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  Fu is credited with the invention of the revolving sutra library, one turn of which is said to generate merit equal to reading the sutras themselves. Since his death at the age of seventy-three he has been regarded as an incarnation of Maitreya, the buddha of the future; he is also known as the Vimalakīrti of China. Some of the teachings ascribed to Fu are given in a work attributed to him, the Mind King . One passage reads:

  When you realize original mind, the mind sees Buddha. The mind is Buddha; this Buddha is mind. Every thought is Buddha mind; Buddha mind dwells on Buddha. If you wish to accomplish this soon, be vigilant and disciplined. Pure precepts purify the mind; the mind then is Buddha. Apart from this Mind King, there is no other Buddha. (Sheng-yen 1987, p. 18)

  Fubei (Fu-pei, Fuhai; 8th c.; Case 216). Little is known of this figure except that he was a Dharma heir of Mazu Daoyi.

  G

  Guanghui Yuanlian (Kuang-hui Yüan-lien, Kōe Ganren; 951–1036; Case 137) was a native of Quanzhou , present-day Fujian , with the family name Chen . Ordained at the age of fifteen, he studied under more than fifty masters before finally attaining enlightenment under Shoushan Shengnian. He became priest of Guanghui yuan in 1004. His honorary title is Zen Master Zhenhui .

  Guangxiao Huijue (Kuang-hsiao Hui-chüeh, Kōkō Ekaku; 9–10th c.; Cases 9, 243), also known as Jue Tiezui (Chüeh T’ieh-tsui, Kaku Tetsushi), was a successor of Zhaozhou Congshen. Little is known of him except that he resided at Guangxiao yuan , from which he took his name.

  Guishan Lingyou (Kuei-shan Ling-yu, Isan Reiyū; 771–853; Cases 8, 60, 63 n., 65, 76, 116, 149, 151, 187, 192, 220, 238 n.) was a native of Changxi in Fuzhou ; his family name was Zhao . He became a monk at the age of fifteen, and at twenty-two, after studying the vinaya, joined the assembly under Baizhang Huaihai, whose Dharma heir he became. His enlightenment, according to the Pointing at the Moon Record , occurred when Baizhang asked him to see if any fire remained in the stove. After searching, Guishan reported that none was there. Baizhang, poking around himself and finding a small ember, remarked, “You said there was none. How about this!”

  For many years Guishan served as the head cook for Baizhang’s community. Baizhang, seeking a suitable leader for a new monastery on Mount Gui , put a jug on the floor and asked, “If you can’t call this a jug, then what do you call it?” The head monk answered, “You can’t call it a wooden sandal!” Guishan, however, simply kicked the jug over and walked away. Baizhang thereupon named Guishan head of the new monastery. On Mount Gui, located in Tanzhou , Guishan built himself a hut and continued his practice. After about eight years students began to gather around him, and their number eventually reached fifteen hundred. Guishan, notable for his calmness, patience, and skill at teaching, produced forty-one successors, the most important of whom were Yangshan Huiji, Lingyun Zhiqin, and Xiangyan Zhixian. Together with Yangshan, Guishan is regarded as the cofounder of the Guiyang lineage ; many koans consist of exchanges between these two figures, as in Kattōshū Cases 60, 65, 116, 149, 187, and 192. One important characteristic of this lineage was its use of the “circle-figures” (see Case 238). Among Guishan’s teachings is one that clarifies the relation between instantaneous enlightenment and gradual cultivation. It reads, in part:

  If a man is truly enlightened and has realized the fundamental, and he is aware of it himself, in such a case he is actually no longer tied to the poles of cultivation and non-cultivation. But ordinarily, even though the original mind has been awakened by an intervening cause , so that the man is instantaneously enlightened in his reason and spirit, yet there remains the inertia of habit, formed since the beginning of time, which cannot be totally eliminated at a stroke. He must be taught to cut off completely the stream of his habitual ideas and views caused by the still operative karmas. This (process of purification) is cultivation. I don’t say that he must follow a hard-and-fast special method. He need only be taught the general direction that his cultivation must take. (Wu 1996, pp. 162–63; X 83:532b–c)

  Guizong Zhichang (Kuei-tsung Chih-ch’ang, Kisu Chijō; 8th–9th c.; Case 123), also known as Lushan Zhichang (Lu-shan Chih-ch’ang, Rozan Chijō), was a Dharma heir of Mazu Daoyi; nothing is known of his early life. After finishing his study under Mazu he went to Mount Lu , where he resided at the temple Guizong si . He was active as a teacher of both monks and lay students, and he left many exchanges that display his distinctive approach as a teacher. Huangbo Xiyun praised him as the one among Mazu’s many Dharma heirs who went beyond all the others. Zhichang’s eyes, like those of China’s ancient sage rulers, are said to have had double pupils. He attempted to render this rather surprising feature less noticeable by rubbing his eyes with a medicine that turned them red, earning for himself the nickname Chiyan Guizong (Red-eyed Guizong). The Jingde-Era Record of the Transmission of the Lamp records the following words of Guizong:

