. Ashin Jinarakkhita, who played a central role in the revival of Indonesian Buddhism, received ordination as a Chan śrāmaṇera on July 29, 1953[web 14] and received the name Ti Zheng (Te Cheng) from bhikṣu Ben Qing.

Chan in the Western world

See also: Buddhism in the West and Japanese Zen § Zen in the Western world

Chan has become especially popular in its Japanese form. Although it is difficult to trace when the West first became aware of Chan as a distinct form of Buddhism, the visit of Soyen Shaku, a Japanese Zen monk, to Chicago during the 1893 Parliament of the World's Religions is often pointed to as an event that enhanced its profile in the Western world. It was during the late 1950s and the early 1960s that the number of Westerners pursuing a serious interest in Zen, other than the descendants of Asian immigrants, reached a significant level.

Western Chan lineages

See also: Western Zen lineages
 
Covering over 480 acres of land and located in Talmage, California, the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas was founded by Hsuan Hua.

The first Chinese master to teach Westerners in North America was Hsuan Hua, who taught Chan and other traditions of Chinese Buddhism in San Francisco during the early 1960s. He went on to found the City Of Ten Thousand Buddhas, a monastery and retreat center located on a 237-acre (959,000 m2) property near Ukiah, California, and thus founding the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association. Another Chinese Chan teacher with a Western following was Sheng Yen, a master trained in both the Caodong and Linji schools. He first visited the United States in 1978 under the sponsorship of the Buddhist Association of the United States, and subsequently founded the CMC Chan Meditation Center in Queens, New York and the Dharma Drum Retreat Center in Pine Bush, New York.[web 15]

Doctrinal background

Main article: Doctrinal background of Zen

Though Zen-narrative states that it is a "special transmission outside scriptures" which "did not stand upon words",[127] Zen does have a rich doctrinal background.

Polarities

Classical Chinese Chan is characterised by a set of polarities:[128] absolute-relative,[129] Buddha-nature – sunyata,[130] sudden and gradual enlightenment,[131] esoteric and exoteric transmission.[132]

Absolute-relative

The Prajnaparamita sutras and Madhyamaka emphasize the non-duality of form and emptiness: "form is emptiness, emptiness is form", as the Heart sutra says.[129] This was understood to mean that ultimate reality is not a transcendental realm, but equal to the daily world of relative reality. This idea fitted into the Chinese culture, which emphasized the mundane world and society. But this does not fully explain how the absolute is present in the relative world. This question is answered in such schemata as the Five Ranks of Tozan,[133] the Ten Bulls ("the Oxherding Pictures"), and Hakuin's Four ways of knowing.[134]

The Madhyamaka two truths doctrine and the Yogacara three natures and Trikaya doctrines also give depictions of the interplay between the absolute and the relative.

Buddha-nature and śūnyatā

When Buddhism was introduced in China it was understood in native terms. Various sects struggled to attain an understanding of the Indian texts. The Tathāgatagarbha sūtras and the idea of the Buddha-nature were endorsed because of the perceived similarities with the Tao, which was understood as a transcendental reality underlying the world of appearances. Śūnyatā at first was understood as pointing to the Taoist wu.[32][135]

The doctrine of the Buddha-nature asserts that all sentient beings have Buddha-nature (Skt. Buddhadhātu, "Buddha Element", "Buddha-Principle"), the element from which awakening springs. The Tathāgatagarbha sutras state that every living being has the potential to realize awakening.[136] Hence Buddhism offers salvation to everyone, not only to monks or those who have freed themselves almost completely from karma in previous lives.[citation needed] The Yogacara theory of the Eight Consciousnesses explains how sensory input and the mind create the world we experience, and obscure the alaya-jnana, which is equated to the Buddha-nature.[137]

When this potential is realized, and the defilements have been eliminated, the Buddha-nature manifests as the Dharmakaya, the absolute reality which pervades everything in the world.[136] In this way, it is also the primordial reality from which phenomenal reality springs. When this understanding is idealized, it becomes a transcendental reality beneath the world of appearances.[138]

Sunyata points to the "emptiness" or no-"thing"-ness of all "things". Though we perceive a world of concrete and discrete objects, designated by names, on close analysis the "thingness" dissolves, leaving them "empty" of inherent existence.[139] The Heart sutra, a text from the prajñaparamita sutras, articulates this in the following saying in which the five skandhas are said to be "empty":

Yogacara explains this "emptiness" in an analysis of the way we perceive "things". Everything we conceive of is the result of the working of the five skandhas—results of perception, feeling, volition, and discrimination.[note 9] The five skandhas together compose consciousness. The "things" we are conscious of are "mere concepts", not noumenon.[137]

It took Chinese Buddhism several centuries to recognize that śūnyatā is not identical to "wu",[32][140] nor does Buddhism postulate a permanent soul.[32] The influence of those various doctrinal and textual backgrounds is still discernible in Zen. Zen teachers still refer to Buddha-nature, but the Zen tradition also emphasizes that Buddha-nature is śūnyatā, the absence of an independent and substantial self.[32]

Sudden and gradual enlightenment

 
Avalokiteśvara sitting in meditation

In Zen Buddhism two main views on the way to enlightenment are discernible, namely sudden and gradual enlightenment.

Early Chan recognized the "transcendence of the body and mind", followed by "non-defilement [of] knowledge and perception", or sudden insight into the true nature (jiànxìng) followed by gradual purification of intentions.[141]

In the 8th century Chan history was effectively refashioned by Shenhui, who created a dichotomy between the so-called East Mountain Teaching or "Northern School", led by Yuquan Shenxiu, and his own line of teaching, which he called the "Southern school".[142] Shenhui placed Huineng into prominence as the sixth Chan-patriarch, and emphasized sudden enlightenment, as opposed to the concurrent Northern School's alleged gradual enlightenment.[142] According to the sudden enlightenment propagated by Shenhui, insight into true nature is sudden; thereafter there can be no misunderstanding anymore about this true nature.

In the Platform Sutra, the dichotomy between sudden and gradual is reconciled.[143] Guifeng Zongmi, fifth-generation successor to Shenhui, also softened the edge between sudden and gradual. In his analysis, sudden awakening points to seeing into one's true nature, but is to be followed by a gradual cultivation to attain Buddhahood.[144]

This gradual cultivation is also recognized by Dongshan Liangjie (Japanese Tōzan), who described the five ranks of enlightenment.[web 16]

Esoteric and exoteric transmission

According to Borup the emphasis on 'mind to mind transmission' is a form of esoteric transmission, in which "the tradition and the enlightened mind is transmitted face to face".[132] Metaphorically this can be described as the transmission from a flame from one candle to another candle,[132] or the transmission from one vein to another.[145] In exoteric transmission requires "direct access to the teaching through a personal discovery of one's self. This type of transmission and identification is symbolized by the discovery of a shining lantern, or a mirror."[132]

Chan scripture

Main article: Zen and Sutras

Chan is deeply rooted in the teachings and doctrines of Mahāyāna Buddhism. What the Chan tradition emphasizes is that the enlightenment of the Buddha came not through intellectual reasoning, but rather through self-realization in Dharma practice and meditation. Therefore, it is held that it is primarily through Dharma practice and meditation that others may attain enlightenment and become Buddhas as well.

A review of the early historical documents and literature of early Chan masters clearly reveals that they were all well-versed in numerous Mahāyāna Buddhist sūtras. For example, in the Platform Sūtra of the Sixth Patriarch, Huineng cites and explains the Diamond Sūtra, the Lotus Sūtra (Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtra), the Vimalakīrti Nirdeśa Sūtra, the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, and the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra.

The Chan school had to develop a doctrinal tradition of its own to establish its position.[citation needed] Subsequently, the Chan tradition produced a rich corpus of written literature which has become a part of its practice and teaching. Among the earliest and most widely studied of the specifically Chan texts, dating to at least the 9th century CE, is the Platform Sūtra of the Sixth Patriarch, attributed to Huineng. The most important Chan texts belong to the "encounter dialogue" genre, which developed into various collections of kōans.

Teaching and practice

See also Zen practice

Bodhisattva ideal

As a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism, Chan draws many of its basic driving concepts from that tradition, such as the Bodhisattva ideal. Karuṇā is the counterpart of prajna. Avalokiteśvara embodies the striving for Karuna, compassion.[146][note 10]

Central to Chan practice is dhyana or meditation. In the Lin-ji (Rinzai) school this is supplemented with koan study.

Chan meditation

In meditation practice, the Chan tradition holds that the very notions of doctrine and teachings create various other notions and appearances (Skt. saṃjñā; Ch. 相, xiāng) that obscure the transcendent wisdom of each being's Buddha-nature. Thus, Chan encourages its practitioners to distrust the very scripture or text being taught to them.[147] The process of rediscovery goes under various terms such as "introspection", "a backward step", "turning-about" or "turning the eye inward".

Sitting meditation

Main article: Zazen

Sitting meditation is called zuòchán (坐禅), zazen in Japanese, both simply meaning "sitting dhyāna". During this sitting meditation, practitioners usually assume a position such as the lotus position, half-lotus, Burmese, or seiza postures. To regulate the mind, awareness is directed towards counting or watching the breath, or put in the energy center below the navel (see also anapanasati).[web 17] Often, a square or round cushion placed on a padded mat is used to sit on; in some other cases, a chair may be used.

At the beginning of the Song dynasty, practice with the koan method became popular, whereas others practiced "silent illumination."[148] This became the source of some differences in practice between the Linji and Caodong traditions.

Koan practice

Main article: Koan

A koan (literally "public case") is a story or dialogue, generally related to Chan or other Buddhist histories; the most typical form is an anecdote involving early Chinese Chan masters. These anecdotes involving famous Chan teachers are a practical demonstration of their wisdom, and can be used to test a student's progress in Chan practice. Koans often appear to be paradoxical or linguistically meaningless dialogues or questions. But to Chan Buddhists, the koan is "the place and the time and the event where truth reveals itself"[149] unobstructed by the oppositions and differentiation of language. Answering a koan requires a student to let go of conceptual thinking and of the logical way we order the world, so that, like creativity in art, the appropriate insight and response arises naturally and spontaneously in the mind.

Chan monasticism

Chan developed a distinct monastic system.

Emphasizing daily life

As the Chan school grew in China, the monastic discipline also became distinct, focusing on practice through all aspects of life. Temples began emphasizing labor and humility, expanding the training of Chan to include the mundane tasks of daily life. The Chinese Chan master Baizhang (720–814 CE) left behind a famous saying which had been the guiding principle of his life, "A day without work is a day without food".[web 18]

Sinification of Buddhism in China

It was scholar D.T. Suzuki's contention that a spiritual awakening was always the goal of Chan's training, but that part of what distinguished the tradition as it developed through the centuries in China was a way of life radically different from that of Indian Buddhists. In Indian Buddhism, the tradition of the mendicant prevailed, but Suzuki explained that in China social circumstances led to the development of a temple and training-center system in which the abbot and the monks all performed mundane tasks. These included food gardening or farming, carpentry, architecture, housekeeping, administration (or community direction), and the practice of Traditional Chinese medicine. Consequently, the enlightenment sought in Chan had to stand up well to the demands and potential frustrations of everyday life.[150][151]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ McRae gives no further information on this "Hubei faction". It may be the continuation of Shenxiu's "Northern School". See Nadeau 2012 p.89.[12] Hebei was also the place where the Linji branch of chan arose.[13]
  2. ^ During the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) and the Qing dynasty (1644–1912) Chan was part of a larger, syncretic Buddhist culture. A final phase can be distinguished from the 19th century onward, when western imperialism had a growing influence in South-East Asia, including China. A side effect of this imperial influence was the modernisation of Asian religions, adapting them to western ideas and rhetorical strategies.[19]
  3. ^ Godard does not provide a source for this quote
  4. ^ It first appears in a Chinese text named the Ju-tao an-hsin yao-fang-pien fa-men (JTFM, Instructions on essential expedients for calming the mind and accessing the path), itself a part of the Leng Ch'ieh Shih Tzu Chi (Records of the Masters of the Lankavatara).[62] The Records of the Masters of the Lankavatara is associated with the early Chan tradition known as the "East Mountain School" and has been dated to around 713.[65]
  5. ^ Compare Mazu's "Mind is Buddha" versus "No mind, no Buddha": "When Ch'an Master Fa-ch'ang of Ta-mei Mountain went to see the Patriarch for the first time, he asked, "What is Buddha?"
    The Patriarch replied, "Mind is Buddha." [On hearing this] Fa-ch'ang had great awakening.
    Later he went to live on Ta-mei mountain. When the Patriarch heard that he was residing on the mountain, he sent one of his monks to go there and ask Fa-ch'ang, "What did the Venerable obtain when he saw Ma-tsu, so that he has come to live on this mountain?"
    Fach'ang said, "Ma-tsu told me that mind is Buddha; so I came to live here."
    The monk said, "Ma-tsu's teaching has changed recently."
    Fa-ch'ang asked, "What is the difference?"
    The monk said, "Nowadays he also says, 'Neither mind nor Buddha."'
    Fa-ch'ang said, "That old man still hasn't stopped confusing people. You can have 'neither mind nor Buddha,' I only care for 'mind is Buddha."'
    The monk returned to the Patriarch and reported what has happened. "The plum is ripe." said the Patriarch."[67]
  6. ^ This role-taking is described by the Swedish psychologist of religion Hjalmar Sundén, though McRae does not seem to be aware of this
  7. ^ See [web 10] for more information on Jinghui.
  8. ^ At least two westerners are, or claim, to be dharma successors to Jing Hui: Lily-Marie Johnson (Ming Qi)[web 9][web 11] and Daniel Odier.[web 12][web 13]
  9. ^ Translations do differ, which makes a difference. Vijñāna can be translated as "consciousness", but also as "discernment".[137]
  10. ^ Lathouwers 2000:221 mentions: Blofeld, John (1988), Bodhisattva of compassion - the mystical tradition of kuan Yin. Boston: Shanbhala

