Yunmen Wenyan
Encyclopedia
Yúnmén Wényǎn (雲門文偃; ; he is also variously known in English as "Unmon", "Ummon Daishi", "Ummon Zenji"), was a major Chinese
Zen
master in Tang
-era China. He founded one of the five major schools of Chan
(Chinese Zen), the "Yunmen school", after succeeding his famous master, Xuefeng Yicun (or Hsueh-feng I-ts'un; http://www.quangduc.com/tudien/AnhViet/Hr.htm; another famous disciple of Yicun would be Fa-yen Wen-i (885-958)) (822-908), for whom he had served as a head monk. When founding his school, he taught at the Yunmen monastery of Shaozhou
, from which he received his name. The Yunmen school flourished into the early Song Dynasty
, with particular influence on the upper classes, and eventually culminating in the compilation and writing of the Blue Cliff Record
. The school would eventually be absorbed by the Rinzai school
later in the Song. The lineage still lives on to this day through Chan Master Hsu Yun (1840-195?). He rebuilt the Yun men temple and the 6th patriarchs temple Nan-hua Si. The Yunmen school continues through Master Hsu Yun, Fo Yuan, and Master Ming Zhao Shakya, who have disciples in America and abroad.
near Suzhou
and southwest of Shanghai
to the Zhang family (but later as a monk he would take the name Wenyan; to avoid confusion he will be referred to by his later name of "Yunmen"), apparently in 864 CE. His birth-year is uncertain; the two memorial stele
at the Yunmen monastery mention he was 86 years old when he died in 949 CE, which suggests that 864 is his birth year.
While a boy, Yunmen became a monk under a "commandment master" named Zhi Cheng (as Miura and Sasaki describe it, which usually refers to a specialist in vinaya
: monastic rules and discipline; Sørensen mentions that some sources say that Chih-Ch'eng/Zhi Cheng was actually a Ch'an master) in Jiaxing. He studied there for several years, taking his monastic vows at age 20, in 883 CE. The teachings there did not satisfy him, and he went to Daozong's school (also known as Bokushu, Reverend Chen, Muzhou Daozong, Ch'en Tsun-su, Mu-chou Tao-tsung, Tao-ming, Muzhou Daoming etc.; "an eccentric disciple of Huang-po who practiced an extremely rigorous form of Zen in Mu-chou, after which place he was named) to gain enlightenment and legendarily had his leg broken for his trouble. It was first said around 1100 that Yunmen was crippled in the leg:
Daozong told Yunmen to visit the pre-eminent Zen master of the day, Xuefeng Yicun of Mt. Hsiang-ku, in Fuzhou
(Fukushū) in modern-day Fujian
, and become his disciple, as Daozong was too old (~100 years old) to further teach Yunmen. After a few years studying with him, Yunmen did so, and received after several years, enlightenment
. While Yunmen had received his teacher's seal and approval, he nevertheless did not become abbot, probably because his stay was only on the order of 4 or 5 years. When Yicun died, Yunmen began travelling and visited quite a number of monasteries, cementing his reputation as a Ch'an master.
During a subsequent visit to the tomb of the Sixth Patriarch
in Guangdong
, Yunmen ended up joining (c. 911 CE) the monastery of Rumin
Chanshi/Ling-shu Ju-min, who died in 918 CE; the two of them became great friends. With his death, Yunmen became head priest of the Lingshu monastery on Mt. Lingshu (Reiju-in). In this Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period
, the T'ang dynasty was greatly weakened, and entire sections of the empire had split away; the south was peaceful and developed, but the "North was torn by the ravages of war". The area of Southern China where Yunmen lived broke free during the rebellion of Huang Chao, a viceroy of the Liu family. Eventually, the Liu family became the rulers of the Southern Han
(918-978) kingdom during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period
. The ruler, Liu Yan, visited the monastery for Rumin's cremation (as Liu often sought Rumin's advice), and met Yunmen.
