DHARMA HEIRS

 The T'ang dynasty (618-907) was the Golden Age of Chinese Buddhism.

Zhi-xian (Chisen) 609-702 Zhi-xian: a Dharma-heir of Daman Hongren

Dutong Shenxiu (Shen-hsiu, Datsu Jinshu), 605?-706. “Heavenly Excellence.” Shenxiu was a Dharma-heir of Daman Hongren. He was considered as the most brilliant of Damon Hogren’s students. For many years his Dharma presentations  of East Mountain teachings or “Northern” Chan was tremendously influential. See Denkoroku Chapter 34. Mentioned in Gyoji.

Dajian Huineng (Ta-chien Hui-neng, Daikan Eno), 638-713. Also known as Caoxi. Huineng was a Dharma-heir of Daman Hongren Now considered by history as the Sixth Chinese Ancestor.  He appears in Records of Silence 13 and in Gateless Gate 29. See Dogen’s Chiji Shingi, Shisho, Gyoji. See Denkoroku Chapter 34.

 These first five  generations emphasized orthodox meditation and the path to the awakening.

But important changes came when the 5th patriarch began thinking about his succesor. He announced a competition for who would be the 6th in direct line, everyone assumed Shen Xiu would win the competition. But Hui Neng, an illiterate peasant from Guangdong province in retrospect and according to Daman Hongren to have spontaneous new and immediate insight and legend tells us that he received the coveted transmission.

The story is contained in the famous Platform Sutra of the 6th Patriarch Hui Neng which is thought by historians to be fiction, but its publication crystallized a split in the Chan school between Northern (Gradual enlightenment) and Southern (Sudden enlightenment) trends.

The key issue dividing them was whether there was a path to enlightenment so we could be understood as getting closer or was enlightenment something that happened totally or not at all. The Southern school represented the view that enlightenment did not require study. Notice Hui Neng whose enlightenment came all at once in a flash of insight,  was illiterate and did nothing in the temple but carry wood pound rice. The legendary villian, by contrast, was a learned Northerner, Shen-hsui.

Buddhism had spread in China during the period of cultural disunity following the decline of the Han. During the long periods of disunity following the Han Dynasty, the North had often been ruled by "barbarian" dynasties and the south had become the refuge of China's intellectual culture. The more structured and disciplined Northern schools stressed gradual enlightenment requiring continual supervision and guidance (more like Japanese Zen). So Buddhism was more "orthodox" and authoritarian in the North, while in the South it was almost entirely spread by popular conversion rather than official patronage.

In 701 Shen-hsiu (606?-706) arrived in Lo-yang at the invitation of Empress Wu, an event which constitutes the debut of Ch'an among China's cultured elite. For the next two or three decades Shen-hsiu and his students maintained an extremely high profile in imperial court society, where they presented themselevs as transmitters of the "East Mountain Teaching" of Tao-hsin and especially Hung-jen. (Actually, the East Mountain Teaching period of Ch'an might be extended past Hung-jen's death to include Shen-hsiu's residence at Yü-ch'üan ssu during 675-700, and the Northern school phase may be said to have begun with Hung-jen's student Fa-ju's Ûöåý [638-89] activities on Mount Sung in the 680s.)

The Northern school represented a great flourishing of Ch'an activity and writing, and the first examples of the "transmission of the lamp history" (ch'üan-teng shih ; J. ent?shi) genre of Ch'an texts appear during this phase. It is in one of these texts that we find the first incontrovertible evidence that something like encounter dialogue was being practiced within the Ch'an community-but was not yet being transcribed in full. The Northern school emerged as a separate tradition only after being vigorously opposed by Shenhui (670-762), the polemicist of the Southern school, and his followers.  It was centered around the ancient Tang capital cities of Changan and Loyang, and claimed direct descent from the Fifth Patriarch Hongren by way of his disciple Faju (638-689), who lived for sixteen years in Hongren's East Mountain community.  Faju received Dharma transmission from Hongren, and eventually he came to be regarded by many as the founder of the Northern school.

 Naturally, Southern Chan had a much more egalitarian outlook.

Now, with the ascendancy of the powerful T'ang dynasty, cultural self-confidence was returning. Buddhism, with its fondness for accumulating distinctions, endless lists, rules, and other tedious intellectualizing was beginning to tire intellectuals. The rituals, thousands of sutras, levels of truth, categories, lists, distinction etc. went on ad nauseam. The antipathy to this theoretical overkill explains the rise Sudden Enlightenment Chan--the Chinese revenge on Buddhism.

Historians argue that the story of Hui Neng was actually written by a Daoist poet, who was inspired by the fabulous story-telling of his close friend, a popular Southern monk named Shen Hui. Shen Hui had traveled North to the domain of the powerful and famous monk, Shen Xiu, the villain of the Platform Sutra story. However, the most celebrated master of this school was Shenxiu, who died in 706.  Like Faju, he also received Dharma transmission from the Fifth Patriarch at East Mountain, and sought to establish chan meditation practice based on the Mahayana sutras, which he studied deeply throughout his long career.  But the Northern school, which initially was considered to be the most important chan lineage in the early Tang, and which enjoyed thereby the patronage of two Tang emperors, was also doomed to extinction by the beginning of the 9th century, due probably to divisions in leadership in the years after Shenxiu's death.

The Southern School came into existence through the efforts of Shenhui, a disciple of Huineng, but who had also practiced meditation with Shenxiu briefly in 699-701.  At a "Great Dharma Assembly" held on January 15th, 732, at a temple in a place called Huatai in Hunan Province, Shenhui announced that the unbroken succession of Dharma transmission from Bodhidharma had been passed from Hongren to the Sixth Patriarch, Huineng.  In addition to accusing the Northern School of having quite literally usurped the chan patriarchate, Shenhui accused it further of having produced a false teaching, namely that enlightenment occurs through gradual practice, whereas Huineng had taught that enlightenment occurs "at a single stroke," as a sudden breakthrough.  The often acrimonious debate between Southern and Northern schools was known to everyone active in the chan movement of the 8th century and went on for several decades, with teachers in Jiangxi and Hunan wasting no time in allying themselves with zu shichan, the chan of the patriarchs, as the followers of Huineng later termed it.

 Central to this movement was the rising popularity of Liu zu tan jing (The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch), which was held to be an accurate record of Huineng's teachings, but whose derivation is in fact questionable, and which may have been written, at least partially, much later by Shenhui's disciples.

  Shitou Xiqian's poem The Agreement of Difference and Unity provides several direct references to the Platform Sutra, possibly as a convenient means of demonstrating Shitou's allegiance to the still-nascent Southern School.

For Zongmi, writing at the beginning of the ninth century, the Southern school was best represented by the Hoze school, of which he himself was the recognized leader.  The Hoze school was founded by Shenhui, but did not survive beyond Zongmi's own life time.  More significantly for the future course of events, Zongmi speaks in some detail of a second Southern school, which he calls the Hongzhou school, established by the disciples of Mazu in Jiangxi.

 Since Zongmi does not note the existence of a second Southern school in the succession from Shitou Xiqian, it is to the Song period chan histories we must look for information about the gradual emergence of the Cao-Dong teaching lineage, and its counterpart in the establishment of Linji [Rinzai] school, both of which replaced all other chan schools in importance by the end of the Song dynasty.

At the time, the Tang officially recognized Shen Xiu as the 6th Chan Patriarch. Shen Hui was an extremely popular public speaker. He weaved spellbinding tales and avoided tedious theorizing. He had a large popular following but was in official trouble because of his attacks on Shen Xiu.

 Unsuccessful in his attempts to have Hui Neng recognized as the true successor, he was banished briefly to the hinterland-in Jiangxi province and subsequently kept on the move so he could not attract a large following. Over the years, fortunate political events intervened. The Tang government had a serious budget deficit because of heavy defense expenditures following a six-year war putting down a military rebellion. One of the ways the Tang had of raising money was to require all those becoming Buddhist priests or nuns to buy a license-on the theory they were removing themselves from productive life (since they lived on donations and by begging). They decided they needed a "license salesman" and someone remembered that Shen Hui was the best one around, so they sent for him. He was, of course, successful, and bailed out the treasury and in gratitude the Tang officially declared him the 7th Patriarch-which by implication made Hui Neng the 6th as the Platform Sutra claimed.

The other thing that was important about Shen Hui's story was that in it, Hui Neng simply disappeared into the Southern mountains. That made it tempting and easy for other Southern monks to claim that they had encountered Hui Neng or his equally reclusive disciples as they wandered in the mountains and received the instantaneous transmission of the Dharma of Sudden enlightement.

So the school's influence spread quickly throughout China and it became the dominant school during most of the long Tang dynasty-the Southern dynasty. (Cantonese speakers still refer to themselves "People of Tang" where Mandarin speakers call themselves "People of Han.")

The Southern school's position represented an indigenous Chinese cultural rebellion against the intellectualized, elitist and esoteric elements of this foreign religion. Traces of this Chinese egalitarianism and naturalism had been evident even during the first transmission of Buddhism to China. Chinese translators frequently argued that everyone was capable of enlightement and preferred Buddhist scriptures that endorsed that view. Other popular schools (Tiantai and Huayan) drew the positive conclusion from the Madyamika paradox-everything must already be Buddha. However, as we noted, Chan masters never said this too plainly and mainly stressed practice. Hence, the popular slogan has it "Tiantai and Huayan for theory and Chan for practice."

As the Chan attitude spread, it became a cultural movement against the hierarchy of Buddhism. Schools sprang up all over China. There was little "top-down" organization but a fairly consistent set of shared attitudes toward Buddhist theory. The discovery of the Dunhuang manuscripts revealed an important source for information about the chan movement in the form of a chan history written by the Fifth Huayan Patriarch Zongmi (780-841), which provides an overview of the different schools existing in his lifetime. It shows that there was no single teaching or meditation practice common to all the chan sects, but that each sect had its own traditional doctrinal orientation and teaching methods, and also that each was located in a different region of China.  Zongmi mentions seven different chan schools which had developed : 

1.  Niutou (Oxhead school)

2.  The Northern school

3.  The school of Lao An

4.  Two schools in Sichuan

5.  Hongzhou (school of Nanyue Huaizhang)

6.  Hoze, Shenhui's school of southern chan, to which Zongmi himself belonged.

The Niutou or Ox-head school, which evidently remained quite unaffected by the controversy between the Northern and Southern schools, was located south of Nanjing (in modern JiangsuProvince).  It claimed a separate lineage to Daoxin, the Fourth Patriarch, and was much influenced by Tiantai teachings.  It did not survive beyond the 9th century.  

We introduce now two names that do not normally appear in Dharma Heir lists. They are posted here, because they represent perhaps more than any master the application of the true essence, the understanding of emptiness.

Han-shan (Kanzan), 7th C. Cold Mountain. A hermit poet who lived in the Tientai range of mountains. He appears in Blue Cliff Records 34 and Records of Silence 3.

Shih-te (Jittoku,  Bukan)7th C. Foundling. He was found as a child by a monk called Feng-kan (big stick) and was brought up in the monastery, worked in the dining hall and kitchen.

                                                         Han-shan and Shih-te

Kanzan lived in a cave behind Kuo Ch'ing monastery on Mount Tientai, the locus of the Tendai worship in China. He was a recluse and poet who lived on Mount T'ien-t'ai (Chekiang, a place renowned for its hermits, both Taoist and Buddhist). He was a friend of the monks Feng-kan and Shih-te of the Kuo-ch'ing-ssu, a monastery near his hermitage. He supplied his hermit friends with leftovers.The kitchen worker Jittoku would bring him food from the monastery, and the two men would amuse themselves in the evening with poetry and moon viewingThe first and by far the most famous Ch'an (Zen) eccentrics are Han-shan  The origins of the legends of Han-shan and his inseparable companion Shih-te can be traced to a collection of about three hundred T'ang poems, known as the Collected Poems of Han-shan. Sometimes, the legend says, Han-shan would stroll for hours in the corridors of the monastery, occasionally letting out a cheerful cry, or laughing or talking to himself. When taken to task or driven away by the monks, he would stand still afterwards, laugh, clap his hands, and then disappear. Judging from his poems, which abound with references to the Tao-te-ching and Chuang-tzu, the Taoist classics, Han-shan was actually more of a Taoist recluse than a Ch'an monk.