References

  1. ^ Dumoulin 2005a, p. xvii.
  2. ^ Kasulis 2003, p. 24.
  3. ^ Hershock, Peter (2019), "Chan Buddhism", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2019 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 2020-01-17
  4. ^ a b Cleary 2005
  5. ^ a b c d e f g McRae 2003.
  6. ^ Ferguson 2000.
  7. ^ a b c Ferguson 2000, p. 3.
  8. ^ McRae 2003, p. 11-15.
  9. ^ McRae 2003, p. 11-21.
  10. ^ McRae 2003, p. 13, 15–17.
  11. ^ McRae 2003, p. 13, 17–18.
  12. ^ Nadeau 2012, p. 89.
  13. ^ Yanagida 2009, p. 63.
  14. ^ McRae 2003, p. 13, 18–19.
  15. ^ McRae 2003, p. 13, 19–21.
  16. ^ Gimello 1994.
  17. ^ Welter 2000.
  18. ^ McRae 2003, p. 13.
  19. ^ McMahan 2008.
  20. ^ Maspero 1981, p. 46.
  21. ^ Grigg 1999.
  22. ^ Gu, Guo (2020). The Essence of Chan. Shambala Publications. pp. 4–5. ISBN 9781611808711.
  23. ^ Hinton, David (2020). "Ch1-Tao". China Root:Taoism, Ch'an, and Original Zen. Shambala Publications. pp. 21–26. ISBN 9781611807134.
  24. ^ a b Dumoulin 2005a:8–9, 68, 166–167, 169–172
  25. ^ Deleanu, Florin (1992); Mindfulness of Breathing in the Dhyāna Sūtras. Transactions of the International Conference of Orientalists in Japan (TICOJ) 37, 42-57.
  26. ^ Ven. Dr. Yuanci, A Study of the Meditation Methods in the DESM and Other Early Chinese Texts 2013-05-08 at the Wayback Machine, The Buddhist Academy of China.
  27. ^ a b c Brown Holt 1995.
  28. ^ Goddard 2007, p. 10.
  29. ^ a b c Fowler 2005, p. 79.
  30. ^ Goddard 2007, p. 11.
  31. ^ a b c Oh 2000.
  32. ^ a b c d e Lai 2003a.
  33. ^ Dumoulin 2005a, p. 65.
  34. ^ Dumoulin 2005a, p. 64.
  35. ^ Dumoulin 2005a, pp. 70&74.
  36. ^ Dumoulin 2005a, p. 167.
  37. ^ a b Dumoulin 2005a, p. 168.
  38. ^ Dumoulin 2005a, p. 45–49.
  39. ^ Lai 2003a, p. 8.
  40. ^ Lai 2003b, p. 11.
  41. ^ Lai 2003b, p. 8.
  42. ^ a b Lai 2003b.
  43. ^ McRae 2003:122
  44. ^ Dumoulin 2005a
  45. ^ Broughton 1999, p. 54-55.
  46. ^ Broughton 1999, p. 8.
  47. ^ a b c d e f g h i McRae 2003
  48. ^ a b c d Lai 1985.
  49. ^ a b Lai 2003b, p. 17.
  50. ^ McRae 2004.
  51. ^ a b Chang 1967.
  52. ^ Suzuki 1935.
  53. ^ Yampolski 2003b:6
  54. ^ Yampolski 1967, p. 29, note 87.
  55. ^ Dumoulin 2005a, p. 52.
  56. ^ Dumoulin 2005a, p. 85-94.
  57. ^ Dumoulin 2005a:85–90
  58. ^ Zvelebil 1987, p. 125–126.
  59. ^ a b McRae 2003:29
  60. ^ McRae 2003:32
  61. ^ a b c Lai 2003a, p. 17.
  62. ^ a b c d McRae 1986, p. 143.
  63. ^ Sharf 2014, p. 939, 951.
  64. ^ Sharf 2014, p. 939.
  65. ^ Robert E. Buswell Jr. (2017). The Formation of Ch'an Ideology in China and Korea: The Vajrasamadhi-Sutra, a Buddhist Apocryphon. Princeton University Press, p. 141.
  66. ^ Sharf 2014, p. 945-950.
  67. ^ Cheng Chien Bhikshu 1992.
  68. ^ a b c d Dumoulin 2005a.
  69. ^ McRae 2003:33–36
  70. ^ a b McRae 2003:34
  71. ^ a b c d Lai 2003b, p. 18.
  72. ^ Kasulis 2003:25–26
  73. ^ McRae 2003:48
  74. ^ McRae 2003:49
  75. ^ 禅宗研究一百年 2013-09-16 at the Wayback Machine
  76. ^ Yampolski 2003a:9
  77. ^ Gregory 1991, p. 279.
  78. ^ McRae 2003, p. 63.
  79. ^ McRae 2003, p. 62.
  80. ^ a b Kasulis 2003, p. 26–28.
  81. ^ Huaijin 1997, p. 92.
  82. ^ a b Kalupahana 1992, p. 228–236.
  83. ^ McRae 2003, p. 123.
  84. ^ Van Schaik, Tibetan Zen, page 1.
  85. ^ a b Sam van Schaik, Where Chan and Tantra Meet: Buddhist Syncretism in Dunhuang
  86. ^ Zigmond, The Lost Tradition of Tibetan Zen Dan Zigmond reviews Sam van Schaik’s The Lost Tradition of Tibetan Zen, https://tricycle.org/magazine/lost-tradition-tibetan-zen/
  87. ^ Huaijin 1997, p. 95.
  88. ^ Yampolski 2003a:11
  89. ^ Kasulis 2003, pp. 28–29.
  90. ^ Heine 2008
  91. ^ a b Faure 1997, p. 73.
  92. ^ a b Faure 1997, p. 74.
  93. ^ Gregory 2002.
  94. ^ Dumoulin 2005a, pp. 165–166.
  95. ^ Wegner 2001.
  96. ^ Leighton 2000.
  97. ^ a b Yampolski 2003a:15
  98. ^ Welter 2000, p. 86–87.
  99. ^ McRae 2003:119–120
  100. ^ Yampolski 2003a.
  101. ^ a b c d e Welter 2006.
  102. ^ Jones 2010.
  103. ^ Young 2009.
  104. ^ Yampolski 2003b:266
  105. ^ Yampolski 2003b:267
  106. ^ Isshū & Sasaki 1993:13
  107. ^ Kasulis 2003:30
  108. ^ McRae 2003, p. 130.
  109. ^ a b McRae 2003:131
  110. ^ Yampolski 2003a:20
  111. ^ Dumoulin 2005a:256–257
  112. ^ Buswell, Robert; Lopez, Donald (2014). The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism. Princeton University Press. p. 1056. ISBN 9780691157863.
  113. ^ Sharf 2002
  114. ^ Ma, Yung-fen (2011). The Revival of Tiantai Buddhism in the Late Ming: On the Thought of Youxi Chuandeng (1554-1628) (Thesis). Columbia University. doi:10.7916/d81g0t8p.
  115. ^ Sharf 2002.
  116. ^ Dumoulin 2005b, p. 299.
  117. ^ Meng-Tat Chia 2011.
  118. ^ a b c d e Feuchtwang 2010, p. 189.
  119. ^ Laliberte 2011.
  120. ^ "Chan Newsletter No. 106, February 1995".
  121. ^ https://chancenter.org/cmc/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/MindDharma1.pdf[bare URL PDF]
  122. ^ Kraft, Kenneth (1988). Zen: Tradition and Transition. ISBN 080213162X.
  123. ^ "Biography of Dharma Master Cheng Yen". tw.tzuchi.org. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
  124. ^ Schak, David; Hsiao, Hsin-Huang Michael (2005-06-01). "Taiwan's Socially Engaged Buddhist Groups". China Perspectives (in French). 2005 (59). doi:10.4000/chinaperspectives.2803. ISSN 1996-4617.
  125. ^ . Info.taiwan.net.tw. Archived from the original on 2012-02-27. Retrieved 2012-02-15.
  126. ^ Shuai, J. J.; Chen, H. C.; Chang, C. H. (2010-12-01). "Visualization of the Taiwaness Buddhism web based on social network analysis". 2010 International Computer Symposium (ICS2010): 187–191. doi:10.1109/COMPSYM.2010.5685523. ISBN 978-1-4244-7639-8. S2CID 18858823.
  127. ^ Dumoulin 2005a, p. 85–94.
  128. ^ McRae 2003, pp. 138–142.
  129. ^ a b Liang-Chieh 1986:9
  130. ^ Kasulis 2003, pp. 26–29.
  131. ^ McRae 2003, pp. 123–138.
  132. ^ a b c d Borup 2008, p. 9.
  133. ^ Kasulis 2003:29
  134. ^ Low 2006.
  135. ^ Swanson 1993, p. 373.
  136. ^ a b Wayman & Wayman 1990.
  137. ^ a b c Kalupahana 1992.
  138. ^ Kalupahana 1994.
  139. ^ Kalupahana 1994, p. 160–169.
  140. ^ Swanson 1993.
  141. ^ McRae 2003, p. 88–92.
  142. ^ a b McRae 2003, p. 54–56.
  143. ^ McRae 2003, p. 60-67.
  144. ^ Gregory 1991.
  145. ^ Faure 2000, p. 58.
  146. ^ Lathouwers 2000.
  147. ^ Dumoulin, Heisig & Knitter (2005), pp. 68, 70–73, 167–168
  148. ^ Blyth 1966.
  149. ^ Shimano 1991, p. 152.
  150. ^ Suzuki 1955, p. 155–156.
  151. ^ Suzuki 1970.

Sources

Printed sources

  • Blyth, R. H. (1966), Zen and Zen Classics, Volume 4, Tokyo: Hokuseido Press
  • Borup, Jørn (2008), Japanese Rinzai Zen Buddhism: Myōshinji, a Living Religion, Brill
  • Broughton, Jeffrey L. (1999), The Bodhidharma Anthology: The Earliest Records of Zen, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, ISBN 978-0-520-21972-4
  • Brown Holt, Linda (1995), "From India to China: Transformations in Buddhist Philosophy", Qi: The Journal of Traditional Eastern Health & Fitness
  • Buswell, Robert E. (1991), "The "Short-cut" Approach of K'an-hua Meditation: The Evolution of a Practical Subitism in Chinese Ch'an Buddhism", in Peter N. Gregory (ed.), Sudden and Gradual. Approaches to Enlightenment in Chinese Thought, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited
  • Buswell, Robert E (1993), Ch'an Hermeneutics: A Korean View. In: Donald S. Lopez, Jr. (ed.)(1993), Buddhist Hermeneutics, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass
  • Chang, Chung-Yuan (1967). . Philosophy East and West. 17 (1/4): 37–49. doi:10.2307/1397043. JSTOR 1397043. Archived from the original on 2011-05-24. Retrieved 2011-12-13.
  • Cheng Chien Bhikshu (1992), "Introduction", Sun-Face Buddha. The Teachings of Ma-tsu and the Hung-chou School of Ch'an, Asian Humanities Press
  • Cleary, Thomas (2005), Classics of Buddhism and Zen: Volume One, Boston, MA: Shambhala publications, ISBN 978-1-57062-831-3
  • Dumoulin, Heinrich (2005a), Zen Buddhism: A History. Volume 1: India and China, World Wisdom Books, ISBN 978-0-941532-89-1
  • Dumoulin, Heinrich (2005b), Zen Buddhism: A History. Volume 2: Japan, World Wisdom Books, ISBN 978-0-941532-90-7
  • Dumoulin, Heinrich; Heisig, James W.; Knitter, Paul (2005). Zen Buddhism: A History (India and China). World Wisdom. ISBN 0-941532-89-5.
  • Faure, Bernard (1997), The Will to Orthodoxy: A Critical Genealogy of Northern Chan Buddhism, Stanford University Press
  • Faure, Bernard (2000), Visions of Power. Imaging Medieval Japanese Buddhism, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press
  • Ferguson, Andy (2000), Zen's Chinese Heritage, Boston, MA: Wisdom Publications, ISBN 978-0-86171-163-5
  • Feuchtwang, Stephen (2010), The Anthropology of Religion, Charisma and Ghosts: Chinese Lessons for Adequate Theory, Walter de Gruyter
  • Fowler, Merv (2005), Zen Buddhism: Beliefs and Practices, Sussex Academic Press
  • Gimello, Robert M. (1994), "Marga and Culture: Learning, Letters, and Liberation in Northern Sung Ch'an.", in Buswell; Gimello (eds.), Paths to Liberation, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, pp. 475–505
  • Goddard, Dwight (2007), History of Ch'an Buddhism previous to the times of Hui-neng (Wie-lang). In: A Buddhist Bible, Forgotten Books, ISBN 9781605061047
  • Gregory, Peter N. (1991), "Sudden Enlightenment Followed by Gradual Cultivation: Tsung-mi's Analysis of mind", in Peter N. Gregory (ed.), Sudden and Gradual. Approaches to Enlightenment in Chinese Thought, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited
  • Gregory, Peter N. (2002), Tsung-mi and the Sinification of Buddhism, University of Hawai’i Press, Kuroda Institute, (originally published Princeton University Press, 1991, Princeton, N.J.), ISBN 978-0-8248-2623-9
  • Grigg, Ray (1999), The Ta of Zen, Edison, NJ: Alva Press
  • Heine, Steven (2008), Zen Skin, Zen Marrow
  • Isshū, Miura; Sasaki, Ruth F. (1993), The Zen Koan, New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, ISBN 978-0-15-699981-6
  • Huaijin, Nan (1997), Basic Buddhism: exploring Buddhism and Zen, Samuel Weiser
  • Jones, Charles B. (2010), "Review of Monks, Rulers and Literati: The Political Ascendancy of Chan Buddhism" (PDF), Journal of Buddhist Ethics
  • Kalupahana, David J. (1992), The Principles of Buddhist Psychology, Delhi: ri Satguru Publications
  • Kalupahana, David J. (1994), A history of Buddhist philosophy, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited
  • Kasulis, Thomas P. (2003), Ch'an Spirituality. In: Buddhist Spirituality. Later China, Korea, Japan and the Modern World; edited by Takeuchi Yoshinori, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass
  • Lai, Whalen (1985), "Ma-Tsu Tao-I And The Unfolding Of Southern Zen", Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 12 (2/3): 173–192, doi:10.18874/jjrs.12.2-3.1985.173-192
  • Lai, Whalen (2003a), (PDF), in Cua, Antonio S. (ed.), Encyclopedia of Chinese Philosophy, New York: Routledge, archived from the original (PDF) on November 12, 2014
  • Lai, Hongyi Harry (2003b), The Religious Revival in China. In: Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies 18
  • Laliberte, Andre (2011), Buddhist Revival under State Watch, in: Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, 40, 2,107-134
  • Lathouwers, Ton (2000), Meer dan een mens kan doen. Zentoespraken, Rotterdam: Asoka
  • Leighton, Taigen Daniel (2000), Cultivating the Empty Field: The Silent Illumination of Zen Master Hongzhi, Tuttle Publishing, ISBN 978-0-8048-3240-3
  • Liang-Chieh (1986), The Record of Tung-shan, Kuroda Institute (translator: William F. Powell)
  • Low, Albert (2006), Hakuin on Kensho. The Four Ways of Knowing, Boston & London: Shambhala
  • Maspero, Henri (1981), Taoism and Chinese Religion, University of Massachusetts Press, ISBN 978-0-87023-308-1
  • McMahan, David L. (2008), The Making of Buddhist Modernism, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-518327-6
  • McRae, John (1986), The Northern School and the Formation of Early Chʻan Buddhism, University of Hawaii Press
  • McRae, John (2003), Seeing Through Zen, The University Press Group Ltd
  • McRae, John (2004), Seeing through Zen. Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism, University of California Press, ISBN 978-0-520-23798-8
  • Meng-Tat Chia, Jack (2011), "A Review of Enlightenment in Dispute: The Reinvention of Chan Buddhism in Seventeenth-Century China" (PDF), Journal of Buddhist Ethics, 18
  • Nadeau, Randall L. (2012), The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Chinese Religions, John Wiley & Sons
  • Oh, Kang-nam (2000), "The Taoist Influence on Hua-yen Buddhism: A Case of the Scinicization of Buddhism in China", Chung-Hwa Buddhist Journal, 13
  • Sharf, Robert H. (2002), "On Pure Land Buddhism and Ch'an/Pure Land Syncretism in Medieval China", T'oung Pao, 88 (4/5): 282–331, doi:10.1163/156853202100368398, ISSN 0082-5433, JSTOR 4528903
  • Sharf, Robert (October 2014), "Mindfullness and Mindlessness in Early Chan" (PDF), Philosophy East & West, 64 (4): 933–964, doi:10.1353/pew.2014.0074, S2CID 144208166{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)[permanent dead link]
  • Shimano, Eido T. (1991), Points of Departure: Zen Buddhism with a Rinzai View, Livingston Manor, NY: The Zen Studies Society Press, ISBN 978-0-9629246-0-6
  • Suzuki, D.T. (1935), Manual of Zen Buddhism
  • Suzuki, D.T. (1955), Studies in Zen, New York: Delta
  • Suzuki, D.T. (1970), Zen and Japanese Culture, New York: Bollingen/Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0-691-09849-4
  • Suzuki, D.T. (2004), The Training of the Zen Buddhist Monk, Tokyo: Cosimo, inc., ISBN 978-1-59605-041-9
  • Swanson, Paul L. (1993), "The Spirituality of Emptiness in Early Chinese Buddhism", in Takeuchi Yoshinori (ed.), Buddhist Spirituality. Indian, Southeast Asian, Tibetan, Early Chinese, New York: Crossroad
  • Torei (2010), The Undying Lamp of Zen. The Testament of Zen Master Torei, Boston & London: Shambhala (translator: Thomas Cleary)
  • Verboven, Lucette (1992), Je kunt er niet uitvallen. Interview met Ton Lathouwers. In: Zen, jaargang 13, januari 1992, nummer 48
  • Wayman, Alex; Wayman, Hideko (1990). The Lion's Roar of Queen Śrīmālā: A Buddhist Scripture on the Tathāgatagarbha Theory. Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 9788120807310.
  • Wegner, Michael (2001), Introduction to "Branching streams flow in the darkness: Zen talks on the Sandokai"by Shunryū Suzuki, University of California Press, ISBN 978-0-520-23212-9
  • Welter, Albert (2006), (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-03-16
  • Welter, Albert (2000), Mahakasyapa's smile. Silent Transmission and the Kung-an (Koan) Tradition. In: Steven Heine and Dale S. Wright (eds)(2000): "The Koan. Texts and Contexts in Zen Buddhism, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  • Yampolski, Philip B. (1967), The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch. Translated with notes by Philip B. Yampolski, Columbia University Press, ISBN 978-0-231-08361-4
  • Yampolski, Philip (2003a), Chan. A Historical Sketch. In: Buddhist Spirituality. Later China, Korea, Japan and the Modern World; edited by Takeuchi Yoshinori, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass
  • Yampolski, Philip (2003b), Zen. A Historical Sketch. In: Buddhist Spirituality. Later China, Korea, Japan and the Modern World; edited by Takeuchi Yoshinori, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass
  • Yanagida, Seizan (2009), (PDF), University of Hawaii Press, archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-06-22, retrieved 2021-05-29
  • Yen, Chan Master Sheng (1996), Dharma Drum: The Life and Heart of Ch'an Practice, Boston & London: Shambhala
  • Young, Stuart (2009), Linji Lu and Chinese Orthodoxy. Review of "Albert Welter. The Linji lu and the Creation of Chan Orthodoxy: The Development of Chan's Records of Sayings Literature.
  • Zeuschner, Robert B. (1976), A Selected Bibliography on Chan Buddhism in China, Journal of Chinese Philosophy V. 3, (1976) pp. 299-311
  • Zhu, Caifang (2003), (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-09-29, retrieved 2013-03-29
  • Zvelebil, K.V. (1987), "The Sound of the One Hand", Journal of the American Oriental Society, 107 (1): 125–126, doi:10.2307/602960, JSTOR 602960

