Zen Masters of China: the First Step East
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Zen Masters of China Zen Masters of China The First Step East ZEN STORIES COLLECTED AND RETOLD BY Richard Bryan McDaniel FOREWORD BY ALBERT LOW DIRECTOR AND TEACHER, MONTREAL ZEN CENTER TUTTLE Publishing Tokyo Rutland | Vermont | Singapore The Tuttle Story: “Books to Span the East and West” Most people are surprised to learn that the world’s largest publisher of books on Asia had its humble beginnings in the tiny American state of Vermont. The company’s founder, Charles E. Tuttle, belonged to a New England family steeped in publishing. And his first love was naturally books— especially old and rare editions. Immediately after WW II, serving in Tokyo under General Douglas MacArthur, Tuttle was tasked with reviving the Japanese publishing industry. He later founded the Charles E. Tuttle Publishing Company, which thrives today as one of the world’s leading independent publishers. Though a westerner, Tuttle was hugely instrumental in bringing a knowledge of Japan and Asia to a world hungry for information about the East. By the time of his death in 1993, Tuttle had published over 6,000 books on Asian culture, history and art—a legacy honored by the Japanese emperor with the “Order of the Sacred Treasure,” the highest tribute Japan can bestow upon a non-Japanese. With a backlist of 1,500 titles, Tuttle Publishing is more active today than at any time in its past—inspired by Charles Tuttle’s core mission to publish fine books to span the East and West and provide a greater understanding of each. Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd. www.tuttlepublishing.com Copyright © 2012 by Richard Bryan McDaniel All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Zen masters of China: the first step east: Zen stories / collected and retold by Richard Bryan McDaniel; foreword by Albert Low, LLD, Director and Teacher, Montreal Zen Center. -- First edition. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4629-1050-2 (ebook) 1. Zen stories--China. 2. Koan. I. McDaniel, Richard Bryan, editor of compilation. II. Low, Albert, writer of added commentary. BQ9291.4.C6Z46 2012 294.3’927092251--dc23 2012003310 Distributed by North America, Latin America & Europe Tuttle Publishing 364 Innovation Drive North Clarendon, VT 05759-9436 U.S.A. Tel: 1 (802) 773-8930; Fax: 1 (802) 773-6993 [email protected] www.tuttlepublishing.com Asia Pacific Berkeley Books Pte. Ltd. 61 Tai Seng Avenue #02-12 Singapore 534167 Tel: (65) 6280-1330 Fax: (65) 6280-6290 [email protected] www.periplus.com First edition 16 15 14 13 12 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1205RP Printed in China TUTTLE PUBLISHING® is a registered trademark of Tuttle Publishing, a division of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd. Contents List of Illustrations 8 Foreword by Albert Low 10 Preface 15 Prologue in India 25 CHAPTER ONE Bodhidharma 35 CHAPTER TWO Four Patriarchs 47 Huike 48 Jianzhi Sengcan 51 Dayi Daoxin 53 Niutou Farong 54 Daman Hongren 55 CHAPTER THREE Huineng 59 CHAPTER FOUR The Rise of the Southern School 69 Shenxiu 70 Huineng (continued) 72 Nanyang Huizhong 73 Yingzhen 77 Qingyuan Xingshi 78 Nanyue Huairang 79 Heze Shenhui 79 CHAPTER FIVE Mazu Daoyi 83 CHAPTER SIX Shitou Xiqian and His Disciples 93 Shitou Xiqian 94 Layman Pang (Pangyun) 100 Tianhuang Daowu 102 Tanxia Tianran 103 Cuiwei Wuxue 105 CHAPTER SEVEN Yaoshan Weiyan and His Descendants 109 Yaoshan Weiyan 110 Yunyan Tansheng 116 Daowu Yuanjie 116 Chunzi Decheng 119 Jiashan Shanhui 120 CHAPTER EIGHT Dongshan Liangjie 125 Dongshan Liangjie 126 Caoshan Benji 134 CHAPTER NINE The Heirs of Mazu 139 Yanguan Qian 140 Xingshan Weikuan 141 Dazhu Huihai 142 Guizong Zhichang 143 Panshan Baoji 144 Shigong Huicang 146 Damei Fachang 148 CHAPTER TEN The Poets 153 Hanshan 157 Shide 158 CHAPTER ELEVEN Nanquan Puyuan and Baizhang Huaihai 163 Nanquan Puyuan 164 Baizhang Huaihai 169 CHAPTER TWELVE Zhaozhou Congshen 177 Zhaozhou Congshen 178 Zui Jiao 188 CHAPTER THIRTEEN Zhaozhou's Contemporaries 191 Huangbo Xiyun 192 Changsha Jingcen 195 Hangzhou Tianlong 198 Jinhua Juzhi 199 Guishan Lingyou 200 CHAPTER FOURTEEN Guishan's Descendants 205 Yangshan Huiji 207 Xiangyan Zhixian 210 Chanqing Daan 214 CHAPTER FIFTEEN Linji Yixuan 217 CHAPTER SIXTEEN Deshan Xuanjian and His Students 229 Deshan Xuanjian 230 Yantou Quanhuo 235 Xuefeng Yicun 235 Qinshan Wensui 235 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN The Linji Line 243 Dingzhou Shizang 244 Sansheng Huiran 245 Xinghua Cunjiang 246 Nanyuan Huiyong 246 Fengxue Yanzhao 247 Shoushan Xingnian 250 Fenyang Shanzhao 251 Shishuang Chuyuan 253 Yangqi Fanghui 254 Huanglong Huinan 254 CHAPTER EIGHTEEN The Fayan House 257 Xuansha Shibei 258 Luohan Chichen 259 Fayan Wenyi 259 Tiantai Deshao 265 Yongming Yanshou 265 Daoyun 266 CHAPTER NINETEEN Yunmen Wenyan 269 Yunmen