Sengcan
Encyclopedia
Jianzhi Sengcan (died 606) (Wade-Giles: ; Japanese: ) is known as the Third Chinese Patriarch of Chán
after Bodhidharma
and thirtieth Patriarch after Siddhārtha Gautama Buddha
.
He is considered the Dharma successor of the second Chinese Patriarch, Dazu Huike
. Sengcan is best known as the putative author of the famous poem, (W-G: . ).
and it is from this text that most of the information about Sengcan is garnered. However, it should be kept in mind that most modern scholars have some doubts about the historical accuracy of the Lamp records. Of Sengcan, Dumoulin says, “…we have no certain information regarding Seng-ts’an. The course of his life lies in darkness.” The earliest recorded note naming Sengcan is in Further Biographies of Eminent Monks (645) (Japanese, Zoku kosoden; Pin-yin, Hsu kao-seng chuan) by Tao-hsuan (?- 667) where Sengcan is named, immediately after Huike’s name, as one of seven disciples of Huike in a biographical entry of the Lankavatara sutra master, Fa-ch’ung (587-665) No further information is given. (Dumoulin, pp 96–97) It was not until the Records of the Transmission of the Dharma-treasure (Sh’uan fa-pao chi), compiled about 710 and drawing on the stories in the Further Biographies of Eminent Monks, that a teaching “lineage” for Chan was created. Some have speculated that it was merely the fact that Sengcan’s name immediately followed Huike’s name in the latter work that led to him being named as the Third Patriarch of Chan. Therefore, the biography that follows is garnered largely from traditional biographies of Sengcan, mainly the Transmission of the Lamp.
It is said that Sengcan was over forty years old when he first met Huike in 536 and that he stayed with his teacher for six years. (Dumoulin, p 97) It was Huike who gave him the name Sengcan (“Gem Monk”). (Ferguson, p 22) There are discrepancies about how long Sengcan stayed with Huike. The Transmission of the Lamp records that he “attended Huike for two years” (Cleary, p 129) after which Huike passed on the robe of Bodhidharma and Bodhidharma’s Dharma (generally considered to be the Lankavatara Sutra), making him the Third Patriarch of Chan. According to Dumoulin (p 97), in 574 the accounts say that he fled with Huike to the mountains due to the Buddhist persecution underway at that time. However, the Lamp records claim that after giving Sengcan Dharma transmission, Huike warned Sengcan to live in the mountains and “Wait for the time when you can transmit the Dharma to someone else.” (Ferguson, p 22) as a prediction made to Bodhidharma (Huike’s teacher) by Prajnadhara, the twenty-seventh Chan ancestor in India, foretold of a coming calamity (the Buddhist persecution of 574-577).
After receiving transmission, Sengcan lived in hiding on Wangong Mountain in Yixian and then on Sikong Mountain in southwestern Anhui. Thereafter, for ten years he wandered with no fixed abode
. (Ferguson, p 23) He met Daoxin, (580-651) (Wade-Giles: ; Japanese: ) a novice monk of just fourteen, in 592. Daoxin attended Sengcan for nine years and received Dharma transmission when he was still in his early twenties. Subsequently, Sengcan spent two years at Mount Luofu (Lo-fu shan, northeast of Kung-tung (Canton)) before returning to Wangong Mountain. He died sitting under a tree before a Dharma assembly in 606. Dumoulin (pp 104–105, n.54) notes that a Chinese official, Li Ch’ang found Sengcan’s grave in Shu-chou in 745 or 746. Sengcan received the honorary title (“Mirror Wisdom”) (Wade-Giles, ; Japanese) from the Tang dynasty emperor Xuan Zong.
Although Sengcan has traditionally been honored as the author of the Xinxin Ming (W-G:Hsin-hsin Ming), most modern scholars dismiss this as unlikely and improbable. Sengcan, like Bodhidharma and Huike before him, was reputed to be a devotee and specialist in the study of the Lankavatara Sutra (“Sutra on the Descent to Sri Lanka”), which taught the elimination of all duality and the “forgetting of words and thoughts”, (Dumoulin p 95) stressing the contemplation of wisdom. However, McRae describes the link between Bodhidharma (and therefore Sengcan) and the Lankavatara Sutra as “superficial”. (McRae (1986) p 29) The link between this sutra and the “Bodhidharma school” is provided in Tao-hsuan’s Further Biographies of Eminent Monks where, in the biography of Fa-ch’ung he “stresses that Hui-k’o was the first to grasp the essence of the Lankavatara Sutra” (Dumoulin p 95) and includes Sengcan as one who “discoursed on but did not write about the profound message of the Lankavatara Sutra. (ibid p 97) Due to the lack of authentic evidence, comments on Sengcan's teachings are speculative.