                                           ZU-CHI CHAN (CHAN OF THE PATRIARCS)

                                    **************  Dharma-heirs of Huineng  ******************

Heze Shenhui (Ho-tse Shen-hui, Kataku Jinne), 670-762. A Dharma-heir of Huineng. It was he who put  himself forward as the Seventh Ancestor in China and accused Shenxiu as an usurper of the title of Sixth Ancestor.

                                                     FOUNDER OF THE   KATAKU  ZONG

          A zong  宗 may be considered as a school/sect/purpose/model/or family/ and therefore in a broader sense a Sangha

Kuei-feng Tsung-mi (Keiho Shumitsu) 780-841. A Dharma Heir of Heze Shenhui

Nanyang Huizhong (Nan-yang Hui-cheng; Nanyo Echu; also Dacheng Chanshi, Ta-cheng Ch’an-shih, Daisho zenji), 675-775. A Dharma-heir of Huineng, the Sixth Ancestor. After receiving the Transmission he went into hermitage on Baiya shan (Hakugai san) in Nanyang. Emperor Suzong had him dragged from his hermitage in 761 when Huizong was about 81 and had him installed as as the court Chan Master. He also served as the Teacher of Suzong’s successor Daizong. Commonly referred to as the National Teacher (guoshi or kokushi) in Zen texts. He appears in Blue Cliff Records 18, 69, 99, Records of Silence 42, 85 and Gateless Gate 17.

Tan-yuan Ying-chen (Tangen Oshin) A Dharma-heir of Nanyang Huizhong

Biandan Xiaoliao (Pien-tan Hsiao-liao, Hentan Goryo), 7-8th C. A Dharma-heir of Huineng. See Dogen’s Gyoji.  &

Yongjia Xuanjue (Yung-chia Hsuan-chueh, Yoka Genkaku) d. 665-713. A Dharma-heir of Huineng His Zheng Daoge (Cheng Tao Ko, Sho Doka) is translated as the Song of Liberation by Yasuda Joshu roshi and Anzan Hoshin roshi, Treasury of Luminosity: Teachings of the Soto Zen Masters, WWZC Archives. He appears in Eihei Gen zenji goroku 3.

Da-xiao Ling-tao (Diagyo Reito) 666-760 A Dharma-heir of Huineng

Nanyue Huairang (Nan-yueh Hai-jang, Nangaku Ejo), 677-744. Dahui (Ta-hui, Daie) is a posthumous honorific. A Dharma-heir of Huineng the Sixth Ancestor, Dharma-brother of Qingyuan Xingsi. Two of the Five Houses of classical Chan stem from his Transmission. His Dharma-heir was Mazu Daoyi. His dialogue with Mazu on “polishing the tile” was tremendously influential for Dogen. See Dogen’s Gyoji.

Jiangxi Mazu Daoyi (Chiang-hsi Ma-tsu Tao-i, Baso Doitsu) 709-788. He was the sole Dharma-heir of Nanyue Huairang. Amongst his 139 Dharma-heirs was Baizhang Huaihai. He was one of the most prominent of the Tang Chan masters and had a great deal to do with shaping the directness of Teaching styles through his use of the shout, stick, and glare. His sayings and doings are collected in the Jiangxi Daoyi Chan-shi yu-lu (Kiangsi Tao-i ch’an-shih yu-lu, Recorded Sayings of Ch’an master Daoyi of Jiangxi). He appears in Blue Cliff Records 3, 53, 73, Records of Silence 6, 36, 90 and Gateless Gate 30, 33. He appears in the Sayings and Doings of Dongshan (Dongshan yulu ) 2. See Dogen’s Uji, Koku, Hossho, Gyoji.

Qingyuan Xingsi (Ch’ing-yuan Hsing-ssu, Seigen Gyoshi), 660?-740.. A Dharma-heir of Huineng. His Dharma-heir was Shitou Xiqian. His posthumous title was Hongzhi (Hung-chi, Gusai), “Helping Others.” Very little is known about his biography. Three of the Five Houses of classical Chan developed out of his Lineage: the Cadong, Yunmen, and Fayen. He appears in Records of Silence 5. See Denkoroku Chapter 35. See Dogen’s Shisho, Gyoji.

  Shitou Xiqian (Shih-t’ou Hsi-ch’ien, Sekito Kisen) 700-790. He was the sole Dharma-heir of Qingyuan Xingsi The Thirty-Fifth Ancestor. Author of the Cantong qi (T’san-t’ung-ch’i, Sandokai), trans. by Anzan Hoshin roshi and Yasuda Joshu roshi in Chanting Breath and Sound, Great Matter Publications, 1994. He was accepted as a student by Huineng in 713. After Huineng died, we know very little about what happened next until he was ordained at Lofu-shan in 728, after which he went to study with Qingyuan in Zhihzhou. He studied with Qingyuan for twelve years and then, in 742, Xiqian went to Nanyue where he built a hermitage for himself on top of a large flat rock east of the Nan-zi temple. Thus people called him “Shitou Hoshang,” “cliff-edge monk” or, more colourfully, “Stone-head.”

                                    *********** DHARMA STREAM MAZU Y SHITOU ************

          In 764 SHITOU went to Liangduan where he and his group had a great deal of interaction with Jiangxi Mazu Daoyi

. The Jingde Chuandeng-lu says that, “West of the (Jiangxi) river the great solitary one (Mazu) is the master and south of the lake (Hunan) Cliff-edge (Shihtou) is the master.

                                              “Whoever has not met these two great masters is ignorant of Chan.”

We can then repeat today that anyone who has not examined and understood the Dharma of the five houses  that arose from them is ignorant of Chan

Jiangxi Mazu Daoyi (Chiang-hsi Ma-tsu Tao-i, Baso Doitsu) 709-788. The sole Dharma-heir of Nanyue Huairang. Amongst his 139 Dharma-heirs was Baizhang Huaihai. He was one of the most prominent of the Tang Chan masters and had a great deal to do with shaping the directness of Teaching styles through his use of the shout, stick, and glare. His sayings and doings are collected in the Jiangxi Daoyi Chan-shi yu-lu (Kiangsi Tao-i ch’an-shih yu-lu, Recorded Sayings of Ch’an master Daoyi of Jiangxi). He appears in Blue Cliff Records 3, 53, 73, Records of Silence 6, 36, 90 and Gateless Gate 30, 33. He appears in the Sayings and Doings of Dongshan (Dongshan yulu) 2. See Dogen’s Uji, Koku, Hossho, Gyoji.

                                                                                    From Jiangxi Mazu Daoyi the

                                                                      KUEI  YANG  ZONG and the LIN CHI ZONG

  Shitou Xiqian (Shih-t’ou Hsi-ch’ien, Sekito Kisen) 700-790. The sole Dharma-heir of Qingyuan Xingsi The Thirty-Fifth Ancestor. Author of the Cantong qi (T’san-t’ung-ch’i, Sandokai), trans. by Anzan Hoshin roshi and Yasuda Joshu roshi in Chanting Breath and Sound, Great Matter Publications, 1994. He was accepted as a student by Huineng in 713. After Huineng died, we know very little about what happened next until he was ordained at Lofu-shan in 728, after which he went to study with Qingyuan in Zhihzhou. He studied with Qingyuan for twelve years and then, in 742, Xiqian went to Nanyue where he built a hermitage for himself on top of a large flat rock east of the Nan-zi temple. Thus people called him “Shitou Hoshang,” “cliff-edge monk” or, more colourfully, “Stone-head.”

          Three of the early five Zen Houses or streams stem from Shihtou; as well as Yaoshan Weiyan, from whom sprang the Caodong-zong (Soto), his many Dharma-heirs include Tianhuang Daowu (T’ien-huang Tao-wu, Tenno Dogo),748-807, from whose heirs the Fayen-zong (Hogen) and Yunmen-zong (Ummon) originated. Danxia Tianran (Tan-hsia T’ien-jan, Tanka Tennen),739-824, and Dandian Baotong (Ta-tien Pao-t’ung, Daiten Hotsu),d. 819, were two other Dharma-heirs, but their Lineages died out after a few generations. See Denkoroku, Chapter 36. See Dogen’s Gyoji.

                                                                                            From Shitou Xiqian the

                                  FA YEN ZONG the YUN MEN ZONG and the TUNG TSAO ZONG

                                                                        MAZU

                                                               (Jiangxi Mazu Daoyi – 18 dharma heirs)

Provincial Ch'an: Sometime in the second half of the eighth century, or perhaps the very beginnig of the ninth, a new style of Ch'an developed in what is now Kiangsi and Hupeh. Ma-tsu Tao-i Ø©ðÓÔ³ìéand his Hung-chou school ûóñ¶÷ï. Ma-tsu (709-88) and his disciples are depicted in Ch'an records as engaging in spontaneous repartee in what is almost a barnyard atmosphere of agricultural labor and other daily tasks, and this style of interaction seems to fit perfectly with the descriptions of Ma-tsu's teachings about the ordinary mind and the activity of the Buddha-nature. If so, this would be the earliest incontrovertible appearance of encounter dialogue, and indeed the accounts of Ma-tsu and his first-and second-generation disciples form the core repertoire of encounter dialogue anecdotes in Ch'an literature. There is just one problem: the presentation of Ma-tsu and his disciples in this fashion does not occur in writing until 952, and earlier writings relating to Ma-tsu and his faction present a somewhat different image of his community.

Nanquan Puyuan (Nan-ch’uan P’u-yuan, Nansen Fugan), 748-835. A Dharma-heir of Mazu Daoyi. He had seventeen heirs, amongst them Zhaozhou Congshen and Changsha Jingcen. He appears in Blue Cliff Records 28, 31, 40, 63, 64, 69, Records of Silence 9, 10, 16, 23, 79, 90, 93 and Gateless Gate 14, 19, 27, 34. See Dogen’s Gyoji.

 Zhaozhou Congshen (Chao-chou Ts’ung-shen, Joshu Jushin), 778-897. A Dharma-heir of Nanquan Puyuan. He appears in Blue Cliff Records Cases 2, 9, 30, 41, 45, 52, 57, 58, 59, 64, 80, 96, Records of Silence 9, 10, 18, 39, 47, 57, 63, and in Gateless Gate 1, 7, 11, 14, 19, 31, 37. See Dogen’s Rahai Tokuzui, Dotoku, Katto, Hakuju-shu, Gyoji.

 Yanyang Shanxin (Yen-yang Shan-hsin, Genyo Zenshin), n.d. One of two Dharma-heirs of Zhaozhou.  & need one more

Yanyang was the monk who appears in the Kaigenroku as “the monk”.

A monk asked, “How is it when you have nothing?”

Zhaozhou said, “Throw it away.”

The monk said, “I have nothing. How can I throw it away?”

          Zhaozhou said, “Then go on carrying it.

Changsha Jingcen Zhaoxien (Ch’ang-sha Ching-t’sen Chao-hsien, Chosa Keishin), d. 868 A Dharma-heir of Nanquan Puyuan and Dharma-brother of Zhaozhou Congren. He appears in Blue Cliff Records 36 and Records of Silence 79. See Dogen’s Komyo and Jippo.

Cihu Lizong (Tzu-hu Li-tsung, Shiko Risho), roughly 800-880. A Dharma-heir of Nanquan Puyuan. He appears in Blue Cliff Records 17 and 96.

Lu keng  Tai fu Riku ko  T’ai fu) A Dharma-heir of Nanquan Puyuan

 Zhangjing (Chang-jing, Huai-hui, Shokei Eki), 756-815  A Dharma-heir of Mazu. Daoyi He appears in Blue Cliff Records 31.

Baozhi Magu (Pao-ch’e Ma-ku, Hotetsu Mayoku). Dates uncertain, circa 700s. A Dharma-heir of Mazu. Daoyi He appears in Records of Silence 16. See Dogen’s Genjokoan, Chiji Shingi.

Yanguan Qian (Yen-kuan Ch’i-an, Enkan Seian), d. 842. A Dharma-heir of Mazu Daoyi  A posthumous title was Wukong (Awake Emptiness), which was conferred upon him by his former student Emperor Xuan Zong. He first studied the Vinaya deeply before studying with Mazu. He taught at Haichang zi in Yanguan, Hang region (Zhejiang). He appears in Records of Silence case 25. See Dogen’s Gyoji.