Impressed, Liu Yan extended him his patronage and protection, as well as confirming his appointment as the new abbot of the Lingshu monastery. But Yunmen's fame drew a great flow of visitors from all over China and even from Korea. All these visitors proved too distracting for Yunmen's taste, and in 923, he asked the king (Liu Yan having died by this time) to aid him in building a new monastery on Mount Yunmen. The king acquiesced, and five years later, at the age of 64, Yunmen began living in and teaching in the monastery on the mountain from which he took the name by which he is best known. While the king and some of Yunmen's disciples continued to try to give Yunmen more responsibilities and honors, Yunmen refused, and returned to his monastery. This proved to be a wise decision, as his influence diminished considerably in succeeding years through palace intrigues and invasions.
One day, when Yunmen was 85 (or 86), he composed a farewell letter to his patron, the new king of the Southern Han, and gave a final lecture to his monks, finishing with the statement: "Coming and going is continuous. I must be on my way!" Then he (reputedly, in great pain because of his crippled leg) sat in a full lotus posture and died. He would be buried with great honors (but not as great as the state would have liked, as befitted a great master and spiritual minister of the state), and his surprisingly well-preserved corpse was exhumed several years later, and given a procession. In honor of this, his monastery was given a new name, and two stele erected, which recorded his biography. Yunmen was succeeded as abbot by Dongshan Shouchu
(Japanese: Tōzan Shusho; d. 900). Suhotsu became abbot in 990 CE; although at the time, his foremost disciple was accounted Pai-yün Shih-hsing, who had founded his own temple on the nearby Mt. Pai-yün. His corpse would be venerated until the 20th-century, when it would disappear during the chaos of the Cultural Revolution
.
Yunmen was renowned for his forceful and direct yet subtle teaching, often expressed through sudden shouts and blows with a staff, and for his wisdom and skill at oratory
: he was "the most eloquent of the Ch'an masters." Fittingly, Yunmen is one of the greatest pioneers of "live words", "old cases", and paradoxical statements that would later evolve into the koan tradition, along with Zhaozhou
(Japanese: Jōshū Jūshin). He also famously specialized in apparently meaningless short sharp single word answers, like "Guan!" (literally, "barrier" or "frontier pass") — these were called "Yunmen's One Word Barriers". These one-word barriers "...were meant to aid practice, to spur insight, and thus to promote realization. Not only his punchy one-syllable retorts, but also his more extended conversation and stories came to be used as koan." While his short ones were popular, some of his longer ones were iconic and among the most famous koans:
Most were collected in the Yúnmén kuāngzhēn chánshī guǎnglù (雲門匡眞禪師廣錄). But not all were — 18 were later discovered when a subsequent master of the Yunmen school, one Xuetou Chongxian (Setchō Jūken, 980-1052 CE) published his Boze songgu, which contained one hundred "old cases" (as koans were sometimes called) popular in his teaching line, in which the 18 Yunmen koans were included. Of the many stories and koans in Blue Cliff Record
s, 18 involve Yunmen; eight of Yunmen's sayings are included in Records of Serenity, and five in The Gateless Gate
; further examples could be found in the Ninden gammoku, and the Ummonroku. He was also considerably more mystical than certain other teachers who tended to concrete description; an apocryphal anecdote that began circulating around the beginning of the 12th century has Yunmen going so far as to forbid any of his sayings or teachings from being recorded by his many pupils ("What is the good of recording my words and tying up your tongues?" was one of his sayings):
His disciples reputedly numbered 790, an unusual number of whom became enlightened
. These successors would spread the Yunmen school widely; it flourished as one of the Five Schools for about 300 years, after which it was absorbed into the Linji School
towards the end of the Southern Song dynasty
(~1127 CE).
' acclaimed Hyperion Cantos
science fiction
series; Simmon's Ummon was a vastly advanced, intelligent AI
from the "TechnoCore", who reveals key plot elements to the main characters, through koans and mondo
(dialogue).
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
Zen
Zen
Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...
master in Tang
Tang Dynasty
The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
-era China. He founded one of the five major schools of Chan
Zen
Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...
