Nanquan Puyuan (
Chinese: 南泉普願;
Wade-Giles: ''Nan-ch’üan P’u-yüan'';
Pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...
: ''Nánquán Pǔyuàn'';
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
: ''Nansen Fugan'';
Korean
Korean may refer to:
People and culture
* Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent
* Korean culture
* Korean language
**Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean
**Korean dialects
**See also: North–South differences in t ...
: 남천보원 ''Namcheon Bowon'') (c. 749 – c. 835) was a
Chan (
Zen
Zen (; from Chinese: ''Chán''; in Korean: ''Sŏn'', and Vietnamese: ''Thiền'') is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty by blending Indian Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Yogacara and Madhyamaka phil ...
)
Buddhist
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
master in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
during the
Tang dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...
. He was a student and Dharma successor of Master
Mazu Daoyi
Mazu Daoyi (709–788) (, Japanese: Baso Dōitsu) was an influential abbot of Chan Buddhism during the Tang dynasty. He is known as the founder of the Hongzhou school of Zen. The earliest recorded use of the term "Chan school" is from his ''Ex ...
(709–788).
Biography
In the year 795, after his enlightenment experience under Mazu, he settled in a self-made hut on Mount Nanquan, from which his dharma name is derived, and lived there in eremitic solitude for three decades. In time, monks persuaded him to come down the mountain and found a monastery; from that time forward, he always had hundreds of students.
Appearance in koans
Nanquan appears in several
gong'ans:
* 4 koans in
The Gateless Gate
''The Gateless Barrier'' (Mandarin: 無門關 ''Wúménguān''; Japanese: 無門関 ''Mumonkan''), sometimes translated as ''The Gateless Gate'', is a collection of 48 Chan (Zen) koans compiled in the early 13th century by the Chinese Zen mast ...
(#14, #19, #27, #34),
* 6 koans in the
Blue Cliff Record
The ''Blue Cliff Record'' () is a collection of Chan Buddhist kōans originally compiled in Song China in 1125, during the reign of Emperor Huizong, and then expanded into its present form by Chan master Yuanwu Keqin (1063–1135; ).K. Sekid ...
(#28, #31, #40, #63, #64, #69), and
* 3 koans in The
Book of Equanimity (#9, #69, #91).
Two gong'ans from the Blue Cliff Record (#28 & #69) depict Nanquan as an advanced student interacting with fellow students of Mazu, and the others depict him as a teacher in his own right.
A well-known koan is case #14 of the Gateless Gate, "Nanquan kills the cat":
Influence
Nanquan had seventeen Dharma successors, the most famous of whom was
Zhaozhou Congshen
Zhaozhou Congshen ( zh, c=趙州從諗, p=Zhàozhōu Cōngshěn, w=Chao-chou Ts'ung-shen'; ; 778–897) was a Chán (Zen) Buddhist master who appears frequently in the koans of the Mumonkan and the Blue Cliff Record.
Biography
Zhaozhou became o ...
(J. Joshu)(778–897). Case #19 of the Gateless Gate recounts an interaction between Nanquan and Zhaozhou that led to the latter having a profound realization; some translators/editors, for example
Paul Reps, interpret this as Zhaozhou's enlightenment moment.
[Reps, Paul. ''Zen Flesh, Zen Bones'', 1989, p. 105]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nanquan Puyuan
Chinese Zen Buddhists
740s births
835 deaths