  Everyone, do not apply your minds mistakenly. No one else can do it for you, and there is nowhere to apply your mind. Seek not from others; it is because you have always relied on the understanding of others that whatever is said hinders you and the light cannot get through, as though something were in front of your eyes. (T 51:255c)

  Gulin Qingmao (Ku-lin Ch’ing-mao, Kurin Seimo; 1262–1329; Case 113) was a native of Wenzhou , present Zhejiang ; his family name was Lin . He became a monk at the monastery Guoqing si on Mount Tiantai at the age of thirteen. Later he left on pilgrimage, studying under several masters before entering the assembly under Hengchuan Rugong (1222–89). After succeeding to Hengchuan’s Dharma he resided for nine years at Baiyun si on Mount Tianping , then served as abbot at the temples Kaiyuan si in Pingjiangfu , Yongfu si in Raozhou , and Baoning si in Jiankangfu . He received the honorary title Foxing Chanshi .

  Gushan Shigui (Ku-shan Shih-kuei, Kuzan Shikei; 1083–1146; Cases 56, 237), also known as Zhuan Shigui (Chu-an Shih-kuei, Chikuan Shikei), was a native of Chengdu , in modern Sichuan ; his family name was Shi . While still young he entered the temple Daci si , where he studied the Śūraṅgama Sutra. He then embarked on a long pilgrimage that eventually took him to Foyan Qingyuan at Mount Longmen , where he stayed until he succeeded to Foyan’s Dharma. Subsequently he resided at Tianning si in Hezhou , Donglin si (also in Hezhou), and a succession of other temples.

  H

  Hakuin Ekaku (1686–1769; Cases 14 n., 16 n., 24 n., 185 n., 199 n.), the great reviver of the Japanese Rinzai school, was a native of Hara in the province of Suruga , present Shizuoka Prefecture. As a young boy he displayed a remarkable memory and strong character, but he is said to have been terrified by images of hell. At fifteen he became a monk at the nearby temple Shōin-ji . At nineteen he had a crisis that caused him to leave meditation training for several years and devote himself to the study of literature, but later, upon reading how Shishuang Chuyuan kept himself awake during his meditation at night by sticking his thigh with an awl, he returned to his zazen practice with renewed determination. At twenty-four he had an awakening upon hearing the sound of a temple bell, an experience he deepened through training under Dōkyō Etan (1642–1721) of Shōju-an , in present Nagano Prefecture. Further training and experiences followed, even after he returned to Suruga as abbot of Shōin-ji. His decisive spiritual breakthrough occurred when he was forty-two years old.

  Hakuin was tirelessly active in teaching the Dharma. He traveled widely, lectured on many of the basic Zen texts, and produced a large body of writings, both in vernacular Japanese and classical Chinese. He started systematization of the Rinzai koan curriculum and attacked what he regarded as distortions of Zen training, such as “silent illumination” zazen and the practice of nenbutsu by Zen monks. He stressed the importance of bodhicitta, in both its aspects of personal enlightenment (kenshō ) and the saving of all sentient beings.

  Han Yu (Han Yü, Kan Yu; 768–824; Case 247) was one of the greatest of Tang dynasty poets and a strong proponent of Confucianism.

  Han was a staunch Confucianist in an era when most of his intellectual peers were concern
ed with Buddhism or Taoism. In 819 he wrote a memorial to the throne protesting the reception given a Buddhist relic (said to be a finger bone of the historical Buddha) by the emperor T’ang Hsien-tsung. In it he referred to Buddhism as a barbarian practice brought in from foreign countries. (O’Neill 1987, p. 122)

  Giles writes:

  Han Yü [was] a native of Teng-chou in Honan…. He devoted himself assiduously to study; and it was recorded as something unusual that he burnt grease and oil in order to prolong his hours of work. On graduating he was appointed to a subordinate official post, and after a highly chequered career, rose to be president of the Board of Rites. In 803, in consequence of an offensive memorial on the subject of tax-collection in Chih-li, he was degraded and sent to Yang-shan in Kuangtung…. It was not long ere he was recalled to the capital and reinstated in office; but he had been delicate all his life and had grown prematurely old, thus being unable to resist a severe illness which came upon him. As a writer he occupies a foremost place in Chinese literature. He is considered to be the first of the great literary trio of the T’ang dynasty, the other two being Li Po and Tu Fu. (1939, pp. 254–55)