Web-sources

  1. ^ Thich Hang Dat, A REAPPRAISAL OF KUMĀRAJĪVA’S ROLE IN MEDIEVAL CHINESE BUDDHISM: AN EXAMINATION OF KUMĀRAJĪVA’S TRANSLATION TEXT ON “THE ESSENTIAL EXPLANATION OF THE METHOD OF DHYANA” May 18, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ , London: RoutledgeCurzon
  3. ^ (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-11-06. Retrieved 2011-12-13.
  4. ^ See James D. Sellmann & Hans Julius Schneider (2003), Liberating Language in Linji and Wittgenstein. Asian Philosophy, Vol. 13, Nos. 2/3, 2003. Notes 26 and 41
  5. ^ a b c Lewis Hodus (1923), Buddhism and Buddhists in China. Chapter IX: Present-Day Buddhism
  6. ^ Voice of Longquan, Guanghua Monastery 2012-12-18 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ Mitch Moxley (2010), Buddhism Enjoys A Revival
  8. ^ Erica B. Mitchell (201), A Revival of Buddhism? 2014-07-14 at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ a b The Dharma Lineage of my Master: Grand Master Jing Hui, Abbot of Bai-lin (Cypress Forest)
  10. ^ A short biography of Chan Master Jinghui
  11. ^ Jaysquare, Introduction
  12. ^ Biography (at bottom of the page)
  13. ^ . Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2013-03-27.
  14. ^ Ven. Ditthisampanno, Buddhism in Indonesia, Past and Present 2013-03-09 at the Wayback Machine
  15. ^ Dharma Drum Mountain. .
  16. ^ The Five Ranks of Tozan
  17. ^ Sheng, Yen. . Archived from the original on 13 June 2010.
  18. ^ "Digital Dictionary of Buddhism". Retrieved 2008-03-26., entry "Baizhang Huaihai"

Further reading

Modern classics

  • D.T. Suzuki, Essays in Zen Buddhism, 3 vols
  • Thomas Cleary, Zen Mind, Buddha Mind
  • J. C. Cleary, Swampland Flowers: The Letters and Lectures of Zen Master Ta Hui

Classic history

  • Dumoulin, Heinrich (2005), Zen Buddhism: A History. Volume 1: India and China. World Wisdom Books. ISBN 978-0-941532-89-1
  • Dumoulin, Heinrich (2005), Zen Buddhism: A History. Volume 2: Japan. World Wisdom Books. ISBN 978-0-941532-90-7

Critical Zen-studies

  • Jeffrey Broughton, Zongmi on Chan.
  • Sung Bae Park, Buddhist Faith and Sudden Enlightenment.

External links

 
Look up 禪 in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
 
Look up 禅 in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
 
Wikiquote has quotations related to Zen proverbs.
 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chán Buddhism.
 
Look up zen in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Oversight

  • The Zen Site

Overview of Chan centers

  • Zen Centers at Curlie
  • Zen centers of the world
  • Zen centers

Specific Chan centers

  • Dharma Drum Retreat Center (New York) Official Website. Established by Chan Master Sheng Yen.

Texts

  • Sacred-text.com's collection of Zen texts
  • Buddhanet's collection of Zen texts
  • Shambhala Sun Zen Articles
  • from Fo Guang Shan

History

  • History of Zen Buddhism
  • Zen Quick Facts

Critical Chan Research

  • Steven Heine (2007), A Critical Survey of Works on Zen since Yampolsky
  • Zhi, Chuan (2019). Exploring Chán: An Introduction to the Religious and Mystical Tradition of Chinese Buddhism. Songlark Publishing. p. 472. ISBN 978-1-73331-430-5.