Kuan-nan Tao-ch’ang ( Kannan Dojo) ca. 8th-9th C A Dharma-heir of Yanguan Qian

Kuan-nan Tao-wu (Kannan Dogo) ca. 8th-9th C A Dharma-heir of Kuan-nan Tao-ch’ang

Damei Fachang (Ta-mei Fa-ch’ang, Daibaijo zenjo or Daibai Hojo), 752-839.  A Dharma-heir of Mazu Daoyi. He gave transmission to Hangzhou Tianlong. He practiced in hermitage on Damei-shan (Great Plum Mountain) in Ningbo for forty years before founding Husheng zi

 Hangzhou Tianlong (Hang-chou T’ien-lung, Koshu Tenryuo), n.d. 9th C.  A Dharma-heir of Damei Fachang. Gave Transmission to Juzhi. He appears in Gateless Gate 3. See Dogen’s Gyoji.

 Jinhua Juzhi (Chin-hua Chu-chih, Kinka Gutei), 9th C. A Dharma-heir of Hangzhou Tianlong. He appears in Sanbyakusoku Shobogenzo case 245, Blue Cliff Records 19, Records of Silence 84, and Gateless Gate 3 (all of these are more or less the same case).

 Panshan Baoji (P’an-shan Bao-chi, Banzan Hoshaku), 720-814.  A Dharma-heir of Mazu Daoyi, he was the Master of Puhua. He appears in Blue Cliff Records 37. He is quoted by Keizan zenji in Denkoroku 49.

Puhua (P’u-hua, Fuke), d. 860. A Dharma-heir of Panshan Baoji. After Panshan’s death he hung around Linji’s community, acting as a kind of “holy fool”, and most of what we know of him appears in the Linji yulu. He appears in Dogen’s Sanbyakusoku case 96. The Japanese Fuke House of Zen made him their putative founder.

Guizhong Zhichanga (Kisu Chijo)   8th 9th  c   A Dharma-heir of Mazu Daoyi

Gaoan Dayu (Kao-an Ta-yu, Koan Daigu), c. 9th C. Two generations after Mazu Dao-i, he was the Dharma-heir of Guizhong Zhichanga, the teacher of Moshan, and also was one of Linji’s teachers. He appears in Records of Silence 86. See the Linji Yulu (Rinzai roku). See Dogen’s Raihai Tokuzui and Gyoji.

Moshan Liaoran or Laoran (Mo-shan Liao-jan; Massan Ryonen), n.d. A nun who was Dharma-heir of Gaoan Dayu, one of Linji’s teachers, she was a teacher of Linji’s disciple, Guanzhi Zhixian. See Jiangde Chuandeng-lu 11. See Dogen’s Raihai Tokuzui.

Kao-an T’ai- yu  ( Koan Taiguyu)  9th c A Dharma-heir of Guizhong Zhichanga

Shigong Huicang (Shih-kung Hui-ts’ang, Shakkyo Ezo), n.d. A Dharma-heir of Mazu Daoyi. He was formerly a hunter who became a monk when he was chasing a deer and came upon Mazu in hermitage. He appears with his Dharma-brother Xitang Zhizang in Dogen’s Koku, Sanbyakusoku 248, and Eihei Koroku 9: 53.

Xitang Zhizang (Hsi-t’ang Chih-tsang , Seido Chizo), 735-814. A Dharma-heir of Mazu Daoyi. His Dharma-heirs Jilin Daoyi and Hongshe were Korean monks who were fundamental in the establishment of the Nine Mountains of Korean Chan. He appears in Blue Cliff Records 73. He appears with his Dharma-brother Shigong Huicang in Dogen’s Koku.

Pangyun ( Luzu P’ang-yun, Houn), 740-808/811. Known as Layman Pang or Ho koji. The term “koji” was applied to lay students who had not received monastic ordination but still practised intensively. Similiar to anagarika. A Dharma-heir of Mazu Daoyi., Shitou and Yaoshan, among others. Pang lived in retreat at Yaoshan’s monastery for sixteen years. His whole family were practitioners and his daughter also is especially noted as an adept. He appears in Blue Cliff Records 42. See The Recorded Sayings of Layman Pang, trans. by Sasaki, Iriya, Fraser, Weatherhill, 1971.

Wu Chiu (Ukyu)  8th c   A Dharma-heir of Mazu Daoyi

Chin Niu (Kingyu) A Dharma-heir of Mazu Daoyi

Chung-I Hung-en (Chuyu Koon) A Dharma-heir of Mazu Daoyi

Pai chang Wei Cheng (Hyakuyo Isho) A Dharma-heir of Mazu Daoyi

Hualin Shanjue (Hua-lin Shan-chueh, Karin Zenkaku), n.d. A Dharma-heir of Mazu Daoyi, defeated in Dharma combat by Guishan while they served in Baizhang’s assembly. Later he became abbot at Hualin (his name after that). He once was asked by Prime Minister Pei Xiugong if he had any attendants. Hualin called out the names “large Emptiness” and “Small Emptiness” and two tigers appeared. When Pei Xiugong became frightened, Hualin asked the tigers to leave for a while. They roared and departed.

Tanzhou Longshan (T’an-chou Lung-shan, Tanshu Ryuzan), c. 9th C. Dharma-heir of Mazu Daoyi. He dwelled in hermitage throughout his life. See Dogen’s Gyoji.Also known as Yinshan (Hidden Mountain). He appears in Dogen’s Sanbyakusoku Shobogenzo case 222 in Dongshan’s “Two Clay Oxen.”

Fazheng Niepan (Fa-cheng Nieh-p’an also Baizhang Niepan, Hyakujo Nehan), n.d. A Dharma-brother under Mazu Daoyi along with Baizhang Huaihai and Nanquan. He appears in Blue Cliff Records 28.

                                                    Most important among them was

Baizhang Huaihai (Pai-chang Huai-hai, Hyakujo Ekai), 720-814. Dazhi (Tao-chih, Daichi) is a posthumous title. A Dharma-heir of Mazu Daoyi.. Baizhang is credited with having created the basis for the shingi or rules of deportment used today in Zen monasteries. His teachings and sayings have been translated in The Zen Teaching of Huai-Hai on Sudden Illumination by John Blofeld, Rider and Co., 1962 and Sayings and Doings of Pai-Chang by Thomas Cleary, Center Publications, 1978. Yunyan Tansheng studied with Baizhang for twenty years and left to go and study with Yaoshan after Baizhang’s death on the advice of Daowu. He appears in Blue Cliff Records 26, 53, 70, 71, 72, Records of Silence 8, Gateless Gate 2, 40, Himitsu Shobogenzo 18. See Dogen’s Shinjin Gakudo, Chiji Shingi, Gyoji. See Anzan Hoshin roshi’s Turning the Wheel of the Way.

Changqing Da’an (Ch’ang-ch’ing Ta-an, Chokei Daian), 793-883. His posthumous name was Yuanzhi (Enchi). Also called Guishan Da’an. A Dharma-heir of Baizhang Huaihai, he succeeded his Dharma-brother Guishan Lingyou’s abbacy on Dagui shan. Not to be confused with Changqing Huileng. He appears in Dogen’s Kajo, Gyoji. See Anzan Hoshin roshi’s Turning the Wheel of the Way.

. Dasui Fazhen (Ta-sui Fa-chen, Dazui Hoshin), ca. 9th C. A Dharma-heir of Changqing Daan, ho was a  Dharma heir of  Baizhang. He also trained for a time with Dongshan Liangjie and Guishan Lingyou. He appears in Blue Cliff Records 29 and in Records of Silence 30 (which is the same case).

Ling –shu Ju-min (Reiju Nyobin)  ca. 9th C A Dharma-heir of Changqing Daan

Wufeng Changguan (Wufeng Ch’ang-kuan, Goho Jokan), ca. 8th-9th C. A Dharma-heir of Baizhang. Very little is known of him. He appears in Blue Cliff Records 70, 71.

   In the Wudeng Huiyan it says: Baizhang said, “I would like someone to go to Xitang and tell him something.” Wufeng said, “I’ll go.” Baizhang said, “How will you speak to him?” Wufeng said, “I’ll wait until I see Xitang, then I’ll speak.” Baizhang asked, “What will you say?” Wufeng said, “When I come back, I’ll tell you.”

Daci Huanzhong (Ta-ch’ih Huan-chung, Daiji Kanchu), 732-824.  A Dharma-heir of Baizhang. A posthumous title was Xingkong

Shih shuang Hsing k’ung Sekiso Shoku ca. 8th-9th C A Dharma-heir of Baizhang

                                         Baizhang’s most important students were:

Guishan Lingyou (Kuei-shan Ling-yu, Isan Reiyu) (House of Kuei-Yang) (A)

                                                                line of Chan ssu Lun

Huangbo Xiyun (Huang-po I-ts’un, Obaku Kiyun) (House of Li Chi) (B)

                                                                line of Chan ssu Lun

                                            ******* CHAN SSU LUN CASAS *******

                                                                  FROM MAZU

Dharma heirs of Baizhang a student of Mazu

(A)   KUEI YANG ZONG

Guishan Lingyou (Kuei-shan Ling-yu, Isan Reiyu), 771-853. Also called Daiwei (Daigu). A Dharma-heir of Baizhang. Gave transmission to Lingyou Zhixian. Dongshan Liangjie studied with him for a time. The founder, along with his disciple, Yangshan Huiji, of one of the five Lineages of classical Chinese Zen Buddhism, the Guiyang house (Igyo in Japanese) which Transmitted ninety-seven mandalas and merged into the Linji House in the 10th century. Guishan’s Admonitions is an early warning against laxity in the Zen community. Praised by Dogen as a former tenzo, he is referred to frequently in the Eihei Shingi. He appears in Blue Cliff Records 4, 24, 70, Records of Silence 15, 37, 60, 83, 87, and Gateless Gate 40. He appears in the Sayings and Doings of Dongshan (Dongshan yulu) section 3. See Dogen’s Tenzokyokun in Cooking Zen, Ven. Anzan Hoshin roshi, Great Matter Publications, 1995 for numerous references to Guishan. See also Dogen’s Shisho, Gyoji.

          In Tenzokyokun, Dogen refers to this story from Chanlin Leiju Chapter 14: When Guishan Lingyou lived on Baizhang shan he went off into the wilderness with his master, Baizhang Huihai, to work. Baizhang said, “Bring me some fire.” Guishan replied, “Okay, right away.” When Guishan returned he brought a stick to Baizhang who said, “Well, where is it?” Guishan turned the stick around in his hand, blew on it three times, and handed it back to Baizhang. Baizhang accepted the stick.

          Also to this story in the Jingde Chuandenglu: Once when Daigu was training as tenzo on Baizhang shan, he went to serve the master. Baizhang called out, “Who is it?” Daigui answered, “Me, Lingyou.” Baizhang said, “Go and stir up those coals and see if anything’s burning.” Daigui did as instructed and when he returned told Baizhang that the fire was out. Baizhang got up, went to the brazier himself and stirred the ashes. Uncovering a small ember he brought it over to Daigui and said, “Well, what do you call this?” Daigui suddenly realized Baizhang’s pointing-out instructions and bowed.

 Yangshan Huiji (Yang-shan Hui-chi; Gyozan or Kyozan Ejaku), 807-883.  3 + 2 Along with his teacher Guishan Lingyou (Kuei-shan Ling-yu; Isan Reiyu, 771-853), founded the Guiyang (Kuei-yang; Igyo) House. He received transmission as well from Danyuan Yingzhen (Tan-yuan Ying-chen; Tangen Oshin), c. 9 C., of ninety-seven mandalas that he integrated into the practice of the Guiyang. Nick-named “Little Sakyamuni.” Yangshan appears in Blue Cliff Records 34 and 68, Records of Silence 15, 26, 32, 37, 62, 72, 77, 90, 91 and in Gateless Gate 25. See Dogen’s Shisho, Gyoji.