Chan
-People:* Chan Marshall, American musician better known as Cat Power* Chan , Chinese surname; Mandarin transcription of the same name is Chen ** Agnes Chan , Hong Kong singer, also famous in Japan...
after Bodhidharma
Bodhidharma
Bodhidharma was a Buddhist monk who lived during the 5th/6th century AD. He is traditionally credited as the transmitter of Ch'an to China, and regarded as the first Chinese patriarch...
and thirtieth Patriarch after Siddhārtha Gautama Buddha
Gautama Buddha
Siddhārtha Gautama was a spiritual teacher from the Indian subcontinent, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. In most Buddhist traditions, he is regarded as the Supreme Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama (Sanskrit: सिद्धार्थ गौतम; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from the Indian...
.
He is considered the Dharma successor of the second Chinese Patriarch, Dazu Huike
Huike
Dazu Huike is considered the Second Patriarch of Chinese Chán and the twenty-ninth since Gautama Buddha.-Introduction:As with most of the early Chán patriarchs, very little firm data is available about his life...
. Sengcan is best known as the putative author of the famous poem, (W-G: . ).
Overview
The historical record of Sengcan is extremely limited. Of all the Chan patriarchs, Sengcan is the most ambiguous and the least known. Most of what is known about his life comes from the Wudeng Huiyuan (Compendium of Five Lamps), compiled in the early thirteenth century by the monk Puji at Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou. The first of the five records in the compendium is a text commonly referred to as the Transmission of the LampTransmission of the Lamp
The Transmission of the Lamp is a compilation of biographies of prominent Buddhist monks produced in the Song dynasty by Shi Daoyuan .The first two characters of the title are the Song dynasty reign name , which dates the work to between 1004 and 1007 CE...
and it is from this text that most of the information about Sengcan is garnered. However, it should be kept in mind that most modern scholars have some doubts about the historical accuracy of the Lamp records. Of Sengcan, Dumoulin says, “…we have no certain information regarding Seng-ts’an. The course of his life lies in darkness.” The earliest recorded note naming Sengcan is in Further Biographies of Eminent Monks (645) (Japanese, Zoku kosoden; Pin-yin, Hsu kao-seng chuan) by Tao-hsuan (?- 667) where Sengcan is named, immediately after Huike’s name, as one of seven disciples of Huike in a biographical entry of the Lankavatara sutra master, Fa-ch’ung (587-665) No further information is given. (Dumoulin, pp 96–97) It was not until the Records of the Transmission of the Dharma-treasure (Sh’uan fa-pao chi), compiled about 710 and drawing on the stories in the Further Biographies of Eminent Monks, that a teaching “lineage” for Chan was created. Some have speculated that it was merely the fact that Sengcan’s name immediately followed Huike’s name in the latter work that led to him being named as the Third Patriarch of Chan. Therefore, the biography that follows is garnered largely from traditional biographies of Sengcan, mainly the Transmission of the Lamp.
Biography
The year and place of Sengcan’s birth is unknown, as is his family name. The Transmission of the Lamp entry on Sengcan begins with a koan-like encounter with Huike:- Sengcan: I am riddled with sickness. Please absolve me of my sin.
- Huike: Bring your sin here and I will absolve you.
- Sengcan (after a long pause): When I look for my sin, I cannot find it.
- Huike: I have absolved you. You should live by the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha.