January 19, 2023
chan, buddhism, this, article, about, chan, buddhism, china, overview, school, chan, school, redirects, here, harvard, university, public, health, school, harvard, chan, school, public, health, chan, traditional, chinese, simplified, chinese, pinyin, chán, abb. This article is about Chan Zen Buddhism in China For an overview of the school see Zen Chan school redirects here For the Harvard University public health school see Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health Chan traditional Chinese 禪 simplified Chinese 禅 pinyin Chan abbr of Chinese 禪那 pinyin channa from Sanskrit dhyana 1 meaning meditation or meditative state 2 is a Chinese school of Mahayana Buddhism It developed in China from the 6th century CE onwards becoming especially popular during the Tang and Song dynasties 3 Chinese Buddha Character Fo Chan BuddhismChinese nameSimplified Chinese禅Traditional Chinese禪TranscriptionsStandard MandarinHanyu PinyinChanWade GilesCh an2Yue CantoneseJyutpingSim4Middle ChineseMiddle ChineseDzyenVietnamese nameVietnameseThiềnHan Nom禪Korean nameHangul선Hanja禪TranscriptionsRevised RomanizationSeonJapanese nameKanji禅HiraganaぜんTranscriptionsRomanizationZenChan is the originating tradition of Zen Buddhism the Japanese pronunciation of the same character which is the most commonly used English name for the school Chan Buddhism spread from China south to Vietnam as Thiền and north to Korea as Seon and in the 13th century east to Japan as Japanese Zen Contents 1 History 1 1 Periodisation 1 2 Introduction of Buddhism in China c 200 500 1 2 1 Sinification of Buddhism and Taoist influences 1 2 2 Divisions of training 1 3 Legendary or Proto Chan c 500 600 1 3 1 Mahakasyapa and the Flower Sermon 1 3 2 First six patriarchs c 500 early 8th century 1 3 3 Lankavatara Sutra 1 3 4 Bodhidharma 1 3 5 Huike 1 4 Early Chan in Tang China c 600 900 1 4 1 East Mountain Teachings 1 4 2 Southern School Huineng and Shenhui 1 5 Tibetan Chan 1 6 Classical or Middle Chan Tang dynasty c 750 1000 1 6 1 An Lu shan rebellion 1 6 2 Hung chou School 1 6 3 Shitou Xiqian 1 6 4 The Great Persecution 1 6 5 Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period 907 960 979 1 7 Literary Chan Song dynasty c 960 1300 1 7 1 Five Houses of Chan 1 7 2 Rise of the Linji school 1 7 3 Dahui Zonggao 1 7 4 Koan system 1 7 5 Silent illumination 1 8 Post classical Chan c 1300 present 1 8 1 Yuan dynasty 1279 1368 1 8 2 Ming dynasty 1368 1644 1 8 3 Qing dynasty 1644 1912 1 9 Modernisation 1 9 1 19th century late Qing dynasty 1 9 2 Republic of China 1912 1949 First Buddhist Revival 1 9 3 People s Republic of China 1949 present Second Buddhist Revival 1 9 4 Taiwan 2 Spread of Chan Buddhism in Asia 2 1 Thiền in Vietnam 2 2 Seon in Korea 2 3 Zen in Japan 2 4 Chan in Indonesia 3 Chan in the Western world 3 1 Western Chan lineages 4 Doctrinal background 4 1 Polarities 4 1 1 Absolute relative 4 1 2 Buddha nature and sunyata 4 1 3 Sudden and gradual enlightenment 4 1 4 Esoteric and exoteric transmission 4 2 Chan scripture 5 Teaching and practice 5 1 Bodhisattva ideal 5 2 Chan meditation 5 2 1 Sitting meditation 5 3 Koan practice 6 Chan monasticism 6 1 Emphasizing daily life 6 2 Sinification of Buddhism in China 7 See also 8 Notes 9 References 10 Sources 10 1 Printed sources 10 2 Web sources 11 Further reading 12 External linksHistory EditSee also Silk Road transmission of Buddhism The historical records required for a complete accurate account of early Chan history no longer exist 4 Periodisation Edit The history of Chan in China can be divided into several periods Zen as we know it today is the result of a long history with many changes and contingent factors Each period had different types of Zen some of which remained influential while others vanished 5 6 Ferguson distinguishes three periods from the 5th century into the 13th century The Legendary period from Bodhidharma in the late 5th century to the An Lushan Rebellion around 765 CE in the middle of the Tang dynasty Little written information is left from this period 7 It is the time of the Six Patriarchs including Bodhidharma and Huineng and the legendary split between the Northern and the Southern School of Chan 5 The Classical period from the end of the An Lushan Rebellion around 765 CE to the beginning of the Song dynasty around 950 CE 7 This is the time of the great masters of Chan such as Mazu Daoyi and Linji Yixuan and the creation of the yu lu genre the recordings of the sayings and teachings of these great masters The Literary period from around 950 to 1250 7 which spans the era of the Song dynasty 960 1279 In this time the gong an collections were compiled collections of sayings and deeds by the famous masters appended with poetry and commentary This genre reflects the influence of literati on the development of Chan This period idealized the previous period as the golden age of Chan producing the literature in which the spontaneity of the celebrated masters was portrayed Although McRae has reservations about the division of Chan history in phases or periods 8 he nevertheless distinguishes four phases in the history of Chan 9 Proto Chan c 500 600 Southern and Northern Dynasties 420 to 589 and Sui dynasty 589 618 CE In this phase Chan developed in multiple locations in northern China It was based on the practice of dhyana and is connected to the figures of Bodhidharma and Huike Its principal text is the Two Entrances and Four Practices attributed to Bodhidharma 10 Early Chan c 600 900 Tang dynasty 618 907 CE In this phase Chan took its first clear contours Prime figures are the fifth patriarch Daman Hongren 601 674 his dharma heir Yuquan Shenxiu 606 706 the sixth patriarch Huineng 638 713 protagonist of the quintessential Platform Sutra and Shenhui 670 762 whose propaganda elevated Huineng to the status of sixth patriarch Prime factions are the Northern School Southern School and Oxhead School 11 Middle Chan c 750 1000 from An Lushan Rebellion 755 763 until Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period 907 960 979 In this phase developed the well known Chan of the iconoclastic zen masters Prime figures are Mazu Daoyi 709 788 Shitou Xiqian 710 790 Linji Yixuan died 867 and Xuefeng Yicun 822 908 Prime factions are the Hongzhou school and the Hubei faction note 1 An important text is the Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall 952 which contains many encounter stories and the canon genealogy of the Chan school 14 Song dynasty Chan c 950 1300 In this phase Chan took its definitive shape including the picture of the golden age of the Chan of the Tang dynasty and the use of koans for individual study and meditation Prime figures are Dahui Zonggao 1089 1163 who introduced the Hua Tou practice and Hongzhi Zhengjue 1091 1157 who emphasized Shikantaza Prime factions are the Linji school and the Caodong school The classic koan collections such as the Blue Cliff Record were assembled in this period 15 which reflect the influence of the literati on the development of Chan 16 17 In this phase Chan is transported to Japan and exerts a great influence on Korean Seon via Jinul Neither Ferguson nor McRae gives a periodisation for Chinese Chan following the Song dynasty though McRae mentions 5 at least a postclassical phase or perhaps multiple phases 18 note 2 Introduction of Buddhism in China c 200 500 Edit See also Han dynasty Silk Road transmission of Buddhism and Six Dynasties Sinification of Buddhism and Taoist influences Edit When Buddhism came to China it was adapted to the Chinese culture and understanding Theories about the influence of other schools in the evolution of Chan vary widely and are heavily reliant upon speculative correlation rather than on written records or histories Some scholars have argued that Chan developed from the interaction between Mahayana Buddhism and Taoism 20 21 22 23 while one believes that Chan has roots in yogic practices specifically kammaṭṭhana the consideration of objects and kasiṇa total fixation of the mind 24 Buddhist meditation was practiced in China centuries before the rise of Chan by people such as An Shigao c 148 180 CE and his school who translated various Dhyana sutras Chan jing 禪経 meditation treatises which were influential early meditation texts mostly based on the Yogacara meditation teachings of the Sarvastivada school of Kashmir circa 1st 4th centuries CE 25 The five main types of meditation in the Dhyana sutras are anapanasati mindfulness of breathing paṭikulamanasikara meditation mindfulness of the impurities of the body loving kindness maitri meditation the contemplation on the twelve links of pratityasamutpada and the contemplation on the Buddha s thirty two Characteristics 26 Other important translators of meditation texts were Kumarajiva 334 413 CE who translated The Sutra on the Concentration of Sitting Meditation amongst many other texts and Buddhabhadra These Chinese translations of mostly Indian Sarvastivada Yogacara meditation manuals were the basis for the meditation techniques of Chinese Chan web 1 Buddhism was exposed to Confucian 27 and Taoist 28 29 influences when it came to China Goddard quotes D T Suzuki note 3 calling Chan a natural evolution of Buddhism under Taoist conditions 30 Buddhism was first identified to be a barbarian variant of Taoism and Taoist terminology was used to express Buddhist doctrines in the oldest translations of Buddhist texts 29 a practice termed ko i matching the concepts 31 Judging from the reception by the Han of the Hinayana works and from the early commentaries it appears that Buddhism was being perceived and digested through the medium of religious Daoism Taoism Buddha was seen as a foreign immortal who had achieved some form of Daoist nondeath The Buddhists mindfulness of the breath was regarded as an extension of Daoist breathing exercises 32 The first Buddhist recruits in China were Taoists 29 They developed high esteem for the newly introduced Buddhist meditational techniques 33 and blended them with Taoist meditation 34 Representatives of early Chinese Buddhism like Sengzhao and Tao Sheng were deeply influenced by the Taoist keystone works of Laozi and Zhuangzi 35 Against this background especially the Taoist concept of naturalness was inherited by the early Chan disciples 36 they equated to some extent the ineffable Tao and Buddha nature 37 and thus rather than feeling bound to the abstract wisdom of the sutras emphasized Buddha nature to be found in everyday human life just as the Tao 37 Chinese Buddhism absorbed Neo Daoist concepts as well 31 Concepts such as T i yung 體用 Essence and Function and Li shih 理事 Noumenon and Phenomenon or Principle and Practice first appeared in Hua yen Buddhism 31 which consequently influenced Chan deeply 38 On the other hand Taoists at first misunderstood sunyata to be akin to the Taoist non being 39 The emerging Chinese Buddhism nevertheless had to compete with Taoism and Confucianism 27 Because Buddhism was a foreign influence however and everything barbarian was suspect certain Chinese critics were jolted out of complacency by the spread of the dharma In the first four centuries of the Christian Era this barbarian influence was infiltrating China just when it was least politically stable and more vulnerable to sedition As the philosophy and practice infiltrated society many traditionalists banded together to stop the foreign influence not so much out of intolerance an attitude flatly rejected by both Taoism and Confucianism but because they felt that the Chinese worldview was being turned upside down 27 One point of confusion for this new emerging Chinese Buddhism was the two truths doctrine Chinese thinking took this to refer to two ontological truths reality exists on two levels a relative level and an absolute level 40 Taoists at first misunderstood sunyata to be akin to the Taoist non being 41 In Indian Madhyamaka philosophy the two truths are two epistemological truths two different ways to look at reality Based on their understanding of the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra the Chinese supposed that the teaching of Buddha nature was as stated by that sutra the final Buddhist teaching and that there is an essential truth above sunyata and the two truths 42 Divisions of training Edit When Buddhism came to China there were three divisions of training The training in virtue and discipline in the precepts Skt sila The training in mind through meditation Skt dhyana to attain a luminous and non reactive state of mind and The training in the recorded teachings Skt Dharma It was in this context that Buddhism entered into Chinese culture Three types of teachers with expertise in each training practice developed Vinaya masters specialized in all the rules of discipline for monks and nuns Dhyana masters specialized in the practice of meditation and Dharma masters specialized in the mastery of the Buddhist texts Monasteries and practice centers were created that tended to focus on either the Vinaya and training of monks or the teachings focused on one scripture or a small group of texts Dhyana Chan masters tended to practice in solitary hermitages or to be associated with Vinaya training monasteries or the dharma teaching centers The later naming of the Zen school has its origins in this view of the threefold division of training McRae goes so far as to say one important feature must not be overlooked Chan was not nearly as separate from these other types of Buddhist activities as one might think T he monasteries of which Chan monks became abbots were comprehensive institutions public monasteries that supported various types of Buddhist activities other than Chan style meditation The reader should bear this point in mind In contrast to the independent denominations of Soto and Rinzai that emerged largely by government fiat in seventeenth century Japan there was never any such thing as an institutionally separate Chan school at any time in Chinese Buddhist history emphasis McRae 43 Legendary or Proto Chan c 500 600 Edit See also Southern and Northern Dynasties and Sui dynasty Mahakasyapa and the Flower Sermon Edit The Chan tradition ascribes the origins of Chan in India to the Flower Sermon the earliest source for which comes from the 14th century 44 It is said that Gautama Buddha gathered his disciples one day for a Dharma talk When they gathered together the Buddha was completely silent and some speculated that perhaps the Buddha was tired or ill The Buddha silently held up and twirled a flower and his eyes twinkled several of his disciples tried to interpret what this meant though none of them were correct One of the Buddha s disciples Mahakasyapa gazed at the flower and smiled The Buddha then acknowledged Mahakasyapa s insight by saying the following 24 I possess the true Dharma eye the marvelous mind of Nirvaṇa the true form of the formless the subtle Dharma gate that does not rest on words or letters but is a special transmission outside of the scriptures This I entrust to Mahakasyapa First six patriarchs c 500 early 8th century Edit Main article Lineage Buddhism Traditionally the origin of Chan in China is credited to Bodhidharma an Iranian language speaking Central Asian monk 45 or an Indian monk 46 The story of his life and of the Six Patriarchs was constructed during the Tang dynasty to lend credibility to the growing Chan school 5 Only scarce historical information is available about him but his hagiography developed when the Chan tradition grew stronger and gained prominence in the early 8th century By this time a lineage of the six ancestral founders of Chan in China was developed 47 The actual origins of Chan may lie in ascetic practitioners of Buddhism who found refuge in forests and mountains 48 Huike a dhuta extreme ascetic who schooled others 48 and used the Srimala Sutra 49 one of the Tathagatagarbha sutras 50 figures in the stories about Bodhidharma Huike is regarded as the second Chan patriarch appointed by Bodhidharma to succeed him One of Huike s students Sengcan to whom is ascribed the Xinxin Ming is regarded as the third patriarch By the late 8th century under the influence of Huineng s student Shenhui the traditional list of patriarchs of the Chan lineage had been established 47 Bodhidharma 達摩 c 440 c 528 Dazu Huike 慧可 487 593 Sengcan 僧燦 606 Dayi Daoxin 道信 580 651 Daman Hongren 弘忍 601 674 Huineng 惠能 638 713In later writings this lineage was extended to include 28 Indian patriarchs In the Song of Enlightenment 證道歌 Zhengdao ge of Yongjia Xuanjue 永嘉玄覺 665 713 one of the chief disciples of Huineng it is written that Bodhidharma was the 28th patriarch in a line of descent from Mahakasyapa a disciple of Sakyamuni Buddha and the first patriarch of Chan Buddhism 51 Mahakasyapa was the first leading the line of transmission Twenty eight Fathers followed him in the West The Lamp was then brought over the sea to this