Nan-t’a Kuang-jun  (Nan-ta Guang-yong,  Nanto Koyu) 850-938 A Dharma-heir of Yangshan Huiji

Pa-chiao Hui-ch’ing ( Ba-liao Hui-qing, Basho Esho) c. 10th C A Dharma-heir of Nan-t’a Kuang-jun

Hsing-yang  Ch’ing –jang ( Xing-yang Cin-grang Koyo Scijo) c. 10th C A Dharma-heir of Pa-chiao Hui-ch’ing

Hsi-ta Kuang-mu (Seito Koboku) c. 9th A Dharma-heir of Yangshan Huiji

Tsu-fu  Ju-Pao (Shifuku Nyoho) c. 10th A Dharma-heir of His-ta Kuang-mu

Xiangyan Zhixian (Hsiang-yen Chih-hsien, Kyogen Chikan), d. 840 or 898. See Gateless Gate Case 3, Kaigenroku 9. Studied with Baizhang, received transmission from his Dharma-brother Guishan Lingyou See Dogen’s Gabyo, Soshi-sairai-no-i and Gyoji

Lingyen Zhijian (Ling-yun Chih-ch’in, Rei-un Shigon), c. 9th C. Tang dynasty. A Dharma-heir of Guishan Lingyou. He wrote this verse about his waking up at the sight of peach blossoms: See Dogen’s Hotsu Mujoshin

                    “For thirty years I sought the perfect swordsman.

                    How many leaves fell, how many branches bloomed.

                    One moment I saw the peach flowers bloom and

                    from that moment to this I have had no doubt.

Lui T’ieh-mo  (Ryu Tetsuma) “Iron Grinder”c. 9th C, Dharma-heir of Guishan Lingyou

Dingshan Shenying (Ting-shan Shen-ying, Jozan Shin’ei), 771-853. Dharma-heir of Guishan Lingyou

Mi-hu (Meiko) c. 9th C  Dharma-heir of Guishan Lingyou

(B) LIN CHI ZONG (ancestor de Rinzai)

Huangbo Xiyun (Huang-po I-ts’un, Obaku Kiyun), d.850     1 + 1  A Dharma-heir of Baizhang Huaihai. He gave Transmission to Linji Yicun. He appears in Blue Cliff Records 11, Records of Silence 53, 86, 96, and in Gateless Gate 2. See Dogen’s Gyoji.

 Muzhou Daoming (Mu-chou Tao-ming, Bokushu Domyo), ca. 780-877. Also called Venerable Chen, his family name. Along with Linji, a Dharma-heir to Huangbo (Huang-po, Obaku), d. 850 and in turn gave transmission to Yunmen (Yun-men Wen-yen, Unmon Bun’en). He appears in Blue Cliff Records 10, Records of Silence 64, 92 and in the Linji yu-lu (Rinzai roku). See Dogen’s Eihei Gen zenji goroku 3, Gyoji, and Muchu Setsumu

Chenzao (Ch’en-ts’ao, Chinso), c. 9th C.  A civil official, ministry president. He studied with Muzhou Daoming, a Dharma-heir to Huangbo. Thus he was a Dharma-brother to Yunmen. He appears in Blue Cliff Records 33.

Linji Yixuan (Lin-chi I-hsuan, Rinzai Gigen), d. 867. Dharma heir of Huang Po Huizhao (Hui-chao, Esho) is a posthumous title. Linji was the Founding Ancestor of the Linji (Rinzai) Dharma. He appears in Blue Cliff Records 20 and 32, Records of Silence 13, 38, 80, 86, 95. See Dogen’s Gyoji.

Sansheng Huiran (San-sheng Hui-jan, Sansho Enen), 9th C. A Dharma-heir of Linji Yixuan, he compiled the Linji yulu of his Master’s Teachings. He appears in Blue Cliff Records 49, 68 and Records of Silence 13, 33 (which is the same case as Blue Cliff 49), 63.

Ding shangzuo (Ting shang-tso, Jo joza or Elder Ding), n.d. Dharma-heir of Linji Yixuan Appears in Blue Cliff Records 32.

Tongfeng Anju (T’ung-feng An-chu, Toho Anshu), 9th C. Dharma-heir of Linji Yixuan. Lived as a hermit. He appears in Blue Cliff Records 85.

Guanzhi Zhixian (Kuan-chih Chih-Hsien, Kankei Shikan), d. 895. Considered a Dharma-heir of Linji Yixuan Guanzhi also studied under and venerated the nun, Moshan Laoran. See Dogen’s Rahai Tokuzui. 

He appears in Chingde Chuandenglu section 12 and Yuanwu presents this story in his commentaries on Xuedou’s verse to Blue Cliff Records case 52. A travelling monk asked Guanxi (Flowing Mountain Stream), “I’ve heard about Guanxi for a long time. Now that I get here, I only see a pond for soaking hemp.” Guanxi said, “You only see the hemp soaking pond. You don’t see the flowing mountain stream.” The monk asked, “What is the flowing mountain stream?” Guanxi said, “The arrow whistles past fast.”

Pao-chou Yen-chao (Hoju Ensho) 9th C . Dharma-heir of Linji Yixuan

Xi-yuan Si- ming (Salin Shimyo) 10 th C  Dharma-heir of Pao-chou Yen-chao

Hsing-hua Ts’ung-chiang ( Ching-hua Cun-jiang, Koke Zonsho) 830-888 . Dharma-heir of Linji Yixuan

Nan yuan  hui yung  Nanyuan Huiyong (Nan’in Egyo) + 930 Dharma Heir of Koke Zonsho

Fengxue Yanzhao  (Feng-hsueh Yen-chao, Fuketsu Ensho), 896-973. Three generations after Linji and a Dharma-heir of Nan yuan Hui yung. All the subsequent Linji tradition descends from his Lineage, as supposedly predicted by Yangshan. Teacher of Shoushan Xingnian. He appears in Blue Cliff Records 38, 61, Records of Silence 29, 34 and Gateless Gate 24.

Shoushan Xingnian (Shou-shan Hsing-nien, Shuzan Shonen) 926-993. Dharma-heir of Fengxue Yanzhao. Gave Transmission to Feng-yang and Shexian Guisheng. See Dogen’s Uji.

Shi-men  ( Cong) 10 th C  Dharma-heir of Shoushan Xingnian

She-xian Gui-sheng (Shexian Guixing (She-hsien Kuei-ching, Sekken Kisei Sekken Kisho) 10 th C  Dharma-heir of Shoushan Xingnian  the fifth generation after Linji, he was known for his strickness. See Dogen’s Uji.

Fu-shan Fa-yuan (Fusan Hoen 991-1067 Dharma-heir of She-xian Gui-sheng

Feng-yang Shan-chao (Fenyang Shanzhao ,Fun’yo Zensho) 947-1024  Dharma-heir of Shoushan Xingnian

Gave Transmission to Ciming Quyuan and is thus the Ancestor of all surviving Linji Lineages. He only had seven students. Fenyang was the first master to add verse commentaries to the old stories or koan. A student of the Caodong Lineage before receiving the Linji transmission from his teacher Shoushan Xingnian, Fenyang introduced the Caodong Five Degrees Teaching into the Linji tradition.

Lang-yeh Hui-chiao (Roya Ekaku) 11th C  Dharma-heir of Feng-yang Shan-chao

Chang-shui Zi-rui 11th C Dharma-heir of Lang-yeh Hui-chiao

Ts’ui-yen Shou-chih (Cui-yan Shou-shi, Suigan Shushi) 10 th C  Dharma-heir of Feng-yang Shan-cho

Yun-feng  Wen-yueh (Umpo Bun’etsu) 998-1062. Dharma-heir of Ts’ui-yen Shou-chih Quoted in Denkoroku Chapter 17.

 Ciming (Tz’u-ming Shih-shuang Ch’u-yuan, Quyuan, Jimyo (Sekiso Soen) 986-1039. Dharma-heir of Feng-yang Shan-cho

 Not to be confused with Dongshan’s Dharma-brother Shishuang Qingzhu. Student of Fenyeng Shanzhao and teacher of both Yangqi and Huanglong, founders of the two main branches of Linji/Rinzai Zen. Ciming taught at Shishuang Mountain, the temple established by Shishuang Qingzhu. He appears in Gateless Gate 46. See Dogen’s Chiji Shingi.

                         Three Dharma Heirs Two main lines Huanglong Huinan and  Yangqi Fanghui

Cui-yan Zhen (Suigan Shi) 11 th C A Dharma-heir of Ciming Quyuan

Da-qui Mu-zhi (Gui-shan Zhe, Dai’I Butetsu)  d.  1132  Dharma-heir of Cui-yan Zhen 

                                                    Huanglong Huinan and  Dharma Heirs

      This is the beginning of the  Huanglong (Oryo) Chan line of Linji which led to Esai Zenji

Huanglong Huinan  (Huang-lung Hui-nan, Oryo Enan), 1002-1069.  A Dharma-heir of Ciming Quyuan and teacher of Huitang Zuxin. Huanglong is considered the founder of the Huanglong stream of the Linji Lineage that was later brought to Japan by Yosai (Eisai).

 Mazu Daoyi. See Jiangxi Mazu Daoyi, Nanyue Cikan (Nan-yueh Tz’u-k’an, Nangaku Jikan), n.d. Dharma-heir of Huanglong HuinanAlso known as Tiemien, “Iron Face” because of his strickness.

Bao-ning Yong 11 th C.  Dharma-heir of Huanglong Huinan

Gui-shan Huai-Xiu (Isan Eshu) 11 th C. Dharma-heir of Huanglong Huinan

Yun-kai Shou-Chih (Ungai Shichi) 1025-1115  Dharma-heir of Huanglong Huinan

Tung-lin Ch’ang -tsung (Torin Joso) 11 th C Dharma-heir of Huanglong Huinan

Tung-po Chu- Shih (Toba Koji) 11 th C  Dharma-heir of Tung-lin Ch’ang -tsung

Bao-feng Ke-wen (Pao-feng K’o-wen, Hobo Kokumen) 1025-1102 Dharma-heir of Huanglong Huinan

Tou-shouai Ts’ung-yueh (Con-gui, Tosotsu Juetsu) 1044-1091   Dharma-heir of Bao-feng Ke-wen

 [Huanglong] Huitang Zuxin (Hui-t’ang Tsu-hsin; [Oryu] Maido Soshin), 1025-1100. Dharma-heir of Huanglong Huinan. Huitang taught by raising a fist and saying “If you call this a fist you’ve said too much. If you say it’s not a fist you do not hit the mark.”

Baofu Benquan (Pao-fu Pen-ch’uan, Hofuku Hongron), n.d. A Dharma-heir of. [Huanglong] Huitang Zuxin Not to be confused with Baofu Zongchan who appears frequently in the Blue Cliff Records. See Dogen’s Bukkojoji.

Linguan Weiqing (Ling-yuan Wei-ch’ing, Reigen Isei), d. 1117. A Dharma-heir of. [Huanglong] Huitang Zuxin

 Shuangling Hua (Shuang-ling Hua, Sorei Ke), n.d. A Dharma-heir of. [Huanglong] Huitang Zuxin. See Dogen’s Chiji Shingi.

Ssu-hsin  Wu-hsin ( Sixin Wu-xin, Shishin Goshin ) 1044-1115 A Dharma-heir of. [Huanglong] Huitang Zuxin  *

Xuan Huaichang (Hsu-an Huai-ch’ang, Kian Esho)

    *   THE LINE OF HEIRS AFTER 5 GENERATIONS taken up by Myoan Esai Zenji 1141-1215

Myōan Ekai (Eisai) (明菴栄西) Myoan Yosai or Eisai, also known as Zenko kokushi.  (April 20, 1141–July 5, 1215) was a Japanese Buddhist priest, credited with bringing the Lin Chi school and green tea from China to Japan. He is often known simply as Eisai Zenji (栄西禅師), lit. "Zen master Eisai".

Born in Bitchu province (modern-day Okayama), Eisai started his studies of Buddhism in a Tendai temple. Dissatisfied with the state of Buddhism at the time, in 1168 he set off on his first trip to Mt. Tiantai, the home of the sect, where he first encountered Chan (later known in Japan as Zen) ideas. He spent only half a year in China this time, but returned in 1187 for a longer stay as a disciple of Xuan Huaichang (Hsu-an Huai-ch’ang, Kian Esho) as an heir in the Huanglong stream of the Linji House. Eisai taught Zen mixed with the exoteric and tantric teachings of the Tendai House and in 1204 was appointed abbot of Kennin-ji by the emperor.

 His Line of Dhara Heirs died out after only a few generations and can be said to only have continued through Dogen’s Soto Lineage because Dogen was the sole heir of Eisai’s major disciple Myozen Ryonen.