(Chinese Zen), the "Yunmen school", after succeeding his famous master, Xuefeng Yicun (or Hsueh-feng I-ts'un; http://www.quangduc.com/tudien/AnhViet/Hr.htm; another famous disciple of Yicun would be Fa-yen Wen-i (885-958)) (822-908), for whom he had served as a head monk. When founding his school, he taught at the Yunmen monastery of Shaozhou
Shaoguan
Shaoguan , historically known as Shaokwan and Shao-chow, is a prefecture-level city in the north of Southern China's Guangdong province...
, from which he received his name. The Yunmen school flourished into the early Song Dynasty
Song Dynasty
The Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...
, with particular influence on the upper classes, and eventually culminating in the compilation and writing of the Blue Cliff Record
Blue Cliff Record
The Blue Cliff Record ; Vietnamese: Bích nham lục ) is a collection of Chán Buddhist koans originally compiled in China during the Song dynasty in 1125 and then expanded into its present form by the Chán master Yuanwu Keqin .The book includes Yuanwu's annotations and commentary on Xuedou...
. The school would eventually be absorbed by the Rinzai school
Rinzai school
The Rinzai school is , one of three sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism.Rinzai is the Japanese line of the Chinese Linji school, which was founded during the Tang Dynasty by Linji Yixuan...
later in the Song. The lineage still lives on to this day through Chan Master Hsu Yun (1840-195?). He rebuilt the Yun men temple and the 6th patriarchs temple Nan-hua Si. The Yunmen school continues through Master Hsu Yun, Fo Yuan, and Master Ming Zhao Shakya, who have disciples in America and abroad.
Biography
Yunmen was born in the town of JiaxingJiaxing
Jiaxing is a prefecture-level city in northern Zhejiang province of Eastern China. Lying on the Grand Canal of China, Jiaxing borders Hangzhou to the southwest, Huzhou to the west, Shanghai to the northeast, and the province of Jiangsu to the north....
near Suzhou
Suzhou
Suzhou , previously transliterated as Su-chou, Suchow, and Soochow, is a major city located in the southeast of Jiangsu Province in Eastern China, located adjacent to Shanghai Municipality. The city is situated on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and on the shores of Taihu Lake and is a part...
and southwest of Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
to the Zhang family (but later as a monk he would take the name Wenyan; to avoid confusion he will be referred to by his later name of "Yunmen"), apparently in 864 CE. His birth-year is uncertain; the two memorial stele
Stele
A stele , also stela , is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected for funerals or commemorative purposes, most usually decorated with the names and titles of the deceased or living — inscribed, carved in relief , or painted onto the slab...
at the Yunmen monastery mention he was 86 years old when he died in 949 CE, which suggests that 864 is his birth year.
While a boy, Yunmen became a monk under a "commandment master" named Zhi Cheng (as Miura and Sasaki describe it, which usually refers to a specialist in vinaya
Vinaya
The Vinaya is the regulatory framework for the Buddhist monastic community, or sangha, based in the canonical texts called Vinaya Pitaka. The teachings of the Buddha, or Buddhadharma can be divided into two broad categories: 'Dharma' or doctrine, and 'Vinaya', or discipline...
: monastic rules and discipline; Sørensen mentions that some sources say that Chih-Ch'eng/Zhi Cheng was actually a Ch'an master) in Jiaxing. He studied there for several years, taking his monastic vows at age 20, in 883 CE. The teachings there did not satisfy him, and he went to Daozong's school (also known as Bokushu, Reverend Chen, Muzhou Daozong, Ch'en Tsun-su, Mu-chou Tao-tsung, Tao-ming, Muzhou Daoming etc.; "an eccentric disciple of Huang-po who practiced an extremely rigorous form of Zen in Mu-chou, after which place he was named) to gain enlightenment and legendarily had his leg broken for his trouble. It was first said around 1100 that Yunmen was crippled in the leg:
Ummon[Yunmen] went to Bokushu's temple to seek Zen. The first time he went, he was not admitted. The second time he went, he was not admitted. The third time he went the gate was opened slightly by Bokushu, and thus Ummon stuck his leg in attempting to gain entrance. Bokushu urged him to "Speak! Speak!"; as Ummon opened his mouth, Bokushu pushed him out and slammed shut the large gate so swiftly that Ummon's leg was caught and was broken.