Wenyan 270 Muzhou Daozong 270 Xuefeng Yicun 271 Dongshan Shouchu 277 Baling Haojian 278 Xianglin Chengyuan 279 CHAPTER TWENTY The Song Dynasty 283 Huitang Zuxin 285 Wuzu Fayan 287 Yuanwu Keqin 292 CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE Wu! 295 Dahui Zonggao 296 Yuelin Shiguan 298 Wumen Huikai 299 Epilogue in Japan 304 Acknowledgments 306 Appendix: Wade-Giles and Japanese Variants of the Zen Masters' Names 308 Notes 312 Bibliography 314 Index of Stories 316 List of Illustrations Chapter One: Nineteenth-century Japanese woodblock portrait of Bodhidharma Chapter Two: Portrait of Huike by Shi Ke, Song dynasty Chapter Three: Portrait of Huineng Chopping Bamboo by Liang Kai, Southern Song dynasty Chapter Four: Lofty Hermitage in Cloudy Mountains by Fang Fanghu, fourteenth century Chapter Five: The Solitary Angler by Ma Yuan (1170–1260) Chapter Six: Two Zen Masters Chapter Seven: Zen Master and Tiger by Shi Ke, Song dynasty Chapter Eight: Walking on a Path in Spring by Ma Yuan (1170– 1260) Chapter Nine: Monk by Liang Kai, Southern Song dynasty Chapter Ten: Portraits of Shide and Hanshan by Yen Hui (1280–1368) Chapter Eleven: The Ox Herding Pictures, sometimes called the Ten Bulls, are a series of ten pictures portraying the stages of growth in Zen. The set portrayed in this book are copies of now lost twelfth- century Chinese originals by the fifteenth-century Japanese artist, Tensho Shubun. The first picture is entitled Searching for the Ox Chapter Twelve: Second Ox Herding Picture, Finding the Footprints of the Ox Chapter Thirteen: Third Ox Herding Picture, Glimpsing the Ox Chapter Fourteen: Fourth Ox Herding Picture, Catching the Ox Chapter Fifteen: Fifth Ox Herding Picture, Taming the Ox Chapter Sixteen: Sixth Ox Herding Picture, Riding the Ox Home Chapter Seventeen: Seventh Ox Herding Picture, Ox Forgotten Chapter Eighteen: Eighth Ox Herding Picture, Ox and Self Forgotten Chapter Nineteen: Ninth Ox Herding Picture, Returning to the Source Chapter Twenty: Tenth Ox Herding Picture, Going Among the People in the Marketplace Chapter Twenty-One: Southern Song dynasty portrait of a Zen priest Foreword by Albert Low, LLD., Director and Teacher, Montreal Zen Center According to the French philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal, “The heart has its reasons that reason knows not of.” The stories that follow in this book address those reasons of the heart. For thousands of years human beings have used stories to convey a message that the intellect can neither grasp nor communicate. Perhaps the earliest of these was the story of Gilgamesh. Since then the Hindus (through the Mahabharata, of which the Bhagavad Gita forms a part), the Sufis (through the stories of Mullah Nasrudin), Jesus (through his many parables), the Hassidic Jews, and the Chinese (through koans and mondo), and countless others have taught the wisdom of the heart to an ever receptive humanity. Why should stories be able to do what even the keenest intellect is unable to achieve? Why do spiritual teachers of all kinds resort to stories to get across subtle yet vitally important teachings? It is a matter of common knowledge that the mind operates on at least two different levels, a so- called “conscious” level and an “unconscious” level. In the West this is a comparatively recent discovery made popular by Sigmund Freud and the psychoanalytical school of psychology. But in the East the idea of a Higher Self, an Over Self, or a True Self that presides over and gives direction to a lower self has been present since the beginning of civilization. Generally speaking, for the Westerner, the unconscious is considered to be inferior to the conscious mind. As Freud would have it, “Where there is id there shall be ego.” The picture that Freud drew of the client’s ego absorbing or reclaiming the unconscious was similar to the one we have of the Dutch with their system of dikes and dams reclaiming the land from the Zuider Zee. Jung drew a radically different picture of the unconscious that was more favorably inclined towards it. The unconscious, according to Freud, was a sea of dark, uncontrolled passions ready to erupt into consciousness with dire results. But Jung saw it more as a repository of ancient wisdom in the form of Archetypes. Nevertheless, he was still inclined to put the conscious mind in the role of the director whose function it was to interpret and make sense of the messages received from the unconscious. For the East the roles of conscious and unconscious are reversed. The “unconscious” mind was the real mind or true self, and the conscious mind, in a well regulated individual, was the servant carrying out the dictates of the real self. Unfortunately, in most people the real self has fallen asleep and the conscious mind has abandoned its role as servant and elevated itself into the role of master and director, to the detriment of the individual.