Myozen Ryonen, 1184-1225. Dharma-heir of Myoan Yosai, he gave Transmission of the Linji Lineage to Dogen. He journeyed to China with Dogen in 1223 and practiced for three years at Tiantong-si where he died at Liaoren Hall. Myozen died in zazen posture and it was said that his cremation manifested a five-coloured rainbow body and three brilliant pearls were found in the ashes. A memorial statue of Myozen was installed at the monastery. See Cooking Zen.

                                                     Yangqi Fanghui and  Dharma Heirs

                        This is the beginning of the Yangqi (Yogi) Chan line of Linji

Yangqi Fanghui (Yang-ch’i Fang-hui, Yogi Hoe), 992-1049. A Dharma-heir of Ciming Quyuan Founder of the Yangqi, one of the two main lines of Linji Chan. All modern Japanese Rinzai Zen comes from his Lineage. See Dogen’s Chiji Shingi, Gyoji.

Baoming Renyong (Pao-ming , Jen-yung, Honei Ninyu), 11th C. A Dharma-heir of Yangqi Fanghui in the Linji Lineage. See Dogen’s Chiji Shingi.

 Haihui [Baiyun] Shouduan (Hai-hui Pai-yun Shou-tuan, Kai-e [Haku’un] Shutan), 1025-1072 Dharma-heir of Yangqi Fanghui ..

Wu-tsu Fa- yen  (Goso Hoen)  1024 1104 Dharma heir of Haihui . His major heirs were K’ai-fu and Yuan-wu

Fo-yan Qing-yuan( Fo-Jian Butsugen Seion) d. 1120 Dharma heir of Wu tsu Fa yen

Zhu-an Shigui (Chikuan Shikei)1083-1146 Dharma heir of Fo-yan Qing-yuan

                                               K’ai-fu Tao-ning and Dharma Heirs

The beginning of the K’ai fu (Donei) Chan dharma line of Linji which led to Mummon Ekai

K’ai-fu Tao-ning (Kaifuku Donei) 1053-1113 Dharma heir of Wu tsu Fa yen

Yueh-an Shan-kuo (Gettan Zenka) 1079-1152 Dharma heir of K’ai-fu Tao-ning

Lao-na Tsu-teng (Rono Soto)  Dharma heir of Yueh-an Shan-kuo

Yueh-lin Shih-kuan (Gatsurin  Shikan) 1143-1217 Dharma heir of Lao-na Tsu-teng

Wu-men Hui-k’ai (Mumon Ekai) 1183-1216 Dharma heir of Yueh-lin Shih-kuan

Shinchi Kakushin 1207-1298  Dharma heir of Wu-men Hui-k’ai

                                         Yuan-wu Keqin and his Dharma heirs

The beginning of the Yuan-wu (Engo) Chan dharma line of Linji which led to Haikun Zenji

Yuan-wu Keqin "Foguo"( Yuan-wu K’o-ch’in, Engo Kokugon)1063-1135 Dharma heir of Wu-tsu Fa- yen  . Compiled the Blue Cliff Records from Xuedou’s collection and capping verses.

Hu-kuo Ching-yuan  (Huguo Jing-yuan ,Gokoku Keigen 1094-1146    Dharma heir of Yuan-wu Keqin

Huo-an Shih-t’i (Wakuan Shitai), 1108-1179. A Dharma-heir of Hu-kuo Ching-yuan  Thus grandson in Dharma of Yuanwu Keqin, the editor of Hekiganroku. He appears in Gateless Gate 4. See the Bodhidharma’s Eyes series, teisho 12.

 Ta-hui Zonggao (Ta-hui Tsung-kao, Daie Soko), 1089-1163. Dharma-heir of Yuanwu Keqin (compiler of the Blue Cliff Records) in the Linji Lineage. Famous proponent of koan introspection and huado koan practice and critic of silent illumination meditation. Attempted to poularize Chan through simplifying the practice into concentrating on “Wu” (Mu). In some writings Dogen used him as a symbol of misunderstandings of practice. Tremendously influential for the Korean Son/Hwaom master Pojo Chinul.

. He emphasized, like all true Ch'an masters before him, the primacy of the enlightenment experience. However, unlike many other Ch'an masters, he insisted upon the exclusive use of the so-called "public cases" (Ch. kung-an, J. koan) in Ch'an meditation and opposed the practice of quiet-sitting, for he believed that the latter was conducive to lifeless emptiness and passive escapism. He called the teachers of quiet-sitting heretical and referred to their Ch'an practice as the "heretical Ch'an of silent illumination" (mo-chao hsieh-ch'an)[c] and his own school came to be known as the "Ch'an of kung-an introspection" (k'an-hua ch'an).[d]

    Several scholars[1] have suggested that Ta-hui was a seminal figure in the development of Ch'an Buddhism, a view also shared by Chinese Buddhists since Ta-hui's time. His importance undoubtedly lies mainly in his successful creation of an "orthodox" teaching on the use of kung-an in Ch'an meditation, which held sway during the succeeding centuries in China and to some extent in Japan as well through the activities of the Tokugawa Zen master Hakuin, who also belonged to the same Lin-chi tradition.

 Fuzhao Dequang (Fu-chao Te-kuang, Bussho Tokko), 1121-1203. Dharma-heir of Ta-hui Zonggao in the Linji Lineage. Gave Transmission to Dainichi Nonin of the Daruma-shu in 1189 when asked to do so by two of Nonin’s students who had travelled to China.

Hu-ch’in Shao-lung (Kokyu Joryu, Kukyu) 1077-1136  Dharma-heir of Yuanwu Keqin. Line whichleads to HAKUIN

Ying-an Tan-hua (Oan) 1103-1163

Mi-an Xian-jei (Mittan) 1118-1186

Sung-yuan (Shogen Sogaku) 1139-1209 -- Last Chan Master in the Mumon kan

Yun-an P'u-yen (Un'an Fugan) 1156-1226

Hsu-t'sang Chih-yu (Kido Chigu) 1189-1269

* After Hsu-t'sang transmits to Shomyo, Ch'an begins a severe decline in China. The Mongol rule begins and Confucianism & Taoism are injected into the lineages. Later in the Ming dynasty Pure Land is merged with Ch'an.

Kanna Chan goes to Japan

Shomyo (Daio Kokushi) 1235-1309

Myocho Shuho (Daito Kokushi)

• founded Daitoku-ji Temple

Kanzan Egen (Muso Daishi) 1277-1360

• 2nd Abbot Daitoku-ji Temple

• 1st abbot Myoshin-ji Temple

Juo Sohitsu 1296-1390

Muin Soin 1326-1410 *

Tozen Soshin (Sekko Soshin) 1408-1486 *

Toyo Eicho 1429-1504

Youzan Keiyou *dates unknown, listed in an old Japanese document. Other names are possible.

Gudou Tosyoku (gudo kokushi) 1577-1661 *

*So far I have not been able to determine Gudou's teacher. He was a long term monk at Myoshin-ji and it's accepted that he was an heir of this line. Youzan Keiyou shows up in an old Japanese lineage chart, but as yet I have not found any information on him.

Shidou Bunan -- 1602-1676

Shoju Rojin (Dokyo Etan, Keitan Dokyo) (1642-1721),

Hakuin Zenji, also known as Kokurin, Byakuin, Sugiyama Iwagiro, Iwajiro, Jinki Dokumyo, Shoji Kokushi (C. Pai-yin, Po-yin) (19 Jan 1686 - 18 Jan 1769 ) Dharma Heir of Shoju Rojin ugiyama Iwajiro, known to posterity as the Zen Master Hakuin Ekaku, was born on January 19, 1686, in Hara, a small coastal village situated at the foot of Mt. Fuji on the Tokkaido Road between Edo (Tokyo) and Kyoto. Hakuin was born into a time and place where the established religion had lost its life.

The Zen of Bodhidharma, of the Sixth Patriarch, and of Rinzai had become the court religion of the samurai. But Hakuin was to fan the dying fire of the true Zen so effectively during the eighty-three years of his life that the Rinzai sect remains a living Dharma to this day, and all modern Masters of the school trace their lineage directly to him.

Endowed with enormous personal energy, Hakuin was a rarity among Masters and a lion among men. He was an accomplished artist and calligrapher and a voluminous author—he left a written legacy that is arguably the most extensive of the Masters of the Ch'an, or Zen, traditions. His caustic tongue and pen were legendary, and his words still breathe fire today. Yet his compassion was equal to his fire, and he was beloved by the common folk of his time and remains a favorite among lay practitioners of Zen.

Hakuin was especially critical of the "silent illumination heretics" and "do-nothings" who filled the monasteries and temples. They were, to use Adi Da's terminology, the "talking school" of Zen, those who took such Enlightened confessions as "Nirvana and samsara are the same", or "Our own mind is Buddha" to mean that no practice was necessary. Let us listen to what Hakuin had to say about the practice he saw around him:

                                     HAKUIN BECAME THE FATHER OF MODERN RINZAI ZEN

 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Zifu (Tzu-fu, Shifuku), 9-10th C. was a Master of the Guiyang House of Chan which transmitted ninety-seven mandalas. In the middle of the 10th century it merged with the Linji House. He appears in Blue Cliff Records 33, 91 and Records of Silence 25.

later Li Chi masters

 Weiyi Xitang (Wei-i Hsi-t’ang, Ichi Seido), 1202-1281. Weiyi means “west hall”. A Linji Master of the Yangqi line

                                                                             Shitou

                                                        ( Shitou Xiqian  - 4  Dharma Heirs)

Danxia Tianran (Tan-hsia T’ien-jan, Tanka Tennen),739-824.  A Dharma-heir of Shitou Xiqian. His Dharma-heir was Cuiwei Wuxue and his second-generation successor was Touzi Datong. His Lineage died out after a few generations. Originally he was a student of Mazu who sent him to Shitou. After receiving Transmission from Shitou he returned to Mazu’s monastery where he sat on the back of the Manjusri rupa in the Monk’s Hall. Mazu said, “Son, you’re a natural (tianran).” Danxia is famous for burning a Buddha statue to warm himself. He established a monastery at Mount Danxia when he was 81. A community of 300 formed there. Four years later he announced he was going on pilgrimage. He died while putting on his last sandal. He was a close associate of Mazu’s student Layman Pang and appears in Recorded Sayings of Layman Pang. He appears in Blue Cliff Records Case 76.

        The Master (Cuiwei ) asked Danxia, “What is the Teacher of all the Buddhas?”

          Danxia scolded him, “Look, you’re all right on your own. What are you doing going around holding on to a wiping cloth?” (The wiping cloth means that Cuiwei is holding on to some idea about keeping the mirror of mind clean and so is still seperate from it.)

          The Master took three steps back.

          Danxia yelled, “Wrong!”

          The Master stepped forward.

          Danxia yelled, “Wrong! Wrong!”

          The Master lifted his leg, swivelled around and went off.

          Danxia said, “That’s better but you’re turning away from all those Buddhas.”

          Hearing this, the Master realized the essence. He appears in Blue Cliff Records 20 which is also Records of Silence 80.

Cuiwei Wuxue (Ts’ui-wei Wu-hsueh, Suibi Mugaku), 9th C. A Dharma-heir of Danxia Tianran, His temple was located on Mt.Chungnan in Changan. The Jingde Chuandeng-lu records his awakening under Danxia Tianran (Tan-hsia T’ien-jan, Tanka Tennen), 738-824, as follows

Touzi Datong (T’ou-tzu Ta-t’ung, Tosu Daido), 819-914. Dharma-heir of Cuiwei Wuxue, two generations after Shitou’s student Danxia Tianran. Gave Transmission to Dongkeng Yanjun. Was originally a Huayan monk before beginning Chan study. He appears in Blue Cliff Records 41, 79, 80, 91. See Dogen’s Chiji Shingi, Gyoji.

 Dongkeng Yanjun (Tung-k’eng Yen-chun, Tonkin Genshun), 882-966. A Dharma-heir of Touzi Datong

:

 Dadian Baotong (Ta-tien Pao-t’ung, Daiten Hotsu), d. 819.    A Dharma-heir of Shitou Xiqian. Shanping Yizhong was his Dharma-heir. His Lineage died out after a few generations. See Dogen’s Gyoji. See Anzan Hoshin roshi’s Turning the Wheel of the Way for a great deal on Dadian.

Sanping Yizhong (San-p’ing I-chung; Sampei Gichu), 781-872.  A Dharma-heir of Dadian Baotong (a successor to Shitou). See Dogen’s Gyoji. He is quoted in Denkoroku 28 as saying, “If you can understand here, there is no confusion. Whether you distinguish or do not distinguish between essence and function, there is nothing wrong.”