country And Bodhidharma became the First Father here His mantle as we all know passed over six Fathers And by them many minds came to see the Light 52 Lankavatara Sutra Edit In its beginnings in China Chan primarily referred to the Mahayana sutras and especially to the Laṅkavatara Sutra 53 As a result early masters of the Chan tradition were referred to as Laṅkavatara masters As the Laṅkavatara Sutra teaches the doctrine of the Ekayana One Vehicle the early Chan school was sometimes referred to as the One Vehicle School 54 In other early texts the school that would later become known as Chan is sometimes even referred to as simply the Laṅkavatara school Ch 楞伽宗 Lengqie Zōng 55 Accounts recording the history of this early period are to be found in the Records of the Laṅkavatara Masters Chinese 楞伽師資記 Bodhidharma Edit Main article Bodhidharma Bodhidharma with Dazu Huike Painting by Sesshu Tōyō 15th century Bodhidharma is recorded as having come into China during the time of Southern and Northern Dynasties to teach a special transmission outside scriptures which did not stand upon words 56 Throughout Buddhist art Bodhidharma is depicted as a rather ill tempered profusely bearded and wide eyed barbarian He is referred to as The Blue Eyed Barbarian 碧眼胡 Biyǎn hu in Chinese Chan texts web 2 Only scarce historical information is available about him but his hagiography developed when the Chan tradition grew stronger and gained prominence in the early 8th century By this time a lineage of the six ancestral founders of Chan in China was developed 5 Little contemporary biographical information on Bodhidharma is extant and subsequent accounts became layered with legend 47 There are three principal sources for Bodhidharma s biography 57 The Record of the Buddhist Monasteries of Luoyang by Yang Xuanzhi s 楊衒之 547 Tan Lin s preface to the Long Scroll of the Treatise on the Two Entrances and Four Practices 6th century CE and Dayi Daoxin s Further Biographies of Eminent Monks 7th century CE These sources vary in their account of Bodhidharma being either from Persia 547 CE a Brahman monk from South India 645 CE the third son of a Brahman king of South India c 715 CE 47 Some traditions specifically describe Bodhidharma to be the third son of a Pallava king from Kanchipuram web 3 58 The Long Scroll of the Treatise on the Two Entrances and Four Practices written by Tan Lin 曇林 506 574 contains teachings that are attributed to Bodhidharma The text is known from the Dunhuang manuscripts The two entrances to enlightenment are the entrance of principle and the entrance of practice The entrance of principle is to become enlightened to the Truth on the basis of the teaching One must have a profound faith in the fact that one and the same True Nature is possessed by all sentient beings both ordinary and enlightened and that this True Nature is only covered up and made imperceptible in the case of ordinary people by false sense impressions 59 The entrance of practice includes the following four increments Practice of the retribution of enmity to accept all suffering as the fruition of past transgressions without enmity or complaint Practice of the acceptance of circumstances to remain unmoved even by good fortune recognizing it as evanescent Practice of the absence of craving to be without craving which is the source of all suffering Practice of accordance with the Dharma to eradicate wrong thoughts and practice the six perfections without having any practice 60 This text was used and studied by Huike and his students The True Nature refers to the Buddha nature 59 Huike Edit Bodhidharma settled in Northern Wei China Shortly before his death Bodhidharma appointed his disciple Dazu Huike to succeed him making Huike the first Chinese born ancestral founder and the second ancestral founder of Chan in China Bodhidharma is said to have passed three items to Huike as a sign of transmission of the Dharma a robe a bowl and a copy of the Laṅkavatara Sutra The transmission then passed to the second ancestral founder Dazu Huike the third Sengcan the fourth ancestral founder Dayi Daoxin and the fifth ancestral founder Daman Hongren Early Chan in Tang China c 600 900 Edit East Mountain Teachings Edit With the fourth patriarch Daoxin 道信 580 651 61 Chan began to take shape as a distinct school The link between Huike and Sengcan and the fourth patriarch Daoxin is far from clear and remains tenuous 48 With Daoxin and his successor the fifth patriarch Hongren 弘忍 601 674 there emerged a new style of teaching which was inspired by the Chinese text Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana 61 According to John R McRae the first explicit statement of the sudden and direct approach that was to become the hallmark of Ch an religious practice is associated with the East Mountain School 62 It is a method named Maintaining the one without wavering shou i pu i 守一不移 62 the one being the nature of mind which is equated with Buddha nature 63 In this practice one turns the attention from the objects of experience to the perceiving subject itself 64 According to McRae this type of meditation resembles the methods of virtually all schools of Mahayana Buddhism but differs in that no preparatory requirements no moral prerequisites or preliminary exercises are given and is without steps or gradations One concentrates understands and is enlightened all in one undifferentiated practice 62 note 4 Sharf notes that the notion of Mind came to be criticised by radical subitists and was replaced by No Mind to avoid any reifications 66 note 5 A large group of students gathered at a permanent residence and extreme asceticism became outdated 48 The period of Daoxin and Hongren came to be called the East Mountain Teaching due to the location of the residence of Hongren at Huangmei 68 5 The term was used by Yuquan Shenxiu 神秀 606 706 the most important successor to Hongren 69 By this time the group had grown into a matured congregation that became significant enough to be reckoned with by the ruling forces 61 The East Mountain community was a specialized meditation training centre Hongren was a plain meditation teacher who taught students of various religious interests including practitioners of the Lotus Sutra students of Madhyamaka philosophy or specialists in the monastic regulations of Buddhist Vinaya 70 The school was typified by a loose practice 71 aiming to make meditation accessible to a larger audience 71 Shenxiu used short formulas extracted from various sutras to package the teachings 71 a style which is also used in the Platform Sutra 71 The establishment of a community in one location was a change from the wandering lives of Bodhidharma and Huike and their followers 70 It fitted better into the Chinese society which highly valued community oriented behaviour instead of solitary practice 72 In 701 Shenxiu was invited to the Imperial Court by Zhou Empress Wu Zetian who paid him due to imperial reverence The first lineage documents were produced in this period T he genealogical presentation of the Chan transmission was first recorded on paper in the early years of metropolitan Chan activity The earliest recorded instance of this was in the epitaph for a certain Faru a student of Hongren s who died in 689 and by the second decade of the 8th century the later followers of Hongren had produced two separate texts describing the transmission from Bodhidharma to Shenxiu 73 The transition from the East Mountain to the two capitals changed the character of Chan I t was only when Hongren s successors moved into the environment of the two capitals with its literate society and incomparably larger urban scale that well written texts were required for disseminating the teaching 74 Members of the East Mountain Teaching shifted the alleged scriptural basis realizing that the Awakening of Faith is not a sutra but a sastra commentary and fabricated a lineage of Lankavatara Sutra masters as being the sutra that preluded the Awakening of Faith 49 Southern School Huineng and Shenhui Edit Huineng tearing sutras See also Subitism According to tradition the sixth and last ancestral founder Huineng 惠能 638 713 was one of the giants of Chan history and all surviving schools regard him as their ancestor 75 The dramatic story of Huineng s life tells that there was a controversy over his claim to the title of patriarch After being chosen by Hongren the fifth ancestral founder Huineng had to flee by night to Nanhua Temple in the south to avoid the wrath of Hongren s jealous senior disciples Modern scholarship however has questioned this narrative Historic research reveals that this story was created around the middle of the 8th century as part of a campaign to win influence at the Imperial Court in 731 by a successor to Huineng called Shenhui He claimed Huineng to be the successor of Hongren instead of Shenxiu the recognized successor 47 A dramatic story of Huineng s life was created as narrated in the Platform Sutra which tells that there was a contest for the transmission of the title of patriarch After being chosen by Hongren the fifth patriarch Huineng had to flee by night to Nanhua Temple in the south to avoid the wrath of Hongren s jealous senior disciples 5 68 Shenhui succeeded in his campaign and Huineng eventually came to be regarded as the Sixth Patriarch 68 5 In 745 Shenhui was invited to take up residence in the Heze Temple in the capital Dongdu modern Luoyang In 753 he fell out of grace and had to leave Dongdu to go into exile The most prominent of the successors of Shenhui s lineage was Guifeng Zongmi 76 According to Zongmi Shenhui s approach was officially sanctioned in 796 when an imperial commission determined that the Southern line of Ch an represented the orthodox transmission and established Shen hui as the seventh patriarch placing an inscription to that effect in the Shen lung temple 77 Doctrinally Shenhui s Southern School is associated with the teaching that enlightenment is sudden while the Northern or East Mountain school is associated with the teaching that enlightenment is gradual This was a polemical exaggeration since both schools were derived from the same tradition and the so called Southern School incorporated many teachings of the more influential Northern School 47 Eventually both schools died out but the influence of Shenhui was so immense that all later Chan schools traced their origin to Huineng and sudden enlightenment became a standard doctrine of Chan 47 Shenhui s influence is traceable in the Platform Sutra which gives a popular account of the story of Huineng but also reconciles the antagonism created by Shenhui Salient is that Shenhui himself does not figure in the Platform Sutra he was effectively written out of Chan history 78 The Platform Sutra also reflects the growing popularity of the Diamond Sutra Vajracchedika Prajnaparamita Sutra in 8th century Chinese Buddhism 79 80 Thereafter the essential texts of the Chan school were often considered to be both the Laṅkavatara Sutra and the Diamond Sutra 81 The Laṅkavatara Sutra which endorses the Buddha nature emphasized purity of mind which can be attained in gradations The Diamond sutra emphasizes sunyata which must be realized totally or not at all 80 David Kalupahana associates the later Caodong school Japanese Sōtō gradual and Linji school Japanese Rinzai school sudden schools with the Yogacara and Madhyamaka philosophies respectively 82 The same comparison has been made by McRae 83 The Madhyamaka school elaborated on the theme of sunyata which was set forth in the prajnaparamita sutras to which the Diamond Sutra also belongs 82 The shift from the Laṅkavatara Sutra to the Diamond Sutra also signifies a tension between Buddha nature teachings which imply a transcendental reality versus sunyata which denies such a transcendental reality Tibetan Chan Edit Chinese Chan Buddhist teachers such as Moheyan first went to Tibet in the eighth century during the height of the Tibetan Empire 84 There seems to have been disputes between them and Indian Buddhists as exemplified by the Samye debate Many Tibetan Chan texts have been recovered from the caves at Dunhuang where Chan and Tantric Buddhists lived side by side and this led to religious syncretism in some cases 85 Chan Buddhism survived in Tibet for several centuries 86 but had mostly been replaced by the 10th century developments in Tibetan Buddhism According to Sam Van Schaik After the dark period all visible influences of Chan were eliminated from Tibetan Buddhism and Mahayoga and Chan were carefully distinguished from each other This trend can already be observed in the tenth century Lamp for the Eyes in Contemplation by the great central Tibetan scholar Gnubs chen Sangs rgyas ye shes This influential work represented a crucial step in the codification of Chan Mahayoga and the Great Perfection as distinct vehicles to enlightenment In comparison our group of Dunhuang manuscripts exhibits remarkable freedom blurring the lines between meditation systems that were elsewhere kept quite distinct The system of practice set out in these manuscripts did not survive into the later Tibetan tradition Indeed this creative integration of meditation practices derived from both Indic and Chinese traditions could only have been possible during the earliest years of Tibetan Buddhism when doctrinal categories were still forming and in this sense it represents an important stage in the Tibetan assimilation of Buddhism 85 Classical or Middle Chan Tang dynasty c 750 1000 Edit Daoxin Hongren Shenxiu Huineng and Shenhui all lived during the early Tang The later period of the Tang dynasty is traditionally regarded as the golden age of Chan This proliferation is described in a famous saying 87 Look at the territory of the house of Tang The whole of it is the realm of the Chan school An Lu shan rebellion Edit The An Lushan Rebellion 755 763 led to a loss of control by the Tang dynasty and changed the Chan scene again Metropolitan Chan began to lose its status while other schools were arising in outlying areas controlled by warlords These are the forerunners of the Chan we know today Their origins are obscure the power of Shen hui s preaching is shown by the fact that they all trace themselves to Hui neng 88 Hung chou School Edit Main article Hongzhou school Rinzai The most important of these schools is the Hongzhou school 洪州宗 of Mazu to which also belong Shitou Baizhang Huaihai Huangbo and Linji Rinzai Linji is also regarded as the founder of one of the Five Houses This school developed shock techniques such as shouting beating and using irrational retorts to startle their students into realization 89 51 Some of these are common today while others are found mostly in anecdotes It is common in many Chan traditions today for Chan teachers to have a stick with them during formal ceremonies which is a symbol of authority and which can be also used to strike on the table during a talk These shock techniques became part of the traditional and still popular image of Chan masters displaying irrational and strange behaviour to aid their students 47 90 Part of this image was due to later misinterpretations and translation errors such as the loud belly shout known as katsu Katsu means to shout which has traditionally been translated as yelled katsu which should mean yelled a yell web 4 A well known story depicts Mazu practicing dhyana but being rebuked by his teacher Nanyue Huairang comparing seated meditation with polishing a tile 91 According to Faure the criticism is not about dhyana as such but the idea of becoming a Buddha by means of any practice lowered to the standing of a means to achieve an end 91 The criticism of seated dhyana reflects a change in the role and position of monks in Tang society who undertook only pious works reciting sacred texts and remaining seated in dhyana 92 Nevertheless seated dhyana remained an important part of the Chan tradition also due to the influence of Guifeng Zongmi who tried to balance dhyana and insight 92 The Hung chou school has been criticised for its radical subitism Guifeng Zongmi 圭峰 宗密 780 841 an influential teacher scholar and patriarch of both the Chan and the Huayan school claimed that the Hongzhou school teaching led to a radical nondualism that denies the need for spiritual cultivation and moral discipline While Zongmi acknowledged that the essence of Buddha nature and its functioning in the day to day reality are but different aspects of the same reality he insisted that there is a difference 93 Shitou Xiqian Edit Traditionally Shitou Xiqian Ch 石頭希遷 c 700 c 790 is seen as the other great figure of this period In the Chan lineages he is regarded as the predecessor of the Caodong Sōtō school 94 He is also regarded as the author of the Sandokai a poem which formed the basis for the Song of the Precious Mirror Samadhi of Dongshan Liangjie Jp Tōzan Ryōkan and the teaching