Daozong told Yunmen to visit the pre-eminent Zen master of the day, Xuefeng Yicun of Mt. Hsiang-ku, in Fuzhou
Fuzhou
Fuzhou is the capital and one of the largest cities in Fujian Province, People's Republic of China. Along with the many counties of Ningde, those of Fuzhou are considered to constitute the Mindong linguistic and cultural area....
(Fukushū) in modern-day Fujian
Fujian
' , formerly romanised as Fukien or Huguing or Foukien, is a province on the southeast coast of mainland China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, and Guangdong to the south. Taiwan lies to the east, across the Taiwan Strait...
, and become his disciple, as Daozong was too old (~100 years old) to further teach Yunmen. After a few years studying with him, Yunmen did so, and received after several years, enlightenment
Bodhi
Bodhi is both a Pāli and Sanskrit word traditionally translated into English with the word "enlightenment", but which means awakened. In Buddhism it is the knowledge possessed by a Buddha into the nature of things...
. While Yunmen had received his teacher's seal and approval, he nevertheless did not become abbot, probably because his stay was only on the order of 4 or 5 years. When Yicun died, Yunmen began travelling and visited quite a number of monasteries, cementing his reputation as a Ch'an master.
During a subsequent visit to the tomb of the Sixth Patriarch
Huineng
Dajian Huineng was a Chinese Chán monastic who is one of the most important figures in the entire tradition, according to standard Zen hagiographies...
in Guangdong
Guangdong
Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...
, Yunmen ended up joining (c. 911 CE) the monastery of Rumin
Rumin
Rumin is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Stare Miasto, within Konin County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, in west-central Poland. It lies approximately north of Stare Miasto, west of Konin, and east of the regional capital Poznań....
Chanshi/Ling-shu Ju-min, who died in 918 CE; the two of them became great friends. With his death, Yunmen became head priest of the Lingshu monastery on Mt. Lingshu (Reiju-in). In this Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period
Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period
Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms was between 907–960/979 AD and an era of political upheaval in China, between the fall of the Tang Dynasty and the founding of the Song Dynasty. During this period, five dynasties quickly succeeded one another in the north, and more than 12 independent states were...
, the T'ang dynasty was greatly weakened, and entire sections of the empire had split away; the south was peaceful and developed, but the "North was torn by the ravages of war". The area of Southern China where Yunmen lived broke free during the rebellion of Huang Chao, a viceroy of the Liu family. Eventually, the Liu family became the rulers of the Southern Han
Southern Han
Southern Han was a kingdom that existed during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period along China’s southern coast from 917 to 971. The Kingdom greatly expanded her capital city Hing Wong Fu , namely present-day Guangzhou...
(918-978) kingdom during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period
Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period
Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms was between 907–960/979 AD and an era of political upheaval in China, between the fall of the Tang Dynasty and the founding of the Song Dynasty. During this period, five dynasties quickly succeeded one another in the north, and more than 12 independent states were...
. The ruler, Liu Yan, visited the monastery for Rumin's cremation (as Liu often sought Rumin's advice), and met Yunmen.
Impressed, Liu Yan extended him his patronage and protection, as well as confirming his appointment as the new abbot of the Lingshu monastery. But Yunmen's fame drew a great flow of visitors from all over China and even from Korea. All these visitors proved too distracting for Yunmen's taste, and in 923, he asked the king (Liu Yan having died by this time) to aid him in building a new monastery on Mount Yunmen. The king acquiesced, and five years later, at the age of 64, Yunmen began living in and teaching in the monastery on the mountain from which he took the name by which he is best known. While the king and some of Yunmen's disciples continued to try to give Yunmen more responsibilities and honors, Yunmen refused, and returned to his monastery. This proved to be a wise decision, as his influence diminished considerably in succeeding years through palace intrigues and invasions.