 Tianhuang Daowu (T’ien-huang Tao-wu, Tenno Dogo),748-807. A Dharma-heir of Shitou Xiqian..

Longtan Chongxin  Lung-T’an  Ch’ung- hsin  (Ryutan Soshin) c. 9th C. A Dharma heir of Tianhuang Daowu

Deshan Xuanjian (Te-shan Hsuan-chien, Tokusan Senkan), ca. 781-867. A Dharma-heir of Longtan Chongxin. He gave transmission to Yantou Quanho and Xuefeng Yicun. Famous for “Thirty blows if yes, thirty blows if no.” He appears in Blue Cliff Records 4, Records of Silence 14, 22, 46, 55, and Gateless Gate 13 and 28. He appears in the Sayings and Doings of Dongshan (Dongshan yulu) 37, 54, 56, 83. Previously a lecturer on the Diamond Sutra, he burnt his books after being awakened to Chan by an old woman selling teacakes. See Dogen’s Shinfukatoku.

Kant-t’an Tzu-kuo (KantonShikoku) 9th C A Dharma-heir of Deshan Xuanjin

Ching-ch’ing Tao-fu Kyosei Dofu) 853-937 A Dharma-heir of Deshan Xuanjin

Ts’ui-yen Ling-ts’an (Suigan Reisan) 9th -10th C A Dharma-heir of Deshan Xuanjin

Yantou Quanhuo (Yen-t’ou Ch’uan-huo, Ganto Zenkatsu), 828-887. A Dharma-heir of Deshan Xuanjin, close friend of Xuefeng. He gave transmission to Loshan. The story of the great shout that resounded for ten li that he gave when murdered by bandits was pivotal for Hakuin Ekaku. He appears in Blue Cliff Records 51, 66, Records of Silence 22, 43, 50, 55, 75 and Gateless Gate 13.

Ruiyan Shiyan (Jui-yen Shih-yen, Zuigan Shigen), n.d. A Dharma-heir of Yantou Quanho, he also studied with Jiashan Shanhui. He appears in Records of Silence 72, and the same koan appears in Gateless Gate 12 and Sanbyakusoku Shobogenzo 247.

LuoshanDaoxian (RasanDokan) n.d. A Dharma-heir of Yantou Quanho

Mingzhao Dejian (Meisho Tokken) n.d. A Dharma-heir of LuoshanDaoxian

Xuefeng Yicun (Hsueh-feng I’tsun, Seppo Gison), 822-908. Also called Zhenjue Chen-chueh. Dharma-heir of Deshan Xuanjian He studied with Dongshan Dharma way for nine training periods, with Touzi Datong for three,

. The Yun  men and Fa yan schools developed from his Dharma-heirs. He appears in Blue Cliff Records 5, 22, 44, 49, 51, 66, Records of Silence 24, 33, 50, 55, 63, 64, 92 and Gateless Gate 13. He appears in the Sayings and Doings of Dongshan (Dongshan yulu) 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 61, 80. See Cooking Zen, Dogen’s Chiji Shingi, Gyoji.

                                      6 students two main heirs Yun Men and Xuansha Shibei

Baofu Zongcan (Pao-fu Ts’ung-chan, Hofuku Juten), d. 928. A Dharma-heir of Xuefeng Yicun. Baofu had twenty-six heirs. He appears in Blue Cliff Records 8, 23, 76, 91, 95 and Records of Silence 71. Not to be confused with Baofu Benquan.

Changqing Huileng (Ch’ang-ch’ing Hui-leng, Chokei Eryo), 854-932. A posthumous name was Chaojue. A Dharma-heir of Xuefeng Yicun, he himself had twenty-six Dharma-heirs. He appears in Blue Cliff Records 8, 22, 23, 74, 76, 93. See Dogen’s Gyoji

Jingqing Daofu (Ching-ch’ing Tao-fu, Kyosei Kyosho Dofu) 863/68 - 937. Student and Dhama-heir of Xuefeng Yicun. Jingqing Daofu had five Dharma successors. He appears in Blue Cliff Records 16, 23 and 46. Mentioned in Dogen’s Gyoji.

Cuiyan (Ts’ui-yen Ling-ts’an, Suigan Reisan), 9th-10th C. A Dharma-heir of Xuefeng Yicun

. He appears in Blue Cliff Records 8.

 Xuansha Shibei (Hsuan-sha Shih-pei, Gensha Shibi), 835-90. A Dharma-heir of Xuefeng Yicun. He appears in Blue Cliff Records 22, 56, 88, Records of Silence 81 and in Wumen’s commentary in Gateless Gate 41. See Dogen’s Ikka Myoju, Gyoji. Led to the Fa en House

                                                  The House of Fa-yen (Hogen) (C)

                                                                line of Chan ssu Lun

Yunmen Wenyen (Yun-men Wen-yen, Ummon Bun’en), 864-949. Kuangzhen (K’uang-chen, Kyushin) was a posthumous title. A Dharma-heir of Xuefeng Yicun, having also awakened under Muzhou Daoming. He appears in Blue Cliff Records 6, 8, 14, 15, 22, 27, 34, 39, 47, 50, 54, 60, 62, 77, 83, 86, 87, 88, Records of Silence 11, 19, 24, 26, 31, 40, 61, 72, 78, 82, 92, 99 and in Gateless Gate 15, 16, 21, 39, 48. See Dogen’s Komyo, Eihei Gen zenji goroku 3

                                                   The House of Yun-men (Ummon) (D)

                                                                line of Chan ssu Lun

Yaoshan Weiyan (Yueh-shan Wei-yen; Yakusan Igen), 745-828 or 750-834. A posthumous name is Hongdao. A Dharma-heir of Shitou Xiqian. His Dharma-heirs were Yunyan Tansheng (from his heir Dongshan Liangjie the Caodong Lineage began) and Chuanzi Decheng, and Daowu Yuanzhi. He also studied with Mazu Daoyi, who had given Transmission to Daowu before Daowu studied with Yaoshan and received his Transmission. He appears in the Sayings and Doings of Dongshan (Dongshan yulu) 91, 110, 111, 112, 113. He appears in Records of Silence 5, 7. See Denkoroku Chapter 37. See also the encounters between Yaoshan and Shitou and then Mazu in Dogen’s Uji. See Dogen’s Gyoji.

          Dogen zenji recounts the following story in Shobogenzo 30: Kangin: “The Ancestor Yaoshan usually did not allow sutra study but one day a monk found him looking at an open scroll. The monk said, “Teacher, you usually do not allow us to read the sutras, so why are you yourself reading them?”

          “I just need to rest my eyes on something.”

          The monk replied, “Well, can I use the same excuse?”

The master replied, “If you were to look at the sutras you’d burn a hole through their cover.”

Chuanzi Decheng (Chuan-tzu Te-ch’eng, Sensu Tokujo), 807 – 888 C.  A Dharma-heir of Yaoshan Weiyan, a Dharma-brother to Yunyan Tansheng. Nicknamed “the boatman,” he lived as a ferryman after the persecution of Buddhism in 842. After transmitting the Dharma to Jiashan Shanhui, he overturned the boat and disappeared in the water. See Dogen’s Sansui kyo, Chiji Shingi.

The Denkoroku quotes this verse of his:

          “There should be no traces where you dwell

          but you should not dwell where there are no traces.

          After thirty years with my Master Yaoshan

          this one thing is what I understand.

                    Total purity does not hide the body.”

 Jiashan Shanhui (Chia-shan Shan-hui, Kassan Zen’e), 805-881. Dharma-heir of Chuanzi Decheng who was the heir of Yaoshan. See Mountains and Rivers, Ven. Anzan Hoshin roshi, Great Matter Publications, 1991. Denkoroku Chapter 22 quotes this verse:

          “Clearly there is nothing which is enlightenment.

          The doctrine of enlightenment just deludes beings.

          I just stretch out my legs and snooze.

          There is nothing false and nothing real.

                    This is the essence of the Way.”

   Lo-P’u Yuan-an (Rakuho Genan)  834-898  Dharma-heir of Jiashan Shanhui

Daowu or Daoyu Yuanzhi (Tao-wu Yuan-chih, Dogo Enchi), 768/69-853.  2  + 3  A student of Baizhang, became Dharma-heir of Yaoshan Weiyan along with Daowu’s biological and Dharma brot                                                                                          her, Yunyan. Many dialogues between Daowu and Yunyan became koans. Gave Transmission to Shishuang Qingju. He appears in Blue Cliff Records 55, 89, Records of Silence 54, 83. He appears in the Sayings and Doings of Dongshan (Dongshan yulu) 41, 112. See Dogen’s Gyoji.

 Jianyuan Zhongxing (Chien-yuan Chung-hsing, Zengen Chuko), n.d. Considered a Dharma-heir of Daowu Yuanzhi.

Shishuang  Qingzhu.  shih-shuang Ch’ing-chu (Sekiso Keisho) 807-888     a Dharma-heir of Daowu Yuanzhi

Nanyue Xuantai (Nan-yueh Hsuan-t’an; Nangaku Gentai), 9th C. Dharma-heir of Shishuang Qingzhu. See Dogen’s Gyoji.

Jui-feng Tao-quan (Kyuho Doken) d 923  Dharma-heir of Shishuang Qingzhu

He-shan Wu-yin (KasanMuin) 884-960 Dharma-heir of Jui-feng Tao-quan

Da-guang Qu-hui (Daiko Koke) 836-903 Dharma-heir of Shishuang Qingzhu

Yunyan Tansheng (Yun-yen T’an-sheng, Ungo Donjo), 781?-841.. He is sometimes considered to be the reincarnation of Shanavasa. He became a monk when he was sixteen and began his twenty years of study with Baizhang soon after. He received Transmission from Yaoshan Weiyan. His Dharma-heir was Dongshan Liangjie. He appears in the Sayings and Doings of Dongshan (Dongshan yulu) sections 3-14, 48, 110-114. He appears in Blue Cliff Records 70, 72, 89 and in Records of Silence 49, 54. See Denkoroku Chapter 38. See Dogen’s Gyoji. Forefather of Tung Tsao house.

                                                Forefather of the Tsung Tsao House (E)

                                                                line of Chan ssu Lun

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                                            ******* CHAN SSU LUN CASAS *******

                                                                            (HUAYAN HOUSE)

Guifeng Zongmi (Kuei-feng Tsung-mi, Keiho Shumitsu) 780-841. A Chan Master of Shenhui’s early Heze school and Fifth Ancestor of the Chinese Huayan school.

The teaching of the identity and the mutual penetration of principle and phenomena, central to the establishment of Cao-Dong School, was evidently first formulated by Tuxun (557-640), who came to be regarded as the original founder of Huayan School.  The early Huayan treatise ascribed without certainty to Tuxun and entitled Fajie kuan men (Reflections on the Dharma Realm) explains the relation between li (principle) and shi (phenomena), and the various modes of interpenetration of both.  Because principle, meaning the general truths or principles which govern phenomenal reality, interacts worth phenomena "without mutual obstruction (wu ai), both principle and phenomena are able to enter into or penetrate each other; to include, incorporate and fuse with each other, without either losing its respective identity.  

This conception receives further elaboration in the writings of Fazang (643-712), who mentions the teaching in the introduction to his commentary on Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana.  Fazang was known later as Huayan sect's third patriarch, after he had developed the "golden lion" comparison, which became instantly popular.  The statue of the lion represents its phenomenal existence, but the gold of which it is made is its principle, which is itself formless, but for that reason can adopt any form which is required.  Because every part of the lion is made of gold, principle is necessarily present in each of the parts: the whole is identical with its parts, and vice versa.  Consequently all phenomena manifest one principle, and this one principle achieves its expression in the world of phenomena.  

If in Buddhist terms we equate principle with emptiness, which of course is the one quality that characterizes all phenomena, then emptiness is therefore form, and form is emptiness.  Emptiness is for this reason "the spiritual source" (Shitou Xiqian) of phenomenal existence.  This spiritual source is also identified, in the Huayan tradition, not only with dharmadhatu, the true "dharma realm" invisibly permeating all things, but also with tathagata-garbha.  Phenomenal existence is now seen as the one mind and body of the Buddha.  Just as the theories of emptiness, thusness and Buddha-nature are unified in Huayan thinking, they are continually integrated in the language of sign and symbol employed by the great chan masters.

