Zen's Chinese Heritage: The Masters and Their Teachings (4 page)

In the early part of the Literary period, Fenyang Shanzhao, Hongzhi Zhengjue, Touzi Yiqing, and others compiled Zen gongan into collections, typically of one hundred stories each. These collections were amended with written verses, and this novel literature was the heart of a new literary genre known as
songgu
, meaning “in praise of the ancient.”
¹
Later, written commentaries were added to the songgu literature, and the result was known as
niansong
, which roughly translates as “held up and praised.” The
Blue Cliff Record
and the
Book of Serenity
are the most famous result of this new creative style.

The Literary period had many great and original teachers, but Song dynasty Zen’s songgu and niansong literature clearly abandoned all pretense of avoiding written words, and instead embraced them. While some teachers opposed this trend, the new literature of enlightenment was too beautiful for most to eschew. During the earlier Tang dynasty, Zen heavily influenced writers and poets. During the Song dynasty, Zen teachers themselves became writers and poets. Also, a tendency to idealize the past infected Zen culture no less than it did other areas of Chinese culture and politics. When the syncretist trends of the Song dynasty diluted Zen’s unique flavor, the near mythicization of the classical Zen masters was a natural response. This “looking back” spawned literature that idealized the earlier Zen era.

As gongan fused more tightly into Zen practice, they also appeared in a new modified and contracted form called
huatou
. This term, literally meaning “speech heads,” or essential words, were usually gongan that had been reduced to key phrases or words. For example, the well-known gongan entitled “Zhaozhou’s ‘
Wu
!’” (Jpn., Joshu’s
‘Mu!’
) is a story about whether or not a dog has buddha nature. When this gongan is contracted to become a
huatou
, only the word “wu” remains. In some Zen traditions today, it is often this single word that is assigned to new Zen students as an object of study.

Famous gongan, such as, “You must show me the face you had before your parents were born,
”
or
huatou
such as Zhaozhou’s “Wu!” have helped shape the modern public perception of Zen. Such stories, which have largely survived through the niansong literary genre, have alternately fascinated and confused public understanding of the tradition. But an understanding of the importance of niansong literature and gongan study is more accessible in the light of the earlier oral and literary tradition from which they sprang. Gongan and niansong were distilled from a much larger Zen literary context. This book is an attempt to bring more of that context to light.

THE FIVE HOUSES

According to Zen tradition, there were five main schools of Zen (often called “houses”) that existed during roughly the time I’ve described as Zen’s Classical period. During that era, however, the term “five houses” cannot be found in Zen literature. The term was used later, during the Literary period, as later generations sought to bring structure to a somewhat chaotic Zen history. Certainly, all five of the traditional houses did exist and were historically prominent. However, other Zen schools also existed, and some of those schools predated and outlived their more famous rivals. Also, Zen schools often grew out of other Zen schools, and demarcating where one school stopped and another began sometimes appears arbitrary.

To a significant degree, the five traditional Zen schools used different teaching methods. At the risk of oversimplifying for the sake of convenience, some features of each school can be mentioned. The Guiyang school employed certain mystical and esoteric symbols that were not generally found in the other schools. Shouts and blows characterized the teaching methods of the early Linji school. The Caodong Zen school became associated with an emphasis on quiet meditation and a pedagogical system known as the “five ranks.” The founder of the Yunmen school distinctively used “one-word barriers” as a method of instruction. Finally, the Fayan school, which arose during the transition from the Classical to the Literary periods, made important contributions to the development of Zen literature. Moreover, that school’s syncretic tendencies toward non-Zen Buddhist schools signaled a trend that intensified later.

The five traditional Zen schools had many similarities. Teachers of one lineage often employed the methods of another. For example, the Linji-school teacher Fenyang Shanzhao incorporated the five ranks methodology of the Caodong school into his teaching. The formalized use of koans became a feature of all the schools that existed after 950 C.E., and, of course, zazen was a feature of all Zen schools at all times.

Three of the five houses of Zen passed out of existence within a rather short time. Interestingly, the famous modern Chinese Buddhist master Xu Yun (“Empty Cloud,” 1840?–1959) resurrected these three schools and some Chinese monasteries are again formally associated with them. The remaining Linji (Jpn., Rinzai) and Caodong (Jpn., Soto) schools are still predominate, however, and are active throughout the world today. Those two schools were, not coincidentally, the most prominent participants in the literary evolution of Zen in the Song dynasty.

SOURCES

The
Wudeng Huiyuan
(
Compendium of Five Lamps
) is the primary source for the translated passages in this book. That text, compiled by the monk Puji at Lingyin Monastery in Hangzhou during the early thirteenth century, is the distillation of five previous “lamp records” that provide traditional accounts of the lives of famous Zen teachers and their teachings (note that the “five lamps” is not a reference to the five traditional Zen schools). Because the
Wudeng Huiyuan
is used so extensively, to avoid repetition, passages translated from that text are not individually cited in this book. Unless otherwise indicated, the reader may assume that the
Wudeng Huiyuan
is the source for a translation. Other texts are cited individually either in context or through footnotes.