Dongshan Shouchu
Dongshan Shouchu was a Chinese Zen teacher and an heir to Yunmen Wenyan. Dongshan is the subject of Case 18 "Three Pounds of Flax" in the Mumonkan, a collection of koans authored by Mumon Ekai in 1228....
(Japanese: Tōzan Shusho; d. 900). Suhotsu became abbot in 990 CE; although at the time, his foremost disciple was accounted Pai-yün Shih-hsing, who had founded his own temple on the nearby Mt. Pai-yün. His corpse would be venerated until the 20th-century, when it would disappear during the chaos of the Cultural Revolution
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
.
Teachings
| How steep is Yün-mên's mountain! |
| How low the white clouds hang! |
| The mountain stream rushes so swiftly |
| That fish cannot venture to stay. |
| One's coming is well-understood |
| From the moment one steps in the door. |
| Why should I speak of the dust |
| On the track that is worn by the wheel? |
| — Yun-men, from the Jingde Chuandeng Lu 《景德傳燈錄》 |
- "Ummon's school is deep and difficult to understand since its mode of expression is indirect; while it talks about the south, it is looking at the north." — Gyomay KuboseGyomay KuboseGyomay Kubose , born Masao Kubose was a Japanese-American Buddhist teacher who founded the Buddhist Temple of Chicago in 1944. Although born in the United States, he spent a large amount of his youth in Japan...
Yunmen was renowned for his forceful and direct yet subtle teaching, often expressed through sudden shouts and blows with a staff, and for his wisdom and skill at oratory
Oratory
Oratory is a type of public speaking.Oratory may also refer to:* Oratory , a power metal band* Oratory , a place of worship* a religious order such as** Oratory of Saint Philip Neri ** Oratory of Jesus...
: he was "the most eloquent of the Ch'an masters." Fittingly, Yunmen is one of the greatest pioneers of "live words", "old cases", and paradoxical statements that would later evolve into the koan tradition, along with Zhaozhou
Zhaozhou
Zhàozhōu Cōngshěn , was a Chán Buddhist master especially known for his "paradoxical statements and strange deeds".Zhaozhou became ordained as a monk at an early age. At the age of 18, he met Nánquán Pǔyuàn , a successor of Mǎzǔ Dàoyī , and eventually received the Dharma from him...
(Japanese: Jōshū Jūshin). He also famously specialized in apparently meaningless short sharp single word answers, like "Guan!" (literally, "barrier" or "frontier pass") — these were called "Yunmen's One Word Barriers". These one-word barriers "...were meant to aid practice, to spur insight, and thus to promote realization. Not only his punchy one-syllable retorts, but also his more extended conversation and stories came to be used as koan." While his short ones were popular, some of his longer ones were iconic and among the most famous koans:
- Yun-men addressed the assembly and said: "I am not asking you about the days before the fifteenth of the month. But what about after the fifteenth? Come and give me a word about those days."
- And he himself gave the answer for them: "Every day is a good day."
Most were collected in the Yúnmén kuāngzhēn chánshī guǎnglù (雲門匡眞禪師廣錄). But not all were — 18 were later discovered when a subsequent master of the Yunmen school, one Xuetou Chongxian (Setchō Jūken, 980-1052 CE) published his Boze songgu, which contained one hundred "old cases" (as koans were sometimes called) popular in his teaching line, in which the 18 Yunmen koans were included. Of the many stories and koans in Blue Cliff Record
Blue Cliff Record
The Blue Cliff Record ; Vietnamese: Bích nham lục ) is a collection of Chán Buddhist koans originally compiled in China during the Song dynasty in 1125 and then expanded into its present form by the Chán master Yuanwu Keqin .The book includes Yuanwu's annotations and commentary on Xuedou...
s, 18 involve Yunmen; eight of Yunmen's sayings are included in Records of Serenity, and five in The Gateless Gate
The Gateless Gate
The Gateless Gate is a collection of 48 Chan koans compiled in the early 13th century by the Chinese Zen master Wumen Hui-k'ai . Wumen's preface indicates that the volume was published in 1228. Each koan is accompanied by a commentary and verse by Wumen...