of the Five Ranks 95 96 The Great Persecution Edit During 845 846 Emperor Wuzong persecuted the Buddhist schools in China It was a desperate attempt on the part of the hard pressed central government which had been in disarray since the An Lu shan rebellion of 756 to gain some measure of political economic and military relief by preying on the Buddhist temples with their immense wealth and extensive lands 97 This persecution was devastating for metropolitan Chan but the Chan school of Ma tsu and his likes had survived and took a leading role in the Chan of the later Tang 97 Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period 907 960 979 Edit See also Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period After the fall of the Tang dynasty China was without effective central control during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period China was divided into several autonomous regions Support for Buddhism was limited to a few areas The Hua yen and T ient tai schools suffered from the changing circumstances since they had depended on imperial support The collapse of T ang society also deprived the aristocratic classes of wealth and influence which meant a further drawback for Buddhism Shenxiu s Northern School and Henshui s Southern School didn t survive the changing circumstances Nevertheless Chan emerged as the dominant stream within Chinese Buddhism but with various schools developing various emphasises in their teachings due to the regional orientation of the period The Fayan school named after Fa yen Wen i 885 958 became the dominant school in the southern kingdoms of Nan T ang Jiangxi Chiang hsi and Wuyue Che chiang 98 Literary Chan Song dynasty c 960 1300 Edit See also Song dynasty The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period was followed by the Song dynasty which established a strong central government During the Song dynasty Chan 禪 was used by the government to strengthen its control over the country and Chan grew to become the largest sect in Chinese Buddhism An ideal picture of the Chan of the Tang period was produced which served the legacy of this newly acquired status In the Song dynasty 960 1279 Chinese Chan Buddhism reached something of a climax paradigm By climax paradigm I mean a conceptual configuration by which Chan was described in written texts practiced by its adherents and by extension understood as a religious entity by the Chinese population as a whole Previous events in Chan were interpreted through the lens of the Song dynasty configuration and subsequent developments in China Korea Japan and Vietnam were evaluated even as they occurred against what was known of the standards established during the Song Thus the romanticized image of the great Tang dynasty masters Mazu and his students Caoshan Dongshan and their students and of course Linji was generated by Song dynasty authors and functioned within Song dynasty texts Similarly even where subsequent figures throughout East Asia Hakuin Ekaku 1685 1769 the famous reviver of Japanese Rinzai is the best example evoke the examples of Bodhidharma the Sixth Patriarch Huineng Mazu and the others they do so through the conceptual filter of Song dynasty Chan 99 Five Houses of Chan Edit See also Five Houses of Chan During the Song the Five Houses Ch 五家 of Chan or five schools were recognized These were not originally regarded as schools or sects but based on the various Chan genealogies Historically they have come to be understood as schools The Five Houses of Chan are 4 Guiyang school 潙仰宗 named after masters Guishan Lingyou 771 854 and Yangshan Huiji 813 890 dharma descendants of Mazu Daoyi 100 Linji school 臨濟宗 named after master Linji Yixuan died 866 whose lineage came to be traced to Mazu establishing him as the archetypal iconoclastic Chan master 101 Caodong school 曹洞宗 named after masters Dongshan Liangjie 807 869 and Caoshan Benji 840 901 Yunmen school 雲門宗 named after master Yunmen Wenyan died 949 a student of Xuefeng Yicun 822 908 whose lineage was traced to Shitou Xiqian 102 Fayan school 法眼宗 named after master Fayan Wenyi 885 958 a grand student of Xuefeng Yicun Rise of the Linji school Edit Main article Linji school The Linji school became the dominant school within Chan due to support from the literati and the court 101 Before the Song dynasty the Linji school is rather obscure and very little is known about its early history 68 The first mention of Linji is in the Zutang ji compiled in 952 86 years after Linji s death 101 But the Zutang ji pictures the Xuefeng Yicun lineage as heir to the legacy of Mazu and the Hongzhou school 101 According to Welter the real founder of the Linji school was Shoushan or Baoying Shengnian 首山省念 926 993 a fourth generation dharma heir of Linji The Tiansheng Guangdeng lu 天聖廣燈錄 Tiansheng Era Expanded Lamp Record compiled by the official Li Zunxu 李遵勗 988 1038 confirms the status of Shoushan Shengnian but also pictures Linji as a major Chan patriarch and heir to the Mazu displacing the prominence of the Fayan lineage 101 It also established the slogan of a special transmission outside the teaching supporting the Linji school claim of Chan as separate from and superior to all other Buddhist teachings 103 Dahui Zonggao Edit Over the course of Song dynasty 960 1279 the Guiyang Fayan and Yunmen schools were gradually absorbed into the Linji Song Chan was dominated by the Linji school of Dahui Zonggao which in turn became strongly affiliated to the Imperial Court the Ta hui school of Sung Chan had become closely associated with the Sung court high officials and the literati With the establishment of the Wu shan Gozan system during the Southern Sung the school of Ta hui took precedence The Chinese bureaucratic system entered into Chan temples throughout the country and a highly organized system of temple rank and administration developed 104 The Wu shan system was a system of state controlled temples which were established by the Song government in all provinces 105 Koan system Edit The teaching styles and words of the classical masters were recorded in the so called encounter dialogues 47 Snippets of these encounter dialogues were collected in texts as the Blue Cliff Record 1125 of Yuanwu The Gateless Gate 1228 of Wumen both of the Linji lineage and the Book of Equanimity 1223 by Wansong Xingxiu of the Caodong lineage These texts became classic gōng an cases together with verse and prose commentaries which crystallized into the systematized gōng an koan practice According to Miura and Sasaki I t was during the lifetime of Yuan wu s successor Dahui Zonggao 大慧宗杲 1089 1163 that Koan Chan entered its determinative stage 106 Gōng an practice was prevalent in the Linji school to which Yuanwu and Dahui belonged but it was also employed on a more limited basis by the Caodong school The recorded encounter dialogues and the koan collections which derived from this genre mark a shift from solitary practice to the interaction between master and student The essence of enlightenment came to be identified with the interaction between masters and students Whatever insight dhyana might bring its verification was always interpersonal In effect enlightenment came to be understood not so much as an insight but as a way of acting in the world with other people 107 This mutual enquiry of the meaning of the encounters of masters and students of the past gave students a role model One looked at the enlightened activities of one s lineal forebears in order to understand one s own identity taking the role of the participants and engaging in their dialogues instead 108 note 6 Koan practice was a literary practice styling snippets of encounter dialogue into well edited stories It arose in interaction with educated literati 109 There were dangers involved in such a literary approach such as fixing specific meanings to the cases 109 Dahui Zonggao is even said to have burned the woodblocks of the Blue Cliff Record for the hindrance it had become to study of Chan by his students 110 Silent illumination Edit The Caodong was the other school to survive into the Song period Its main protagonist was Hung chih Cheng chueh a contemporary of Dahui Zonggao It put emphasis on silent illumination or just sitting This approach was attacked by Dahui as being mere passivity and lacking emphasis on gaining insight into one s true nature Cheng chueh in his turn criticized the emphasis on koan study 111 Post classical Chan c 1300 present Edit Yuan dynasty 1279 1368 Edit The Yuan dynasty was the empire established by Kublai Khan the leader of the Borjigin clan after the Mongol Empire conquered the Jin dynasty 1115 1234 and the Southern Song dynasty Chan began to be mixed with Pure Land Buddhism as in the teachings of Zhongfeng Mingben 1263 1323 During this period other Chan lineages not necessarily connected with the original lineage began to emerge with the 108th Chan Patriarch Dhyanabhadra active in both China and Korea 112 Ming dynasty 1368 1644 Edit Chan Buddhism enjoyed something of a revival in the Ming dynasty with teachers such as Hanshan Deqing 憨山德清 who wrote and taught extensively on both Chan and Pure Land Buddhism Miyun Yuanwu 密雲圓悟 who came to be seen posthumously as the first patriarch of the Ōbaku school of Zen and as Yunqi Zhuhong 雲棲祩宏 and Ouyi Zhixu 蕅益智旭 Chan was taught alongside other Buddhist traditions such as Pure Land Huayan Tiantai and Chinese Esoteric Buddhism in many monasteries In continuity with Buddhism in the previous dynasties Buddhist masters taught integrated teachings from the various traditions as opposed to advocating for any sectarian delineation between the various schools of thought 113 114 115 With the downfall of the Ming several Chan masters fled to Japan founding the Ōbaku school 116 Qing dynasty 1644 1912 Edit At the beginning of the Qing dynasty Chan was reinvented by the revival of beating and shouting practices by Miyun Yuanwu 1566 1642 and the publication of the Wudeng yantong The strict transmission of the five Chan schools by Feiyin Tongrong s 1593 1662 a dharma heir of Miyun Yuanwu The book placed self proclaimed Chan monks without proper Dharma transmission in the category of lineage unknown sifa weixiang thereby excluding several prominent Caodong monks 117 Modernisation Edit 19th century late Qing dynasty Edit Around 1900 Buddhists from other Asian countries showed a growing interest in Chinese Buddhism Anagarika Dharmapala visited Shanghai in 1893 web 5 intending to make a tour of China to arouse the Chinese Buddhists to send missionaries to India to restore Buddhism there and then to start a propaganda throughout the whole world but eventually limiting his stay to Shanghai web 5 Japanese Buddhist missionaries were active in China in the beginning of the 20th century web 5 Republic of China 1912 1949 First Buddhist Revival Edit See also Republic of China 1912 49 Traditional Chan Buddhist Grand Master Wei Chueh in Taiwan sitting in meditation The modernisation of China led to the end of the Chinese Empire and the installation of the Republic of China which lasted on the mainland until the Communist Revolution and the installation of the People s Republic of China in 1949 After further centuries of decline during the Qing Chan was revived again in the early 20th century by Hsu Yun 虛雲 a well known figure of 20th century Chinese Buddhism Many Chan teachers today trace their lineage to Hsu Yun including Sheng Yen 聖嚴 and Hsuan Hua 宣化 who have propagated Chan in the West where it has grown steadily through the 20th and 21st century The Buddhist reformist Taixu propagated a Chan influenced humanistic Buddhism which is endorsed by Jing Hui former abbot of Bailin Monastery 118 Until 1949 monasteries were built in the Southeast Asian countries for example by monks of Guanghua Monastery to spread Chinese Buddhism Presently Guanghua Monastery has seven branches in the Malay Peninsula and Indonesia web 6 People s Republic of China 1949 present Second Buddhist Revival Edit See also China Chan was repressed in China during the recent modern era in the early periods of the People s Republic but subsequently has been re asserting itself on the mainland and has a significant following in Taiwan and Hong Kong as well as among Overseas Chinese Since the Chinese economic reform of the 1970s a new revival of Chinese Buddhism has been ongoing 119 42 web 7 web 8 Ancient Buddhist temples such as Bailin Monastery and Guanghua Monastery have been refurbished Bailin Monastery was ruined long before 1949 118 In 1988 Jing Hui was persuaded to take over the Hebei Buddhist Association and start rebuilding the Monastery 118 Jing Hui is a student 118 and dharma successor web 9 of Hsu Yun but has also adopted the Humanistic Buddhism of Taixu 118 note 7 note 8 Guanghua Monastery was restored beginning in 1979 when a six year restoration program began under the supervision of then 70 year old Venerable Master Yuanzhou 圆拙老法师 In 1983 the temple became one of the Chinese Buddhism Regional Temples 汉族地区全国重点寺院 whilst 36 year old Master Yiran 毅然法師 became abbot The same year Venerable Master Yuanzhou funded the establishment of the new Fujian Buddhism Academy 福建佛学院 on the site Taiwan Edit See also Taiwan and Buddhism in Taiwan Several Chinese Buddhist teachers left China during the Communist Revolution and settled in Hong Kong and Taiwan Sheng Yen 1930 2009 was the founder of the Dharma Drum Mountain a Buddhist organization based in Taiwan During his time in Taiwan Sheng Yen was well known as one of the progressive Buddhist teachers who sought to teach Buddhism in a modern and Western influenced world As such Sheng yen published over 30 Chan texts in English 120 121 122 Wei Chueh 1928 2016 was born in Sichuan China and ordained in Taiwan In 1982 he founded Lin Quan Temple in Taipei County and became known for his teaching on Ch an practices by offering many lectures and seven day Ch an retreats His order is called Chung Tai Shan Two additional traditions emerged in the 1960s based their teaching on Ch an practices Cheng Yen born 1937 a Buddhist nun founded the Tzu Chi Foundation as a charity organization with Buddhist origins on 14 May 1966 in Hualien Taiwan She was inspired by her master and mentor the late Venerable Master Yin Shun 印順導師 Yin Shun dǎoshi a proponent of Humanistic Buddhism who exhorted her to work for Buddhism and for all sentient beings The organisation began with a motto of instructing the rich and saving the poor as a group of thirty housewives who donated a small amount of money each day to care for needy families 123 Hsing Yun born 1927 founded the Fo Guang Shan an international Chinese Buddhist new religious movement based in Taiwan in 1967 The order promotes Humanistic Buddhism Fo Guang Shan also calls itself the International Buddhist Progress Society The headquarters of Fo Guang Shan located in Dashu District Kaohsiung is the largest Buddhist monastery in Taiwan Hsing Yun s stated position within Fo Guang Shan is that it is an amalgam of all Eight Schools of Chinese Buddhism 八宗兼弘 including Chan Fo Guang Shan is the most comprehensive of the major Buddhist organizations of Taiwan focusing extensively on both social works and religious engagement 124 In Taiwan these four masters are popularly referred to as the Four Heavenly Kings of Taiwanese Buddhism with their respective organizations Dharma Drum Mountain Chung Tai Shan Tzu Chi and Fo Guang Shan being referred to as the Four Great Mountains 125 126 Spread of Chan Buddhism in Asia EditSee also Spread of Chan Buddhism in Asia Thiền in Vietnam Edit See also Vietnamese Thiền and Buddhism in Vietnam According to traditional accounts of Vietnam in 580 an Indian monk named Vinitaruci Vietnamese Ti ni đa lưu chi traveled to Vietnam after completing his studies with Sengcan the third patriarch of Chinese Chan This then would be the first appearance of Thiền Buddhism Other early Thiền schools included that of Wu Yantong Chinese 無言通 Vietnamese Vo Ngon Thong which was associated with the teachings of Mazu Daoyi and the Thảo Đường Caodong which incorporated nianfo chanting techniques both were founded by Chinese monks Seon in Korea Edit See also Korean Seon and Korean Buddhism Seon was gradually transmitted into Korea during the late Silla period 7th through 9th centuries as Korean monks of predominantly Hwaeom Korean 화엄종 Hanja 華嚴宗 and East Asian Yogacara Korean 유식종 Hanja 唯識宗 background began to travel to China to learn the newly developing tradition Seon received its most significant impetus and consolidation from the Goryeo monk Jinul 知訥 1158 1210 who established a reform movement and introduced kōan practice to Korea Jinul established the Songgwangsa 松廣寺 as a new center of pure practice Zen in Japan Edit See also Japanese Zen Zen was not introduced as a separate school in Japan until the 12th century when Eisai traveled to China and returned to establish a Linji