First and foremost among the five lamp records compiled within the
Wudeng Huiyuan
is a text entitled the “Record of the Transmission of the Lamp of the Jingde Era,” commonly called the
Transmission of the Lamp
. Some passages in this book are translated directly from that text. Often, passages from the
Wudeng Huiyuan
and
Transmission of the Lamp
are the same or quite similar to one another. However, each text contains material that is omitted from the other, and thus the
Transmission of the Lamp
is sometimes separately cited.

This book also uses many other old Zen source materials. As mentioned above, the students of famous teachers often recorded their teachings for posterity, and these discourses, known as
yulu,
have been invaluable sources.

In China, the ancient style of writing was vastly different than the spoken language. Fortunately, many writers in the Zen tradition did not follow convention, and instead incorporated a vernacular style of writing that was closer to the spoken word. This makes the translation of Zen materials somewhat easier and faster than the translation of other ancient Chinese literature, including the classical Buddhist scriptures. Despite this, old Zen texts are sufficiently different from modern Chinese that translations are needed to make them understandable to modern Chinese readers. Several modern Chinese translations from the older Zen texts have appeared in recent years. The quality of these modern Chinese translations is varied. Some texts demonstrate an intimate understanding and appreciation of the source material by the translator. Other modern texts are fraught with mistakes and seem oblivious to the nuances of style. I have avoided using the modern Chinese translations as primary source material. Modern Chinese translations have often, however, guided me to classical passages most worthy of translation and have informed my own interpretations.

Many passages in this book have previously been translated into English. In some instances, the renderings offered here are virtually the same as found elsewhere, since certain words demand a straightforward translation. However, this book contains differences in interpretation from other translations. Moreover, the lamp records provide more extensive context for some well-known Zen stories than what appears in the
Blue Cliff Record
, the
Book of Serenity
, and other niansong texts. Readers familiar with those books will find some well-known stories repeated in this volume, but often as a part of a larger passage of text.

Although the available selection of English language translations of old Zen teachings is significant, it remains scattered in many books and not easily accessible to general readers. This book attempts to bring a significant amount of important original material into one volume that is organized chronologically by generation.

In this second edition of
Zen’s Chinese Heritage
I’ve included a section on the monk Daju (“Great Pearl”), a student of the famed Zen master Mazu Daoyi and a particularly excellent representative of the tradition.

Andy Ferguson
Tao Po Hermitage
Port Townsend, Washington

PART ONE:

THE LEGENDARY PERIOD 480–755

The First Four Generations

BODHIDHARMA

ACCORDING TO ZEN TRADITION, Bodhidharma, the first Chinese Zen ancestor and twenty-eighth Buddhist master in a lineage starting with the historical Buddha, transmitted Zen from India to China. He is generally thought to have died around 530 C.E. Although history offers no certain evidence about Bodhidharma’s life, he remains, before fact and fiction, a pre-eminent archetype for the profound liberation science called Zen. In the treasury of Chinese Zen literature the question, “Why did Bodhidharma come from the west?” (or “Why did the First Ancestor come from the west?”) is literally synonymous with the words “What is the essential meaning of Zen?”
²

Bodhidharma’s perilous journey from India to China to transmit the ultimate teaching of the Buddha offers enduring appeal, and is a precedent for the wayfaring spirit that graces Zen history. Traveling first to find—and then to spread—the true teaching is a tangible, breathing part of Zen’s tradition and outlook. Zen combines this spirit with an element of rebellious iconoclasm, providing a special appeal to the restless young. As one of the schools of the Mahayana, a Buddhist movement that heralds enlightenment and nirvana as the birthright of all beings, Zen retains an appeal that has historically crossed divisions of caste, class, and gender.
³

Born an Indian prince, Bodhidharma became a student of the twenty-seventh Indian ancestor of the Zen lineage, Prajnadhara. His teacher encouraged him to travel to China, and after some time, he set off by ship on a three-year journey to Guangzhou by way of the Straits of Malacca. Arriving in China during the late fifth century, the sage remained in southern China for several years, possibly learning Chinese, before traveling north.

Central to the Bodhidharma legend is his interview with Emperor Wu of the Liang dynasty.
⁴
Their meeting is iconic—a definitive event that reflects early Zen’s portrayal of itself as outside the Buddhist religious establishment. Later descriptions of the meeting, such as the first case of the
Blue Cliff Record
, provide little background of the circumstances of each of these historic figures. For this reason, the underlying significance of their meeting may not be apparent to audiences removed from their time. Some background information, therefore, may be helpful.

As mentioned in the introduction, an early record of Bodhidharma’s life thought by scholars to be relatively reliable is a text entitled the
Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks
, authored by a famous monk who was not of the Zen school named Dao Xuan (596–667). The biography Dao Xuan wrote about Bodhidharma, authored around the year 650, more than a century after Bodhidharma lived, is regarded as relatively impartial and more reliable than later accounts that glorified Bodhidharma’s life.

The
Continued Biographies
introduces Bodhidharma as follows:

BODHIDHARMA: A Brahman from Southern India. His spiritual wisdom was expansive. All who heard him became enlightened. He was devoted to the Mahayana practice of the profound solitary mind. He attained high comprehension of all aspects of samadhi.
⁵
Through compassion for this place [China] he taught the Yogacara [teachings].
⁶
He first arrived in South China during the Liu-Song dynasty [before 489 C.E.]. At the end of his life he again traveled to live under the Wei [the dynasty that ruled North China]. Whereever he went he taught Chan . . .