; further examples could be found in the Ninden gammoku, and the Ummonroku. He was also considerably more mystical than certain other teachers who tended to concrete description; an apocryphal anecdote that began circulating around the beginning of the 12th century has Yunmen going so far as to forbid any of his sayings or teachings from being recorded by his many pupils ("What is the good of recording my words and tying up your tongues?" was one of his sayings):
- "Ch'an Master Yunju of Foyin had said:
- When Master Yunmen expounded the Dharma he was like a cloud. He decidedly did not like people to note down his words. Whenever he saw someone doing this he scolded him and chased him out of the hall with the words, "Because your own mouth is not good for anything you come to note down my words. It is certain that some day you'll sell me!"
- As to the records of "Corresponding to the Occasion" (the first chapter of The Record of Yunmen) and "Inside the Master's Room" (the first section of the second chapter of The Record of Yunmen): Xianglin and Mingjiao had fashioned robes out of paper and wrote down immediately whenever they heard them."'
His disciples reputedly numbered 790, an unusual number of whom became enlightened
Bodhi
Bodhi is both a Pāli and Sanskrit word traditionally translated into English with the word "enlightenment", but which means awakened. In Buddhism it is the knowledge possessed by a Buddha into the nature of things...
. These successors would spread the Yunmen school widely; it flourished as one of the Five Schools for about 300 years, after which it was absorbed into the Linji School
Linji
Línjì Yìxuán was the founder of the Linji school of Chán Buddhism during Tang Dynasty China. Linji was born into a family named Xing in Caozhou , which he left at a young age to study Buddhism in many places....
towards the end of the Southern Song dynasty
Song Dynasty
The Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...
(~1127 CE).
Mention in later media
Yunmen's Japanese name, Ummon, was the namesake for a character which was featured prominently in Dan SimmonsDan Simmons
Dan Simmons is an American author most widely known for his Hugo Award-winning science fiction series, known as the Hyperion Cantos, and for his Locus-winning Ilium/Olympos cycle....
' acclaimed Hyperion Cantos
Hyperion Cantos
The Hyperion Cantos is a series of science fiction novels by Dan Simmons. Set in the far future, and focusing more on plot and story development than technical detail, it falls into the soft science fiction category...
science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
series; Simmon's Ummon was a vastly advanced, intelligent AI
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
from the "TechnoCore", who reveals key plot elements to the main characters, through koans and mondo
Mondo (scripture)
The Mondō is a recorded collection of dialogues between a pupil and a rōshi . Zen tradition values direct experience and communication over scriptures...
(dialogue).
See also
- BodhidharmaBodhidharmaBodhidharma 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...
- List of Buddhists
- List of Buddhist topics
General
- Jingde Chuandeng Lu 《景德傳燈錄》 (Jingde (era) Record of the Transmission of the LampTransmission of the LampThe 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...
) - The Gateless GateThe Gateless GateThe Gateless Gate is a collection of 48 Chan koans compiled in the early 13th century by the Chinese Zen master Wumen Hui-k'ai . Wumen's preface indicates that the volume was published in 1228. Each koan is accompanied by a commentary and verse by Wumen...
- The Blue Cliff RecordBlue Cliff RecordThe Blue Cliff Record ; Vietnamese: Bích nham lục ) is a collection of Chán Buddhist koans originally compiled in China during the Song dynasty in 1125 and then expanded into its present form by the Chán master Yuanwu Keqin .The book includes Yuanwu's annotations and commentary on Xuedou...
- Records of Serenity,
- Sørensen, Henrik Hjort. "The Life and Times of the Ch'an Master Yūn-men Wen-yan", pp. 105–131, Vol. 49 (1996) of Acta orientalia, ISSN 0001-6438
External links
- Zen Buddhism: An Introduction to Zen with Stories and Parables
- Ummon
- Transcription online of Pen-chi of Ts'ao-shan's Questions and Answers, as translated in Sources of Chinese Tradition (de Bary, Chan and Watson, ed. and trans.)