                                                               FROM SHITOU

                                                        Dharma heirs of Shitou Xiqian

                                                                              FA YEN ZONG

 Xuansha Shibei (Hsuan-sha Shih-pei, Gensha Shibi), 835-90. A Dharma-heir of Xuefeng Yicun. He appears in Blue Cliff Records 22, 56, 88, Records of Silence 81 and in Wumen’s commentary in Gateless Gate 41. See Dogen’s Ikka Myoju, Gyoji.

Dizang Guichen (Luohan Guichen , Ti-ts’ang Kuei-ch’in, Jizo-in Shino), 869-928. Also called Luohan Guicheng (Lo-han Kuei-ch’en, Rakan Keichin). He studied with Xuefeng Yicun but awoke his Xuefeng’s heir Xuansha Shibei. Gave Transmission to Fayan Wenyi. Xuansha is said to have passed to him Mikkyo Teachings and Samaya who then passed these to Fayan. He appears in Records of Silence 12, 20, 64.

Jinshan Hongjin (Shinzan Koshin) d. 954 A Dharma-heir Dizeng (Luohan) Guichen

Xiushan Longji (Shuzan Ryusai) d. 954 A Dharma-heir Dizeng (Luohan) Guichen

Fayan Wenyi (Fa-yen Wen-i, Hogen Buneki), 885-958. Dharma-heir of Dizeng (Luohan) Guichen in the Dharma path of Xuansha Shibei. Founder of the Fa-yan-zong which died out after five generations. He had sixty-three Dharma-heirs. He was profoundly influenced by the Avatamsaka sutra and had received Mikkyo Teachings from Dizang. He appears in Blue Cliff Records 7, Records of Silence 17, 20, 27, 51, 64, 74, and Gateless Gate 26.

Dongshan Daoji (Tozan Doki) 928-977 Dharma-heir of Fayan Wenyi

Baoen Xuanze (Hoon Gensoku) 9th-10th c. Dharma-heir of Fayan Wenyi

Xuanjiao Xingyan 10th c Dharma-heir of Fayan Wenyi

Chongshou Zhou 10th c. Dharma-heir of Fayan Wenyi

Tiantai Deshao (Tendai Tokusho) 891-972 Dharma-heir of Fayan Wenyi

Yongming Yanshou (Yomyo Enju) 904-975 Dharma-heir of Tiantai Deshao

                                                                             YUN MEN ZONG

Yunmen Wenyen (Yun-men Wen-yen, Ummon Bun’en), 864-949. Kuangzhen (K’uang-chen, Kyushin) was a posthumous title. A Dharma-heir of Xuefeng Yicun, having also awakened under Muzhou Daoming. He appears in Blue Cliff Records 6, 8, 14, 15, 22, 27, 34, 39, 47, 50, 54, 60, 62, 77, 83, 86, 87, 88, Records of Silence 11, 19, 24, 26, 31, 40, 61, 72, 78, 82, 92, 99 and in Gateless Gate 15, 16, 21, 39, 48. See Dogen’s Komyo, Eihei Gen zenji goroku 3

 Baling Haoqian (Pa-ling Hao-chien, Haryo Kokan), 10th C. A Dharma heir of Yunmen Wenyen, He appears in Blue Cliff Records 13 and 100. See Rhythm and Song: Commentaries on Dongshan

 Liangjie’s Jewel Mirror Samadhi, WWZC Archives 1996. He had three turning words that he used to sum up the transmission: “What is the Path? A clear-eyed man falls into a well. What is the sword so sharp it can split hairs? Each branch of coral holds up the moon. What is the House of Kanadeva? Snow in a silver bowl.” For further on the first phrase, see the Himitsu Shobogenzo, case 16, involving Sogaku Hakukaze and Anzan Daiko.

Ch’eng San-cheng (Chao Sansho) 11th c. A Dharma-heir of Baling Haoqian

  +

Dongshan Shouchu (Tung-shan Shou-ch’u, Tozan Shusho), 910-90. A disciple of Yunmen Wenyen cited by Dogen as a model tenzo. Appears in Blue Cliff Records 12, Gateless Gate 15, 18 (BCR 12 is identical to GG 18), a verse of his was used by Wumen in 37. See Cooking Zen.

Ts’ug Chen (Hosen Tsushin) 10 th c A Dharma heir of Yunmen Wenyen

.Xianglin Dengyuan (.Xianglin Chengyuan, Hsiang-lin Teng Yuan, Kyorin Cho-on), ca. 908-87. A Dharma-heir of Yunmen Wenyen, Dharma brother of Dongshan Shouchou. He served as Yunmen’s jisha (attendant for eighteen years and all this time the only Teaching he received was Yunmen calling out his name and, when he answered, then yelling: “WHAT IS THIS?” Appears in Blue Cliff Records 17 and in Wudeng Huiyuan 15.

Zhimen Guangzuo (Chimen Kuang-tso, Chimon Koso), c. 10th C. A Dharma-heir of Xianglen Chengyuan in the Yunmen House. Gave Transmission to Xuedou, compiler of the koan and verses in the Blue Cliff Records. He appears in Blue Cliff Records 21, 91. See Dogen’s Bukkojoji and Shunju, Sanbyakusoku Shobogenzo case 238.

Xuedou Zhongxian (Hsueh-tou Ch’ung-hsien, Seccho Juken, Selcho Jupen) 982-1052. A Dharma-heir of Zhimen Guangzuo Mingjue (Ming-chueh, Myokaku) was a posthumous title. In the Yunmen Lineage. Compiled the cases and provided the capping verses which became the basis for the Blue Cliff Records. He appears in Records of Silence 26, 34. See Cooking Zen.

Chengtian Quanzong (Shoten Tenso) 11th c. A Dharma-heir of Xuedou Zhongxian

Tianyi Yihuai (Tenne Gikai) 11th c. A Dharma-heir of Xuedou Zhongxian

 Changlu Zongze (Ch’ang-lu Tsung-tse; Choro Sosaku), d. 12th Century. A master in the Yunmen Lineage. In 1103 he compiled the Chanyuan Qinggui, Zen’en Shingi (Zen Monastic Standards), the model for Dogen’s Eihei Shingi. See Cooking Zen, Ven. Anzan Hoshin roshi, Great Matter Publications, 1995

Daixue Hualian (Tai-Hsueh Huai-lien, Daigaku Eren), 1109-90. In the Yunmen Lineage.

.Mingzhao Qisong (Ming-chao Ch’i-sung, Myokyo Kaisu), 1007-72. A noted scholar-monk who compiled a history of the Chan transmission, he was an heir of Dongshan Xiaocong (Tozan Gyoso in Japanese) in the Yunmen Lineage.

                                                                                 TUNG TSAO ZONG (Ancestor Soto)

Caodong (Chinese 曹洞宗) is a Chinese Zen Buddhist sect founded by Dongshan Liangjie and his Dharma-heirs in the 9th century. Some attribute the name "Caodong" as a union of "Dongshan" and "Caoshan" from one of his Dharma-heirs, Caoshan Benji; however, the "Cao" much more likely came from "Caoxi", the "mountain-name" of Huineng, the Sixth Ancestor of Chan as Caoshan was of little importance unlike his contemporary and fellow Dharma-heir Yunju Daoying. The sect emphasised sitting meditation, and later "silent illumination" techniques.

Cao-Dong School is characterized by two philosophic doctrines which do not clearly emerge elsewhere in the other chan schools of the late Tang and the Song periods.  The first of these, the esoteric teaching of the Five Ranks, was created by Dongshan Liangjie and developed by Caoshan Benji. Its popularity and employment as a teaching device seems to have varied enormously from generation to generation — Dogen Zenji seems to have been little impressed with it — but it is reasonable to say that it has always had at the very least a background presence throughout the later history of Cao-Dong School.  Indeed the Song-period chan histories agree in emphasizing Dongshan's Five Ranks as the original teaching of the school, and that alone probably would have precluded the possibility of its complete disappearance in later years.

The second characteristic Cao-Dong teaching, namely the interaction or "mutual interpenetration" of li and shi, principle and phenomena, is of especial relevance to the early Cao-Dong period.  It is also included in the Record of Mazu, indicating its probable employment in the 8th-century Hongzhou School, descended from Mazu.  It is mentioned explicitly in the Record of Dongshan, and can be seen as the basis or underlying strategy for the formulation of the Five Ranks, a systematization of how principle and phenomena integrate and act upon each other.  Shitou Xiqian, in the fourth generation before Dongshan, emphasized the teaching of li and shi, and this more than any other single factor has led to the sense of a Cao-Dong pre-history that antedates the actual founding of the sect in the 9th century; that its real roots extend back to the middle of the century preceding; and that Shitou Xiqian must qualify not only as a "Cao-Dong ancestor," but perhaps to some degree as one of the school's unrecognized founders.  

Another circumstance that heightens this attitude is the adoption for daily chanting of the two major doctrinal poems of both masters, namely The Agreement of Difference and Unity by Shitou and The Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi by Dongshan, thus conferring a kind of liturgical canonization in the temple ceremonies.  Both poems have much in common, and in the Cao-Dong context they complement each other remarkably.  They have also been highly regarded by the other chan schools, and they are generally regarded as masterworks of Chinese Buddhist literature in general.

The teaching of the interaction of principle and phenomena comes to Cao-Dong from the Huayan School, one of the most remarkably innovative schools of Chinese Buddhism, which emerged in the 7th century, during the lifetime of Huineng.  The school receives its name from Huayan jing, the Avatamsaka sutra, or Flower Ornament Sutra.  Among Mahayana sutras, the Avatamsaka is absolutely unique.  It is an enormous work, actually a collection of separate writings which were combined in the late 3rd or early 4th centuries CE, very likely in the forgotten desert kingdoms located in the far southwest of today's China.  It presents a panoramic vision of Mahayana Buddhist cosmology, which places Buddha at the center of a universe filled with numberless worlds and world-systems, surrounded by an assembly of buddhas and bodhisattvas who are gifted with all varieties of extraordinary telepathic powers, lost in rapture and fully absorbed in the all-pervading, blazing radiance of the Buddha's samadhi. In addition to this Buddhistic vision of paradise, the final section of the sutra tells the story of the youth Sudhana, who embarks upon a long pilgrimage to receive teachings from fifty different advisors, and thus serves as a model for all seekers following the bodhisattva path.  

The Avatamsaka Sutra is not only the most grandiose visionary work in the history of Mahayana Buddhism, but certainly one of the most imaginative and inspired masterworks of religious literature anywhere.  Philosophically, it unites the Mahayana teachings of emptiness and thusness and Buddha-nature, and in so doing it indicates the future of chan.  It also identifies the human mind with the physical universe, which is also seen as identical with Buddha.  In fact, the Buddha, the mind, sentient beings, and phenomena are one and the same.  Seen from the ultimate truth of non-duality, the traditional view of dependent arising receives a suddenly positive meaning, since ignorance is also enlightenment.  

The sutra is also full of symbolism expressing universal interdependence, interaction, identity of opposites, and unity within difference, themes which coincided to a considerable extent with pre-Buddhist native philosophic ideas in China. Translated into Chinese by Buddhabhadra around 420 CE, the Avatamsaka Sutra instantly magnetized the interest of Buddhist practitioners and scholars alike, just as it continues to fascinate to this day.  In the mid-600's, its study gave birth to the Huayan School, whose founders attempted to explain systematically a series of philosophic ideas which they perceived in the sutra.  These ideas aroused widespread and immediate interest in all the contemporary Chinese Buddhist schools, especially in the emerging chan schools.  That the chan and Huayan directions seemed more than compatible is demonstrated by the career of the Fifth Patriarch Guifeng Zongmi (Kuei-feng Tsung-mi, Keiho Shumitsu) 780-841. who was also recognized as a master in the chan school founded by Shenhui and known as Hoze School [Japanese: Kataku].  Zongmi is an important figure of his times for several reasons, and quite obviously he must have considered chan practice as an appropriate consequence of Huayan ideas, derived in turn from the Avatamsaka.