lineage which is known in Japan as the Rinzai In 1215 Dōgen a younger contemporary of Eisai s journeyed to China himself where he became a disciple of the Caodong master Rujing After his return Dōgen established the Sōtō school the Japanese branch of Caodong The schools of Zen that currently exist in Japan are the Sōtō Rinzai and Ōbaku Of these Sōtō is the largest and Ōbaku the smallest Rinzai is itself divided into several subschools based on temple affiliation including Myōshin ji Nanzen ji Tenryu ji Daitoku ji and Tōfuku ji Chan in Indonesia Edit See also Buddhism in Indonesia and Ashin Jinarakkhita In the 20th century during the First Buddhist revival missionaries were sent to Indonesia and Malaysia Ashin Jinarakkhita who played a central role in the revival of Indonesian Buddhism received ordination as a Chan sramaṇera on July 29 1953 web 14 and received the name Ti Zheng Te Cheng from bhikṣu Ben Qing Chan in the Western world EditSee also Buddhism in the West and Japanese Zen Zen in the Western world Chan has become especially popular in its Japanese form Although it is difficult to trace when the West first became aware of Chan as a distinct form of Buddhism the visit of Soyen Shaku a Japanese Zen monk to Chicago during the 1893 Parliament of the World s Religions is often pointed to as an event that enhanced its profile in the Western world It was during the late 1950s and the early 1960s that the number of Westerners pursuing a serious interest in Zen other than the descendants of Asian immigrants reached a significant level Western Chan lineages Edit See also Western Zen lineages Covering over 480 acres of land and located in Talmage California the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas was founded by Hsuan Hua The first Chinese master to teach Westerners in North America was Hsuan Hua who taught Chan and other traditions of Chinese Buddhism in San Francisco during the early 1960s He went on to found the City Of Ten Thousand Buddhas a monastery and retreat center located on a 237 acre 959 000 m2 property near Ukiah California and thus founding the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association Another Chinese Chan teacher with a Western following was Sheng Yen a master trained in both the Caodong and Linji schools He first visited the United States in 1978 under the sponsorship of the Buddhist Association of the United States and subsequently founded the CMC Chan Meditation Center in Queens New York and the Dharma Drum Retreat Center in Pine Bush New York web 15 Doctrinal background EditMain article Doctrinal background of Zen Though Zen narrative states that it is a special transmission outside scriptures which did not stand upon words 127 Zen does have a rich doctrinal background Polarities Edit Classical Chinese Chan is characterised by a set of polarities 128 absolute relative 129 Buddha nature sunyata 130 sudden and gradual enlightenment 131 esoteric and exoteric transmission 132 Absolute relative Edit The Prajnaparamita sutras and Madhyamaka emphasize the non duality of form and emptiness form is emptiness emptiness is form as the Heart sutra says 129 This was understood to mean that ultimate reality is not a transcendental realm but equal to the daily world of relative reality This idea fitted into the Chinese culture which emphasized the mundane world and society But this does not fully explain how the absolute is present in the relative world This question is answered in such schemata as the Five Ranks of Tozan 133 the Ten Bulls the Oxherding Pictures and Hakuin s Four ways of knowing 134 The Madhyamaka two truths doctrine and the Yogacara three natures and Trikaya doctrines also give depictions of the interplay between the absolute and the relative Buddha nature and sunyata Edit When Buddhism was introduced in China it was understood in native terms Various sects struggled to attain an understanding of the Indian texts The Tathagatagarbha sutras and the idea of the Buddha nature were endorsed because of the perceived similarities with the Tao which was understood as a transcendental reality underlying the world of appearances Sunyata at first was understood as pointing to the Taoist wu 32 135 The doctrine of the Buddha nature asserts that all sentient beings have Buddha nature Skt Buddhadhatu Buddha Element Buddha Principle the element from which awakening springs The Tathagatagarbha sutras state that every living being has the potential to realize awakening 136 Hence Buddhism offers salvation to everyone not only to monks or those who have freed themselves almost completely from karma in previous lives citation needed The Yogacara theory of the Eight Consciousnesses explains how sensory input and the mind create the world we experience and obscure the alaya jnana which is equated to the Buddha nature 137 When this potential is realized and the defilements have been eliminated the Buddha nature manifests as the Dharmakaya the absolute reality which pervades everything in the world 136 In this way it is also the primordial reality from which phenomenal reality springs When this understanding is idealized it becomes a transcendental reality beneath the world of appearances 138 Sunyata points to the emptiness or no thing ness of all things Though we perceive a world of concrete and discrete objects designated by names on close analysis the thingness dissolves leaving them empty of inherent existence 139 The Heart sutra a text from the prajnaparamita sutras articulates this in the following saying in which the five skandhas are said to be empty Yogacara explains this emptiness in an analysis of the way we perceive things Everything we conceive of is the result of the working of the five skandhas results of perception feeling volition and discrimination note 9 The five skandhas together compose consciousness The things we are conscious of are mere concepts not noumenon 137 It took Chinese Buddhism several centuries to recognize that sunyata is not identical to wu 32 140 nor does Buddhism postulate a permanent soul 32 The influence of those various doctrinal and textual backgrounds is still discernible in Zen Zen teachers still refer to Buddha nature but the Zen tradition also emphasizes that Buddha nature is sunyata the absence of an independent and substantial self 32 Sudden and gradual enlightenment Edit Avalokitesvara sitting in meditation In Zen Buddhism two main views on the way to enlightenment are discernible namely sudden and gradual enlightenment Early Chan recognized the transcendence of the body and mind followed by non defilement of knowledge and perception or sudden insight into the true nature jianxing followed by gradual purification of intentions 141 In the 8th century Chan history was effectively refashioned by Shenhui who created a dichotomy between the so called East Mountain Teaching or Northern School led by Yuquan Shenxiu and his own line of teaching which he called the Southern school 142 Shenhui placed Huineng into prominence as the sixth Chan patriarch and emphasized sudden enlightenment as opposed to the concurrent Northern School s alleged gradual enlightenment 142 According to the sudden enlightenment propagated by Shenhui insight into true nature is sudden thereafter there can be no misunderstanding anymore about this true nature In the Platform Sutra the dichotomy between sudden and gradual is reconciled 143 Guifeng Zongmi fifth generation successor to Shenhui also softened the edge between sudden and gradual In his analysis sudden awakening points to seeing into one s true nature but is to be followed by a gradual cultivation to attain Buddhahood 144 This gradual cultivation is also recognized by Dongshan Liangjie Japanese Tōzan who described the five ranks of enlightenment web 16 Esoteric and exoteric transmission Edit According to Borup the emphasis on mind to mind transmission is a form of esoteric transmission in which the tradition and the enlightened mind is transmitted face to face 132 Metaphorically this can be described as the transmission from a flame from one candle to another candle 132 or the transmission from one vein to another 145 In exoteric transmission requires direct access to the teaching through a personal discovery of one s self This type of transmission and identification is symbolized by the discovery of a shining lantern or a mirror 132 Chan scripture Edit Main article Zen and Sutras Chan is deeply rooted in the teachings and doctrines of Mahayana Buddhism What the Chan tradition emphasizes is that the enlightenment of the Buddha came not through intellectual reasoning but rather through self realization in Dharma practice and meditation Therefore it is held that it is primarily through Dharma practice and meditation that others may attain enlightenment and become Buddhas as well A review of the early historical documents and literature of early Chan masters clearly reveals that they were all well versed in numerous Mahayana Buddhist sutras For example in the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch Huineng cites and explains the Diamond Sutra the Lotus Sutra Saddharma Puṇḍarika Sutra the Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra the Suraṅgama Sutra and the Laṅkavatara Sutra The Chan school had to develop a doctrinal tradition of its own to establish its position citation needed Subsequently the Chan tradition produced a rich corpus of written literature which has become a part of its practice and teaching Among the earliest and most widely studied of the specifically Chan texts dating to at least the 9th century CE is the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch attributed to Huineng The most important Chan texts belong to the encounter dialogue genre which developed into various collections of kōans Teaching and practice EditSee also Zen practiceBodhisattva ideal Edit As a school of Mahayana Buddhism Chan draws many of its basic driving concepts from that tradition such as the Bodhisattva ideal Karuṇa is the counterpart of prajna Avalokitesvara embodies the striving for Karuna compassion 146 note 10 Central to Chan practice is dhyana or meditation In the Lin ji Rinzai school this is supplemented with koan study Chan meditation Edit In meditation practice the Chan tradition holds that the very notions of doctrine and teachings create various other notions and appearances Skt saṃjna Ch 相 xiang that obscure the transcendent wisdom of each being s Buddha nature Thus Chan encourages its practitioners to distrust the very scripture or text being taught to them 147 The process of rediscovery goes under various terms such as introspection a backward step turning about or turning the eye inward Sitting meditation Edit Main article Zazen Sitting meditation is called zuochan 坐禅 zazen in Japanese both simply meaning sitting dhyana During this sitting meditation practitioners usually assume a position such as the lotus position half lotus Burmese or seiza postures To regulate the mind awareness is directed towards counting or watching the breath or put in the energy center below the navel see also anapanasati web 17 Often a square or round cushion placed on a padded mat is used to sit on in some other cases a chair may be used At the beginning of the Song dynasty practice with the koan method became popular whereas others practiced silent illumination 148 This became the source of some differences in practice between the Linji and Caodong traditions Koan practice Edit Main article Koan A koan literally public case is a story or dialogue generally related to Chan or other Buddhist histories the most typical form is an anecdote involving early Chinese Chan masters These anecdotes involving famous Chan teachers are a practical demonstration of their wisdom and can be used to test a student s progress in Chan practice Koans often appear to be paradoxical or linguistically meaningless dialogues or questions But to Chan Buddhists the koan is the place and the time and the event where truth reveals itself 149 unobstructed by the oppositions and differentiation of language Answering a koan requires a student to let go of conceptual thinking and of the logical way we order the world so that like creativity in art the appropriate insight and response arises naturally and spontaneously in the mind Chan monasticism EditChan developed a distinct monastic system Emphasizing daily life Edit As the Chan school grew in China the monastic discipline also became distinct focusing on practice through all aspects of life Temples began emphasizing labor and humility expanding the training of Chan to include the mundane tasks of daily life The Chinese Chan master Baizhang 720 814 CE left behind a famous saying which had been the guiding principle of his life A day without work is a day without food web 18 Sinification of Buddhism in China Edit It was scholar D T Suzuki s contention that a spiritual awakening was always the goal of Chan s training but that part of what distinguished the tradition as it developed through the centuries in China was a way of life radically different from that of Indian Buddhists In Indian Buddhism the tradition of the mendicant prevailed but Suzuki explained that in China social circumstances led to the development of a temple and training center system in which the abbot and the monks all performed mundane tasks These included food gardening or farming carpentry architecture housekeeping administration or community direction and the practice of Traditional Chinese medicine Consequently the enlightenment sought in Chan had to stand up well to the demands and potential frustrations of everyday life 150 151 See also EditBlue Cliff Record Hua Tou Buddhism Outline of Buddhism Timeline of Buddhism List of Buddhists Chinese Buddhism Japanese Zen YiduanNotes Edit McRae gives no further information on this Hubei faction It may be the continuation of Shenxiu s Northern School See Nadeau 2012 p 89 12 Hebei was also the place where the Linji branch of chan arose 13 During the Ming dynasty 1368 1644 and the Qing dynasty 1644 1912 Chan was part of a larger syncretic Buddhist culture A final phase can be distinguished from the 19th century onward when western imperialism had a growing influence in South East Asia including China A side effect of this imperial influence was the modernisation of Asian religions adapting them to western ideas and rhetorical strategies 19 Godard does not provide a source for this quote It first appears in a Chinese text named the Ju tao an hsin yao fang pien fa men JTFM Instructions on essential expedients for calming the mind and accessing the path itself a part of the Leng Ch ieh Shih Tzu Chi Records of the Masters of the Lankavatara 62 The Records of the Masters of the Lankavatara is associated with the early Chan tradition known as the East Mountain School and has been dated to around 713 65 Compare Mazu s Mind is Buddha versus No mind no Buddha When Ch an Master Fa ch ang of Ta mei Mountain went to see the Patriarch for the first time he asked What is Buddha The Patriarch replied Mind is Buddha On hearing this Fa ch ang had great awakening Later he went to live on Ta mei mountain When the Patriarch heard that he was residing on the mountain he sent one of his monks to go there and ask Fa ch ang What did the Venerable obtain when he saw Ma tsu so that he has come to live on this mountain Fach ang said Ma tsu told me that mind is Buddha so I came to live here The monk said Ma tsu s teaching has changed recently Fa ch ang asked What is the difference The monk said Nowadays he also says Neither mind nor Buddha Fa ch ang said That old man still hasn t stopped confusing people You can have neither mind nor Buddha I only care for mind is Buddha The monk returned to the Patriarch and reported what has happened The plum is ripe said the Patriarch 67 This role taking is described by the Swedish psychologist of religion Hjalmar Sunden though McRae does not seem to be aware of this See web 10 for more information on Jinghui At least two westerners are or claim to be dharma successors to Jing Hui Lily Marie Johnson Ming Qi web 9 web 11 and Daniel Odier web 12 web 13 Translations do differ which makes a difference Vijnana can be translated as consciousness but also as discernment 137 Lathouwers 2000 221 mentions Blofeld John 1988 Bodhisattva of compassion the mystical tradition of kuan Yin Boston ShanbhalaReferences Edit Dumoulin 2005a p xvii Kasulis 2003 p 24 Hershock Peter 2019 Chan Buddhism in Zalta Edward N ed The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Spring 2019 ed Metaphysics Research Lab Stanford University retrieved 2020 01 17 a b Cleary 2005 a b c d e f g McRae 2003 Ferguson 2000 a b c Ferguson 2000 p 3 McRae 2003 p 11 15 McRae 2003 p 11 21 McRae 2003 p 13 15 17 McRae 2003 p 13 17 18 Nadeau 2012 p 89 Yanagida 2009 p 63 McRae 2003 p 13 18 19 McRae 2003 p 13 19 21 