  Hanshan (Han-shan, Kanzan; 8–9th c.; Case 268) was an eccentric Tang-period Buddhist poet of whom very little is known. He appears to have lived in the eighth to ninth centuries and is said to have resided as a hermit in a large cave on Mount Han (Cold Mountain), a peak on Mount Tiantai , in present Zhejiang . It is uncertain whether he was lay or ordained. He kept company with another eccentric, Shide , an orphan who worked as a kitchen helper in the monastery Guoqing si . Hanshan wrote poems on rocks and trees; these were collected to form the work known as the Hanshanshi , the “Poems of Cold Mountain.” A typical example is as follows:

  Among a thousand clouds and ten thousand streams,

  Here lives an idle man,

  In the daytime wandering over green mountains,

  At night coming home to sleep by the cliff.

  Swiftly the springs and autumns pass,

  But my mind is at peace, free from dust or delusion.

  How pleasant, to know I need nothing to lean on,

  To be still as the waters of the autumn river!

  (Watson 1970, p. 79)

  Haoyue (Hao-yüeh, Kōgetsu; 9th c.; Case 168). Little is known of this figure other than that he studied under Changsha Jingcen. He is said to have been fourth in the line of court monks to serve the Tang government.

  Hongren (Hung-jen, Gunin; 600–674; Case 2), usually referred to by his traditional title, the Fifth Patriarch, was born in Huangmei in Qizhou , in modern Hubei ; his family name was Zhou . Hongren entered the monkhood as a young boy after the Fourth Patriarch, Daoxin (580–651), noticed him while passing near the Zhou family’s home and immediately recognized the child’s unusual ability. Hongren studied under Daoxin on Mount Shuangfeng in the Huangmei region and eventually succeeded to his Dharma. He moved from Mount Shuangfeng eastward to Mount Pingmao , also in Huangmei, where he spent the rest of his life at the temple Dongshan si teaching a following that numbered over seven hundred. Among the most famous of his students were Huineng, ancestor of the Southern school of Zen, and Shenxiu (Shen-hsiu, Jinshū; 606–706), ancestor of the Northern school.

  Hongzhi Zhengjue (Hung-chih Cheng-chüeh, Wanshi Shōgaku; 1091–1157; Cases 239, 244), also called Tiantong Hongzhi (T’ien-t’ung Hung-chih, Tendō Wanshi) after Tiantong monastery, was a native of Xizhou , in modern Shanxi ; his family name was Li . He is said to have been extraordinarily intelligent as a child, memorizing several thousand characters by the age of seven. He became a novice monk at eleven and received the full precepts at fourteen. At eighteen he left on pilgrimage, determined to visit the greatest masters of his day. He went first to Kumu Facheng (n.d.), a Caodong master residing in Ruzhou , modern Henan . Kumu was famous as an exponent of sitting meditation—the word kumu means “dead tree,” from the term applied to the students of Shishuang Qingzhu, who were said to sit so long in zazen as to appear like rows of dead trees. Several years later Hongzhi was sent by Kumu to the Caodong master Danxia Zichun (d. 1119), also in Henan. After Hongzhi succeeded to Danxia’s Dharma he resided at several temples, including Taiping si in Shuzhou , present-day Anhui , and the monastery on Mount Yunju , in modern Jiangxi . He finally settled at Mount Tiantong , in present Zhejiang , where he stayed nearly thirty years, teaching the large assembly of students who gathered under him. He built what had been a small temple into a great monastic complex able to accommodate twelve hundred students. Hongzhi was also a skilled writer who authored several influential works on Zen, including the one-hundred-case koan collection Record of Equanimity . He and his approach to meditation, known as “silent illumination Zen” , became well-known in China, and he was referred to as one of the two great Ambrosia Gates of the Zen school, along with Dahui Zonggao.

  Hongzhi is known in Zen history for his long-continued debate with Dahui over the matter of the “silent illumination Zen” of the Caodong school versus the “koan-introspecting Zen” of the Linji school. However, the relationship between Hongzhi and Dahui may not have been as acrimonious as it might seem. When Hongzhi sensed the approach of death, for example, he wrote to Dahui entrusting him with the completion of the Record of Equanimity.

  Hu Dingjiao (Hu Ting-chiao, Ko Teikō; 9th c.; Case 123). Prior to starting his Zen training Hu was a tinker (his name, Dingjiao , literally means “nail” and “shears”) and was well known as a poet. Otherwise almost nothing is known of this figure.

  Huangbo Weisheng (Huang-po Wei-sheng, Ōbaku Ishō; 11th c.; Case 52) was a native of Tongchuan , in present-day Sichuan , with the family name Luo . He first engaged in doctrinal studies, then studied Zen under Huanglong Huinan, whose successor he became.