The teaching of the identity and the mutual penetration of principle and phenomena, central to the establishment of Cao-Dong School, was evidently first formulated by Tuxun (557-640), who came to be regarded as the original founder of Huayan School.  The early Huayan treatise ascribed without certainty to Tuxun and entitled Fajie kuan men (Reflections on the Dharma Realm) explains the relation between li (principle) and shi (phenomena), and the various modes of interpenetration of both.  Because principle, meaning the general truths or principles which govern phenomenal reality, interacts worth phenomena "without mutual obstruction (wu ai), both principle and phenomena are able to enter into or penetrate each other; to include, incorporate and fuse with each other, without either losing its respective identity.  

This conception receives further elaboration in the writings of Fazang (643-712), who mentions the teaching in the introduction to his commentary on Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana.  Fazang was known later as Huayan sect's third patriarch, after he had developed the "golden lion" comparison, which became instantly popular.  The statue of the lion represents its phenomenal existence, but the gold of which it is made is its principle, which is itself formless, but for that reason can adopt any form which is required.  Because every part of the lion is made of gold, principle is necessarily present in each of the parts: the whole is identical with its parts, and vice versa.  Consequently all phenomena manifest one principle, and this one principle achieves its expression in the world of phenomena.  

If in Buddhist terms we equate principle with emptiness, which of course is the one quality that characterizes all phenomena, then emptiness is therefore form, and form is emptiness.  Emptiness is for this reason "the spiritual source" (Shitou Xiqian) of phenomenal existence.  This spiritual source is also identified, in the Huayan tradition, not only with dharmadhatu, the true "dharma realm" invisibly permeating all things, but also with tathagata-garbha.  Phenomenal existence is now seen as the one mind and body of the Buddha.  Just as the theories of emptiness, thusness and Buddha-nature are unified in Huayan thinking, they are continually integrated in the language of sign and symbol employed by the great chan masters.

Dongshan Liangjie (Tung-shan Liang-chieh; Tozan Ryokai), 807-869. Dharma-heir of Yunyan Tansheng Zanmai. . Wuben (Wu-pen, Gohon) is a posthumous title. The Thirty-Eighth Soto Ancestor Gave Transmission to Yunju Daoying. Appears in Blue Cliff Records Case 43, Records of Silence 22, 49, 56, 89, 94, 98. See Denkoroku Chapter 39. See Dogen’s Gyoji. See also the teisho series Rhythm and Song: Commentaries on the Hokyo

Caoshan Benji (Ts’ao-shan Pen-chi, Sozan Honjaku), 840-901. Dharma-heir of Dongshan Liangjie and sometimes considered the cofounder of the Caodong (Soto) House, he developed the Five Degrees Teachings. Appears in Records of Silence 52, 56, 73, 98, Gateless Gate 10. See Dogen’s Kai-in Zanmai, Chiji Shingi. See One Taste: Commentaries on Dogen zenji’s Kai-in Zanmai, WWZC Archives, 1995.

Qinshan Wensui (Ch’in-shan Wen-sui, Kinzan Bunsui). n.d. A Dharma-heir of Dongshan Liangjie. He studied at first under Deshan along with Xuefeng. Deshan once beat him so severely he was put in the infirmary. After this, he left to study with Dongshan and became abbot of Qinshan monastery at 27 years old. He appears in Blue Cliff Records 56.

Longya Judun (Lung-ya Chu-tun, Ryuge Koton), 834/5-920/23. A Dharma-heir of Dongshan Liangjie. He appears in Blue Cliff Records 20 which is also Records of Silence 80 and cases 48, 49. See the Transmission of Luminosity for a few of his verses.

Yue-Zhou Jian-feng (Esshu Kenbo) 9th C. A Dharma-heir of Dongshan Liangjie                                                                                                                                                    

Qing-lin Shih-jian ( Seirin Shiken) d. 10th C. A Dharma-heir of Dongshan Liangjie

Baoji [Huayuan] Xiujing (Pao-chi Hua-yen Hsiu-ching, Hoji [Kegon] Kyujo), 9th C. A Dharma-heir of Dongshan Liangjie. See Dogen’s Chiji Shingi.

Baoji [Huayan] Xiujing (Pao-chi Hua-yen Hsiu-ching Hoji [Kegon] Kyujo), 11th Century. A Dharma-heir of Dongshan Liangjie.

Sushan Guangren (Sushan Kuangren Sozan Konin), 837-909. Popularly known as Uncle Dwarf. A Dharma-heir of Dongshan Liangjie. A major character in Rhythm and Song. The Jingde Chuandenglu says: “Amongst all of Dongshan’s students Guangren had a natural power in displaying the innermost mystery. His fellow students were as impressed by him as if he could chew the iron tip of an arrow. Whenever they wanted to clarify a question about the various depths of practice they said, “Let’s just go and ask Uncle Dwarf.”

Hu-guo Jing-guo (Joka) 10th C  Dharma-heir of Sushan Guangren

Yunju Daoying (Yun-chu Tao-ying, Ungo Doyo), d. 902. Hongjue (Hung-chueh, Kokaku) was a posthumous title. The Thirty-Ninth Soto Ancestor. A Dharma-heir of Dongshan Liangjie. He appears in the Sayings and Doings of Dongshan (Dongshan yulu) 40-49, 50, 85, 118. See Denkoroku Chapter 40. See Dogen’s Gyoji. He appears in case 8 of the Tetteki Tosui (translated as the Iron Flute by Nyogen Senzaki and Ruth Strout McCandless, Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1964).

                                                                                   SOTO (CAODONG)

 Dayang Jingxuan (Quingzuan Ta-yang Ch’ing-hsuan, Daiyo Kyogen), 943-1027. The Forty-Third SotoAncestor. Caodong master who outlived his Dharma successors. His friend Fushan Fayuan transmitted Dayang’s Caodong Lineage to his own student Touzi in Dayang’s name after Dayang’s death. See Denkoroku Chapter 44.

Xing-yang Qing-pou (Koyo Seiho) 10th C  Dharma-heir of Dayang Jingxuan

Fushan Fayuan (Fu-shan Fa-yuan, Fusan Hoen), 991-1067. Dharma-heir of Shexian Guisheng, despite having been previously expelled from his assembly. He also saved the Caodong Lineage from extinction when Dayang Jingxuan was going to die without a Dharma-heir. Fushan was in complete accord with Dayang, but was unwilling to take on the responsibility of publicly proclaiming the Caodong style in addition to his Linji Lineage from Guisheng. However, he was able later to transmit the Soto Lineage from Dayang to his own student, Touzi Yiqing. See Denkoroku Chapters 44, 45.

Touzi Yiqing (T’ou-tzu Yi-ch’ing, Tosu Gisei), 1032-83. The Forty-Fourth SotoAncestor. Received Dayang’s Caodong Transmission through Fushan Fayuan. Gave Transmission to Furong Daokai. Deeply immersed in Huayan studies. He appears in Records of Silence 64 and Sanbyakusoku Shobogenzo case 160. See Denkoroku Chapter 45.

Furong Daokai (Fu-jung Tao-kai, Fuyu Dokai), 1043-1118. Dharma-heir of Touzi Yiqing. The Forty-Fifth Soto Ancestor See Denkoroku Chapter 46. Although Dogen sometimes refers to him as Dayang, he is more commonly known by the name Furong. Dayang and later Furong are both places he taught. Furong was particularly known for revitalizing the monastic standards of the Caodong/Soto Lineage. Dogen particularly praises him for vehemently refusing the imperial offer of extravagant robes and imperial honours that caused him to undergo a period of exile. His phrase “Green mountains are always walking” is used as a pivot point in Dogen’s Sansui kyo. See also Gyoji, Kago, and Shisho.

Ku-mu Fa-cheng (Kumo Hojo) 1071-1128  Dharma-heir of Furong Daokai

Bao-feng Zhao (Hoho Sho) 12th C. Dharma-heir of Furong Daokai

Dan-xia Zi-chun (Tanka Shijan) d. 1119  Dharma-heir of Furong Daokai). The Forty-Sixth Soto Ancestor

Zhenjie Qingliao (Chen-hsieh Ch’ing-liao, Shingetsu Shoryo), 1089-1151. Dharma-heir of Dan-xia Zi-chun Also known as Wukong (Wu-k’ung, Goku). The Forty-Seventh Soto Ancestor. See Denkoroku Chapters 48 and 49.

 Hongzhi Zhengjue (Hung-chih Cheng-chueh, Wanshi Shokaku), 1091-1157. Dharma-heir of Dan-xia Zi-chun Also called Tiantong Hongzhi, having been abbot at the Tiantong monastery where Dogen’s master Tiantong Rujing later taught, Hongzhi was the most influential Chinese Soto teacher in the century before Dogen. The Records of Silence were compiled around one hundred cases that he had selected and provided capping verses for. See Dogen’s Zazenshin, Gyoji.

Tan-hsia Tzu-ch’un (Tanka Shijun) d. 1119 Dharma-heir of Zhenjie Qingliao The Forty-eighth Soto Ancestor

Hung-chih Cheng-chueh (Wanshi Shogaku) 1091-1157 Dharma-heir of Zhenjie Qingliao

Chen-hsieh Ch’ing-liao (Shingetsu Shoryo) 12th C. The Forty-ninth Soto Ancestor Dharma-heir of Tan-hsia

Tiantong Rujing (T’ien-t’ung Ju-ching, Tendo Nyojo), 1163-1228. The Fiftieth Soto Ancestor. Gave Transmission to Eihei Dogen. Appears in Transmission of Luminosity Case 11. See Denkoroku Chapter 51. See Gyoji.

                                        (Eihei Dogen) 1200-1253 (JAPONESE CAODONG-SOTO)

was a Japanese Zen Buddhist teacher and founder of the Soto school of Zen in Japan. He was a leading religious figure and important philosopher.

JAPONESE CAODONG SOTO

Myoan Yosai or Eisai, also known as Zenko kokushi, 1141-1215. Yosai was a Tendai monk who had travelled to China twice in search of supplementary teachings. During his second trip in 1187 he received inka from Xuan Huaichang (Hsu-an Huai-ch’ang, Kian Esho) as an heir in the Huanglong stream of the Linji House. Eisai taught Zen mixed with the exoteric and tantric teachings of the Tendai House and in 1204 was appointed abbot of Kennin-ji by the emperor. His Lineage died out after only a few generations and can be said to only have continued through Dogen’s Soto Lineage because Dogen was the sole heir of Eisai’s major disciple Myozen Ryonen.

Myozen Ryonen, 1184-1225. Dharma-heir of Myoan Yosai, he gave Transmission of the Linji Lineage to Dogen. He journeyed to China with Dogen in 1223 and practiced for three years at Tiantong-si where he died at Liaoren Hall. Myozen died in zazen posture and it was said that his cremation manifested a five-coloured rainbow body and three brilliant pearls were found in the ashes. A memorial statue of Myozen was installed at the monastery. See Cooking Zen.

Dogen Zenji (道元禅師; January 19, 1200 - September 22, 1253); Dogen Kigen, Bussho-dento kokushi, Koso Joyo daishi (1200-1253)"Zenji" is a japanese title meaning zen master, and the name Dogen means roughly "Source of the Way." Founder of the Japanese Soto Zen Lineage. Founder of Eihei-ji monastery. Author of the Shobogenzo and Eihei Shingi. Originally received ordination as a Tendai monk on Heiei-san at the age of 13. There he studied shi-kan, goma, Mikkyo. After studying briefly with the syncretic Tendai/Zen Master Yosai (Eisai), following Yosai’s death he studied with and became the Dharma-heir of Myozen, Yosai’s successor. In 1223 Myozen and Dogen travelled to China. Myozen died there. Dogen studied with Rujing and received Transmission in the Caodong Lineage at Tiantong-shan. He returned to Japan in 1227 and stayed for a time at Kennin-ji, Myozen’s temple, and later at Kannon-dori-in where he established the first Zen Sodo in Japan, Kosho-Horin-ji. After several threats and attacks from Tendai and Shingon monks following his Raihai Tokuzui Teaching on freedom from gender bias and several other upsetting incidents he moved to Echizen province. There he and his monks stayed with Tendai monks of the Hakusan line while a new monastery, Daibutsu-ji (soon renamed Eihei-ji) was being built. Dogen’s radical Transmission of the saijo (easy and perfect) practice and his recorded Teachings are the basis of all Soto Teachings. Anzan roshi’s Teachings are intimately interlaced at every point with Dogen’s.

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Ching-yuan Hsing-ssu (Seigen Gyoshi) 660-740

One of the five Dharma heirs of Hui-neng (Eno) and the teacher of Shih-t'ou Hsi-ch'ien.