Gimello 1994 Welter 2000 McRae 2003 p 13 McMahan 2008 Maspero 1981 p 46 Grigg 1999 Gu Guo 2020 The Essence of Chan Shambala Publications pp 4 5 ISBN 9781611808711 Hinton David 2020 Ch1 Tao China Root Taoism Ch an and Original Zen Shambala Publications pp 21 26 ISBN 9781611807134 a b Dumoulin 2005a 8 9 68 166 167 169 172 Deleanu Florin 1992 Mindfulness of Breathing in the Dhyana Sutras Transactions of the International Conference of Orientalists in Japan TICOJ 37 42 57 Ven Dr Yuanci A Study of the Meditation Methods in the DESM and Other Early Chinese Texts Archived 2013 05 08 at the Wayback Machine The Buddhist Academy of China a b c Brown Holt 1995 Goddard 2007 p 10 a b c Fowler 2005 p 79 Goddard 2007 p 11 a b c Oh 2000 a b c d e Lai 2003a Dumoulin 2005a p 65 Dumoulin 2005a p 64 Dumoulin 2005a pp 70 amp 74 Dumoulin 2005a p 167 a b Dumoulin 2005a p 168 Dumoulin 2005a p 45 49 Lai 2003a p 8 Lai 2003b p 11 Lai 2003b p 8 a b Lai 2003b McRae 2003 122 Dumoulin 2005a Broughton 1999 p 54 55 Broughton 1999 p 8 a b c d e f g h i McRae 2003 a b c d Lai 1985 a b Lai 2003b p 17 McRae 2004 a b Chang 1967 Suzuki 1935 Yampolski 2003b 6 Yampolski 1967 p 29 note 87 Dumoulin 2005a p 52 Dumoulin 2005a p 85 94 Dumoulin 2005a 85 90 Zvelebil 1987 p 125 126 a b McRae 2003 29 McRae 2003 32 a b c Lai 2003a p 17 a b c d McRae 1986 p 143 Sharf 2014 p 939 951 Sharf 2014 p 939 Robert E Buswell Jr 2017 The Formation of Ch an Ideology in China and Korea The Vajrasamadhi Sutra a Buddhist Apocryphon Princeton University Press p 141 Sharf 2014 p 945 950 Cheng Chien Bhikshu 1992 a b c d Dumoulin 2005a McRae 2003 33 36 a b McRae 2003 34 a b c d Lai 2003b p 18 Kasulis 2003 25 26 McRae 2003 48 McRae 2003 49 禅宗研究一百年 Archived 2013 09 16 at the Wayback Machine Yampolski 2003a 9 Gregory 1991 p 279 McRae 2003 p 63 McRae 2003 p 62 a b Kasulis 2003 p 26 28 Huaijin 1997 p 92 a b Kalupahana 1992 p 228 236 McRae 2003 p 123 Van Schaik Tibetan Zen page 1 a b Sam van Schaik Where Chan and Tantra Meet Buddhist Syncretism in Dunhuang Zigmond The Lost Tradition of Tibetan Zen Dan Zigmond reviews Sam van Schaik s The Lost Tradition of Tibetan Zen https tricycle org magazine lost tradition tibetan zen Huaijin 1997 p 95 Yampolski 2003a 11 Kasulis 2003 pp 28 29 Heine 2008 a b Faure 1997 p 73 a b Faure 1997 p 74 Gregory 2002 Dumoulin 2005a pp 165 166 Wegner 2001 Leighton 2000 a b Yampolski 2003a 15 Welter 2000 p 86 87 McRae 2003 119 120 Yampolski 2003a a b c d e Welter 2006 Jones 2010 Young 2009 Yampolski 2003b 266 Yampolski 2003b 267 Isshu amp Sasaki 1993 13 Kasulis 2003 30 McRae 2003 p 130 a b McRae 2003 131 Yampolski 2003a 20 Dumoulin 2005a 256 257 Buswell Robert Lopez Donald 2014 The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism Princeton University Press p 1056 ISBN 9780691157863 Sharf 2002 Ma Yung fen 2011 The Revival of Tiantai Buddhism in the Late Ming On the Thought of Youxi Chuandeng 1554 1628 Thesis Columbia University doi 10 7916 d81g0t8p Sharf 2002 Dumoulin 2005b p 299 Meng Tat Chia 2011 a b c d e Feuchtwang 2010 p 189 Laliberte 2011 Chan Newsletter No 106 February 1995 https chancenter org cmc wp content uploads 2010 09 MindDharma1 pdf bare URL PDF Kraft Kenneth 1988 Zen Tradition and Transition ISBN 080213162X Biography of Dharma Master Cheng Yen tw tzuchi org Retrieved 15 September 2016 Schak David Hsiao Hsin Huang Michael 2005 06 01 Taiwan s Socially Engaged Buddhist Groups China Perspectives in French 2005 59 doi 10 4000 chinaperspectives 2803 ISSN 1996 4617 Come to Taiwan Return with good memories Info taiwan net tw Archived from the original on 2012 02 27 Retrieved 2012 02 15 Shuai J J Chen H C Chang C H 2010 12 01 Visualization of the Taiwaness Buddhism web based on social network analysis 2010 International Computer Symposium ICS2010 187 191 doi 10 1109 COMPSYM 2010 5685523 ISBN 978 1 4244 7639 8 S2CID 18858823 Dumoulin 2005a p 85 94 McRae 2003 pp 138 142 a b Liang Chieh 1986 9 Kasulis 2003 pp 26 29 McRae 2003 pp 123 138 a b c d Borup 2008 p 9 Kasulis 2003 29 Low 2006 Swanson 1993 p 373 a b Wayman amp Wayman 1990 a b c Kalupahana 1992 Kalupahana 1994 Kalupahana 1994 p 160 169 Swanson 1993 McRae 2003 p 88 92 a b McRae 2003 p 54 56 McRae 2003 p 60 67 Gregory 1991 Faure 2000 p 58 Lathouwers 2000 Dumoulin Heisig amp Knitter 2005 pp 68 70 73 167 168 Blyth 1966 Shimano 1991 p 152 Suzuki 1955 p 155 156 Suzuki 1970 Sources EditPrinted sources Edit Blyth R H 1966 Zen and Zen Classics Volume 4 Tokyo Hokuseido Press Borup Jorn 2008 Japanese Rinzai Zen Buddhism Myōshinji a Living Religion Brill Broughton Jeffrey L 1999 The Bodhidharma Anthology The Earliest Records of Zen Berkeley CA University of California Press ISBN 978 0 520 21972 4 Brown Holt Linda 1995 From India to China Transformations in Buddhist Philosophy Qi The Journal of Traditional Eastern Health amp Fitness Buswell Robert E 1991 The Short cut Approach of K an hua Meditation The Evolution of a Practical Subitism in Chinese Ch an Buddhism in Peter N Gregory ed Sudden and Gradual Approaches to Enlightenment in Chinese Thought Delhi Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited Buswell Robert E 1993 Ch an Hermeneutics A Korean View In Donald S Lopez Jr ed 1993 Buddhist Hermeneutics Delhi Motilal Banarsidass Chang Chung Yuan 1967 Ch an Buddhism Logical and Illogical Philosophy East and West 17 1 4 37 49 doi 10 2307 1397043 JSTOR 1397043 Archived from the original on 2011 05 24 Retrieved 2011 12 13 Cheng Chien Bhikshu 1992 Introduction Sun Face Buddha The Teachings of Ma tsu and the Hung chou School of Ch an Asian Humanities Press Cleary Thomas 2005 Classics of Buddhism and Zen Volume One Boston MA Shambhala publications ISBN 978 1 57062 831 3 Dumoulin Heinrich 2005a Zen Buddhism A History Volume 1 India and China World Wisdom Books ISBN 978 0 941532 89 1 Dumoulin Heinrich 2005b Zen Buddhism A History Volume 2 Japan World Wisdom Books ISBN 978 0 941532 90 7 Dumoulin Heinrich Heisig James W Knitter Paul 2005 Zen Buddhism A History India and China World Wisdom ISBN 0 941532 89 5 Faure Bernard 1997 The Will to Orthodoxy A Critical Genealogy of Northern Chan Buddhism Stanford University Press Faure Bernard 2000 Visions of Power Imaging Medieval Japanese Buddhism Princeton New Jersey Princeton University Press Ferguson Andy 2000 Zen s Chinese Heritage Boston MA Wisdom Publications ISBN 978 0 86171 163 5 Feuchtwang Stephen 2010 The Anthropology of Religion Charisma and Ghosts Chinese Lessons for Adequate Theory Walter de Gruyter Fowler Merv 2005 Zen Buddhism Beliefs and Practices Sussex Academic Press Gimello Robert M 1994 Marga and Culture Learning Letters and Liberation in Northern Sung Ch an in Buswell Gimello eds Paths to Liberation Delhi Motilal Banarsidass Publishers pp 475 505 Goddard Dwight 2007 History of Ch an Buddhism previous to the times of Hui neng Wie lang In A Buddhist Bible Forgotten Books ISBN 9781605061047 Gregory Peter N 1991 Sudden Enlightenment Followed by Gradual Cultivation Tsung mi s Analysis of mind in Peter N Gregory ed Sudden and Gradual Approaches to Enlightenment in Chinese Thought Delhi Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited Gregory Peter N 2002 Tsung mi and the Sinification of Buddhism University of Hawai i Press Kuroda Institute originally published Princeton University Press 1991 Princeton N J ISBN 978 0 8248 2623 9 Grigg Ray 1999 The Ta of Zen Edison NJ Alva Press Heine Steven 2008 Zen Skin Zen Marrow Isshu Miura Sasaki Ruth F 1993 The Zen Koan New York Harcourt Brace amp Company ISBN 978 0 15 699981 6 Huaijin Nan 1997 Basic Buddhism exploring Buddhism and Zen Samuel Weiser Jones Charles B 2010 Review of Monks Rulers and Literati The Political Ascendancy of Chan Buddhism PDF Journal of Buddhist Ethics Kalupahana David J 1992 The Principles of Buddhist Psychology Delhi ri Satguru Publications Kalupahana David J 1994 A history of Buddhist philosophy Delhi Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited Kasulis Thomas P 2003 Ch an Spirituality In Buddhist Spirituality Later China Korea Japan and the Modern World edited by Takeuchi Yoshinori Delhi Motilal Banarsidass Lai Whalen 1985 Ma Tsu Tao I And The Unfolding Of Southern Zen Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 12 2 3 173 192 doi 10 18874 jjrs 12 2 3 1985 173 192 Lai Whalen 2003a Buddhism in China A Historical Survey PDF in Cua Antonio S ed Encyclopedia of Chinese Philosophy New York Routledge archived from the original PDF on November 12 2014 Lai Hongyi Harry 2003b The Religious Revival in China In Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies 18 Laliberte Andre 2011 Buddhist Revival under State Watch in Journal of Current Chinese Affairs 40 2 107 134 Lathouwers Ton 2000 Meer dan een mens kan doen Zentoespraken Rotterdam Asoka Leighton Taigen Daniel 2000 Cultivating the Empty Field The Silent Illumination of Zen Master Hongzhi Tuttle Publishing ISBN 978 0 8048 3240 3 Liang Chieh 1986 The Record of Tung shan Kuroda Institute translator William F Powell Low Albert 2006 Hakuin on Kensho The Four Ways of Knowing Boston amp London Shambhala Maspero Henri 1981 Taoism and Chinese Religion University of Massachusetts Press ISBN 978 0 87023 308 1 McMahan David L 2008 The Making of Buddhist Modernism Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 518327 6 McRae John 1986 The Northern School and the Formation of Early Chʻan Buddhism University of Hawaii Press McRae John 2003 Seeing Through Zen The University Press Group Ltd McRae John 2004 Seeing through Zen Encounter Transformation and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism University of California Press ISBN 978 0 520 23798 8 Meng Tat Chia Jack 2011 A Review of Enlightenment in Dispute The Reinvention of Chan Buddhism in Seventeenth Century China PDF Journal of Buddhist Ethics 18 Nadeau Randall L 2012 The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Chinese Religions John Wiley amp Sons Oh Kang nam 2000 The Taoist Influence on Hua yen Buddhism A Case of the Scinicization of Buddhism in China Chung Hwa Buddhist Journal 13 Sharf Robert H 2002 On Pure Land Buddhism and Ch an Pure Land Syncretism in Medieval China T oung Pao 88 4 5 282 331 doi 10 1163 156853202100368398 ISSN 0082 5433 JSTOR 4528903 Sharf Robert October 2014 Mindfullness and Mindlessness in Early Chan PDF Philosophy East amp West 64 4 933 964 doi 10 1353 pew 2014 0074 S2CID 144208166 a href Template Citation html title Template Citation citation a CS1 maint date and year link permanent dead link Shimano Eido T 1991 Points of Departure Zen Buddhism with a Rinzai View Livingston Manor NY The Zen Studies Society Press ISBN 978 0 9629246 0 6 Suzuki D T 1935 Manual of Zen Buddhism Suzuki D T 1955 Studies in Zen New York Delta Suzuki D T 1970 Zen and Japanese Culture New York Bollingen Princeton University Press ISBN 978 0 691 09849 4 Suzuki D T 2004 The Training of the Zen Buddhist Monk Tokyo Cosimo inc ISBN 978 1 59605 041 9 Swanson Paul L 1993 The Spirituality of Emptiness in Early Chinese Buddhism in Takeuchi Yoshinori ed Buddhist Spirituality Indian Southeast Asian Tibetan Early Chinese New York Crossroad Torei 2010 The Undying Lamp of Zen The Testament of Zen Master Torei Boston amp London Shambhala translator Thomas Cleary Verboven Lucette 1992 Je kunt er niet uitvallen Interview met Ton Lathouwers In Zen jaargang 13 januari 1992 nummer 48 Wayman Alex Wayman Hideko 1990 The Lion s Roar of Queen Srimala A Buddhist Scripture on the Tathagatagarbha Theory Motilal Banarsidass ISBN 9788120807310 Wegner Michael 2001 Introduction to Branching streams flow in the darkness Zen talks on the Sandokai by Shunryu Suzuki University of California Press ISBN 978 0 520 23212 9 Welter Albert 2006 The Formation of the Linji lu An Examination of the Guangdeng lu Sijia yulu and Linji Huizhao Chanshi yulu Versions of the Linji lu in Historical Context PDF archived from the original PDF on 2013 03 16 Welter Albert 2000 Mahakasyapa s smile Silent Transmission and the Kung an Koan Tradition In Steven Heine and Dale S Wright eds 2000 The Koan Texts and Contexts in Zen Buddhism Oxford Oxford University Press Yampolski Philip B 1967 The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch Translated with notes by Philip B Yampolski Columbia University Press ISBN 978 0 231 08361 4 Yampolski Philip 2003a Chan A Historical Sketch In Buddhist Spirituality Later China Korea Japan and the Modern World edited by Takeuchi Yoshinori Delhi Motilal Banarsidass Yampolski Philip 2003b Zen A Historical Sketch In Buddhist Spirituality Later China Korea Japan and the Modern World edited by Takeuchi Yoshinori Delhi Motilal Banarsidass Yanagida Seizan 2009 Historical Introduction to The Record of Linji In The record of Linji translated by Ruth Fuller Sasakia e a Pages 59 115 PDF University of Hawaii Press archived from the original PDF on 2012 06 22 retrieved 2021 05 29 Yen Chan Master Sheng 1996 Dharma Drum The Life and Heart of Ch an Practice Boston amp London Shambhala Young Stuart 2009 Linji Lu and Chinese Orthodoxy Review of Albert Welter The Linji lu and the Creation of Chan Orthodoxy The Development of Chan s Records of Sayings Literature Zeuschner Robert B 1976 A Selected Bibliography on Chan Buddhism in China Journal of Chinese Philosophy V 3 1976 pp 299 311 Zhu Caifang 2003 Buddhism in China Today The Example of the Bai Lin Chan Monastery In Perspectives Volume 4 No 2 June 2003 PDF archived from the original PDF on 2010 09 29 retrieved 2013 03 29 Zvelebil K V 1987 The Sound of the One Hand Journal of the American Oriental Society 107 1 125 126 doi 10 2307 602960 JSTOR 602960 Web sources Edit Thich Hang Dat A REAPPRAISAL OF KUMARAJiVA S ROLE IN MEDIEVAL CHINESE BUDDHISM AN EXAMINATION OF KUMARAJiVA S TRANSLATION TEXT ON THE ESSENTIAL EXPLANATION OF THE METHOD OF DHYANA Archived May 18 2015 at the Wayback Machine Soothill William Edward Hodous Lewis 1995 A Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms London RoutledgeCurzon Tstuomu Kambe Bodhidharma around 440 528 A collection of stories from Chinese literature PDF Archived from the original PDF on 2015 11 06 Retrieved 2011 12 13 See James D Sellmann amp Hans Julius Schneider 2003 Liberating Language in Linji and Wittgenstein Asian Philosophy Vol 13 Nos 2 3 2003 Notes 26 and 41 a b c Lewis Hodus 1923 Buddhism and Buddhists in China Chapter IX Present Day Buddhism Voice of Longquan Guanghua Monastery Archived 2012 12 18 at the Wayback Machine Mitch Moxley 2010 Buddhism Enjoys A Revival Erica B Mitchell 201 A Revival of Buddhism Archived 2014 07 14 at the Wayback Machine a b The Dharma Lineage of my Master Grand Master Jing Hui Abbot of Bai lin Cypress Forest A short biography of Chan Master Jinghui Jaysquare Introduction Biography at bottom of the page zhaozhou chan Biography of Daniel Odier Archived from the original on 2016 03 03 Retrieved 2013 03 27 Ven Ditthisampanno Buddhism in Indonesia Past and Present Archived 2013 03 09 at the Wayback Machine Dharma Drum Mountain Who Is Master Sheng yen The Five Ranks of Tozan Sheng Yen Fundamentals of Meditation Archived from the original on 13 June 2010 Digital Dictionary of Buddhism Retrieved 2008 03 26 entry Baizhang Huaihai Further reading EditModern classics D T Suzuki Essays in Zen Buddhism 3 vols Thomas Cleary Zen Mind Buddha Mind J C Cleary Swampland Flowers The Letters and Lectures of Zen Master Ta HuiClassic history Dumoulin Heinrich 2005 Zen Buddhism A History Volume 1 India and China World Wisdom Books ISBN 978 0 941532 89 1 Dumoulin Heinrich 2005 Zen Buddhism A History Volume 2 Japan World Wisdom Books ISBN 978 0 941532 90 7Critical Zen studies Jeffrey Broughton Zongmi on Chan Sung Bae Park Buddhist Faith and Sudden Enlightenment External links Edit Look up 禪 in Wiktionary the free dictionary Look up 禅 in Wiktionary the free dictionary Wikiquote has quotations related to Zen proverbs Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chan Buddhism Look up zen in Wiktionary the free dictionary Oversight Zen Buddhism WWW Virtual Library The Zen SiteOverview of Chan centers Zen Centers at Curlie Zen centers of the world Zen centersSpecific Chan centers Western Ch an Fellowship Official Website Dharma Drum Retreat Center New York Official Website Established by Chan Master Sheng Yen Texts Sacred text com s collection of Zen texts Buddhanet s collection of Zen texts Shambhala Sun Zen Articles Booklets from Fo Guang ShanHistory Buddhism and Confucianism in Chan Sudden Approach A Cunning Cultural Paradigm History of Zen Buddhism Zen history Zen Quick FactsCritical Chan Research Steven Heine 2007 A Critical Survey of Works on Zen since Yampolsky Homepage of Robert H Sharf Zhi Chuan 2019 Exploring Chan An Introduction to the Religious and Mystical Tradition of Chinese Buddhism Songlark Publishing p 472 ISBN 978 1 73331 430 5 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Chan Buddhism amp oldid 1132753891, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.