It is said that Sengcan was over forty years old when he first met Huike in 536 and that he stayed with his teacher for six years. (Dumoulin, p 97) It was Huike who gave him the name Sengcan (“Gem Monk”). (Ferguson, p 22) There are discrepancies about how long Sengcan stayed with Huike. The Transmission of the Lamp records that he “attended Huike for two years” (Cleary, p 129) after which Huike passed on the robe of Bodhidharma and Bodhidharma’s Dharma (generally considered to be the Lankavatara Sutra), making him the Third Patriarch of Chan. According to Dumoulin (p 97), in 574 the accounts say that he fled with Huike to the mountains due to the Buddhist persecution underway at that time. However, the Lamp records claim that after giving Sengcan Dharma transmission, Huike warned Sengcan to live in the mountains and “Wait for the time when you can transmit the Dharma to someone else.” (Ferguson, p 22) as a prediction made to Bodhidharma (Huike’s teacher) by Prajnadhara, the twenty-seventh Chan ancestor in India, foretold of a coming calamity (the Buddhist persecution of 574-577).
After receiving transmission, Sengcan lived in hiding on Wangong Mountain in Yixian and then on Sikong Mountain in southwestern Anhui. Thereafter, for ten years he wandered with no fixed abode
No fixed abode
No fixed abode or without fixed abode is a legal term generally applied to those who do not have a fixed geographical location as their residence...
. (Ferguson, p 23) He met Daoxin, (580-651) (Wade-Giles: ; Japanese: ) a novice monk of just fourteen, in 592. Daoxin attended Sengcan for nine years and received Dharma transmission when he was still in his early twenties. Subsequently, Sengcan spent two years at Mount Luofu (Lo-fu shan, northeast of Kung-tung (Canton)) before returning to Wangong Mountain. He died sitting under a tree before a Dharma assembly in 606. Dumoulin (pp 104–105, n.54) notes that a Chinese official, Li Ch’ang found Sengcan’s grave in Shu-chou in 745 or 746. Sengcan received the honorary title (“Mirror Wisdom”) (Wade-Giles, ; Japanese) from the Tang dynasty emperor Xuan Zong.
Although Sengcan has traditionally been honored as the author of the Xinxin Ming (W-G:Hsin-hsin Ming), most modern scholars dismiss this as unlikely and improbable. Sengcan, like Bodhidharma and Huike before him, was reputed to be a devotee and specialist in the study of the Lankavatara Sutra (“Sutra on the Descent to Sri Lanka”), which taught the elimination of all duality and the “forgetting of words and thoughts”, (Dumoulin p 95) stressing the contemplation of wisdom. However, McRae describes the link between Bodhidharma (and therefore Sengcan) and the Lankavatara Sutra as “superficial”. (McRae (1986) p 29) The link between this sutra and the “Bodhidharma school” is provided in Tao-hsuan’s Further Biographies of Eminent Monks where, in the biography of Fa-ch’ung he “stresses that Hui-k’o was the first to grasp the essence of the Lankavatara Sutra” (Dumoulin p 95) and includes Sengcan as one who “discoursed on but did not write about the profound message of the Lankavatara Sutra. (ibid p 97) Due to the lack of authentic evidence, comments on Sengcan's teachings are speculative.
Further reading
- Yampolsky, Philip (1999) Ch'an-A Historical Sketch in Buddhist Spirituality: Later China, Korea, Japan and the Modern World, Takeuchi Yoshinor ed., SCM Press, ISBN 0-334-02779-9
- Yampolsky, Philip (1967) The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch: the text of the Tun-Huang manscript, translated with notes by, Columbia University Press, ISBN 0-231-08361-0 (introduction available online)
- Foster, Nelson; Shoemaker, Jack (eds)(1996) The Roaring Stream: A New Zen Reader, The Ecco Press, ISBN 0-88001-344-3
External links
- The Hsin Hsin Ming (Verses on the Faith Mind) translated by Robert B. Clarke
- The Hsin Hsin Ming (Verses on the Faith Mind) translated by Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki
- The Hsin Hsin Ming (Verses on the Faith Mind) translated by Master Sheng-Yen
- The Hsin Hsin Ming (Verses on the Faith Mind) translated by Dusan Pajin
- Biographical Information about Sengcan as well as the Hsin Hsin Ming itself
- Dharma talks, teishos, translations and historical information on Hsin Hsin Ming
Translations
- Hungarian: Szeng can: A szívbéli hitről (Seng-ts'an: Hsin-hsin Ming / Shinjin no Mei. Translated by Laszlo Forizs, Nashville-Budapest, 1991–2006)