  Huangbo Xiyun (Huang-po Hsi-yün, Ōbaku Kiun; d. 850?; Cases 34, 42, 95 n., 121, 122, 123 n., 182, 187, 192, 199 n., 221, 250) was a native of Min in Fuzhou , in present Fujian . He entered the temple Jianfu si on Mount Huangbo in Fuzhou while still very young. He later set out on a pilgrimage that took him to Mount Tiantai and the capital, Chang’an . He then traveled to the province of Jiangxi in order to study with Mazu Daoyi, but, finding that Mazu was no longer alive, continued on to the monastery of Baizhang Huaihai, one of the great disciples of Mazu and, according to traditional Zen accounts, the organizer of Zen monastic life. Huangbo eventually succeeded to Baizhang’s Dharma and, from about the year 833, resided at Da’an si in the city of Hongzhou . There he became acquainted with the governor, Pei Xiu, who was to become an influential supporter and eventually one of his Dharma heirs. Several years later Pei constructed a large temple for him in the mountains west of Hongzhou. Huangbo named this temple Hongzhou Huangboshan , in memory of the temple in Fuzhou where he had resided in his youth. He taught many disciples, the most important of whom for later Zen history was Linji Yixuan, founder of the Linji school. Huangbo was awarded the posthumous title Zen Master Duanji .

  Huanglong Huinan (Huang-lung Hui-nan, Ōryō Enan; 1002–69; Cases 10, 52, 140, 189, 199) was a native of Xinzhou Yushan in present Jiangxi . His lay name was Zhang . Huinan received ordination at the age of eleven, and later studied under several masters, including Zibao of the temple Guizong si , Chengshi of the temple Qixian si , and the Yunmen master Huaicheng of Sanjue shan . After receiving transmission from Huaicheng, Huinan departed on a pilgrimage during which he encountered a monk named Yunfeng Wenyue (998–1062), who criticized Huaicheng’s understanding and suggested that he see Shishuang Chuyuan. On his way to Shishuang’s monastery Huinan stayed at the temple Fuyan si , where he was appointed secretary. When Fuyan si’s priest died, Shishuang Chuyuan was named to fill his position. After some initial uncertainty, Shishuang accepted Huinan as his disciple (see Case 189). Huinan later experienced a deep enlightenment with the koan “Zhaozhou Sees Through an Old Woman” (Case 12).

  After leaving Shishuang, Huinan returned to Guizong si but was imprisoned following a fire at the temple. Upon receiving a pardon he retired for a time to Mount Hu
angbo , then took up residence on Mount Huanglong in present Jiangxi . He was the founder of the Huanglong line, which, along with the Yangqi line, was one of the two principal teaching lineages of the Linji school. This line was later brought to Japan by Myōan Eisai (Yōsai) (1141–1215), to become the first Zen lineage formally transmitted to Japan.

  Huike (Hui-k’o, Eka; 487–593; Cases 1, 43, 113, 168), the Second Patriarch of the Chinese Zen lineage, studied the Confucian and Taoist classics in his youth, then became a monk under a certain Zen Master Baojing and studied the Hinayana and Mahayana teachings. He is said to have then spent eight years in meditation, culminating in a vision that guided him to seek the instruction of Bodhidharma. He arrived at Bodhidharma’s temple, Shaolin si , on a winter day. Bodhidharma, meditating in his cave, did not acknowledge Huike’s presence, so Huike stood waiting all night. Finally Bodhidharma asked him, “You have been standing long in the snow. What are you seeking?” Huike replied, “I request the master, in his mercy, to open the Gate of Ambrosia and liberate all sentient beings.” The great teacher said, “The supreme, marvelous Way of all buddhas can be attained only by long continued effort practicing what is difficult to practice and enduring what is difficult to endure. Why should one with a shallow heart and arrogant mind like yourself seek the true vehicle and suffer such hardships in vain?” Huike thereupon took out a knife and cut off his left arm to demonstrate his detachment from his body and his desire to study the Way. Bodhidharma then accepted him as his disciple; later, the exchange recorded in Case 1 took place.

  Huike studied under Bodhidharma for about five or six years and received transmission of the Dharma. Later he designated his student Sengcan as his successor and left to preach in the world, claiming he had karmic debts from a former life to repay. He is said to have spent thirty years teaching among the common people in the city of Ye , entering the taverns and working with the laborers. When asked why he, a man of the Way, was behaving in this way, he answered, “I am cultivating my mind in my own manner—what concern is it of yours?” Huike’s preaching activities became so popular that they finally aroused the envy of an important Dharma master named Bianhe . Bianhe’s denunciations led to Huike’s execution for preaching false doctrines, a sentence that the master accepted calmly (see Case 168).