Deshan Xuanjian (;

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' ...

: Déshān Xuānjiàn; ), was a Chinese

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 ...

monk 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 born in Jiannan in what is now

Sichuan Province Sichuan is a Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capita ...

. He is remembered for hitting his students with a cane to express awakening. Through his student

Xuefeng Yicun Xuefeng Yicun (822–908; zh, s=雪峰义存, w=Hsüeh-feng I-ts'un; zh, p=Xuěfēng Yìcún; ) was a Chinese Chan-master who was influential during the Tang dynasty. The Yunmen school and Fayan school originated with descendants of his lin ...

, he is the ancestor to two of the Five Houses of Zen, the

Yunmen School Yunmen Wenyan or Ummon (c. 860–949) was a Zen Buddhist master. Yunmen may also refer to: * Yunmen school of Chan Buddhism, named after Yunmen Wenyan *Yunmen, an acupuncture point on the lung meridian * Yunmen Subdistrict () of Hechuan District, ...

and the

Fayan School The Fayan school, or Fayan House () was one of the Five Houses of Chán, the major schools of Chan Buddhism during the later Tang dynasty. History Origins The Fayan school was named after Chinese Zen Master Qingliang Wenyi (885–958). Via X ...

. Earlier in his life he was a scholar focused on the

Vinaya The Vinaya (Pali and Sanskrit: विनय) refers to numerous monastic rules and ethical precepts for fully ordained monks and nuns of Buddhist Sanghas (community of like-minded ''sramanas''). These sets of ethical rules and guidelines devel ...

, and later he became famous for his knowledge of the

Diamond Sutra The ''Diamond Sutra'' (Sanskrit: ) is a Mahayana, Mahāyāna Buddhism, Buddhist sutra from the genre of ('perfection of wisdom') sutras. Translated into a variety of languages over a broad geographic range, the ''Diamond Sūtra'' is one of th ...

. However, a famous

kōan A ( ; ; zh, c=公案, p=gōng'àn ; ; ) is a narrative, story, dialogue, question, or statement from Chan Buddhism, Chinese Chan Buddhist lore, supplemented with commentaries, that is used in Zen Buddhism, Buddhist practice in different way ...

story recorded 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 ...

and

Shōbōgenzō is the title most commonly used to refer to the collection of works written in Japan by the 13th-century Buddhist monk and founder of the Sōtō Zen school, Eihei Dōgen. Several other works exist with the same title (see above), and it is som ...

Shin fukatoku relates an encounter he had with an old woman that convinced him that scriptural study on its own fails to bring about awakening. After this he studied under the Zen teacher Longtan Chongxin. During the reign of

Emperor Wuzong of Tang Emperor Wuzong of Tang (July 2, 814 – April 22, 846), né Li Chan, later changed to Li Yan just before his death, was an emperor of the Tang dynasty of China, reigning from 840 to 846. Emperor Wuzong is mainly known in modern times for the re ...

, the brief but intense

Great Anti-Buddhist Persecution The Huichang Persecution of Buddhism () was initiated by Emperor Wuzong (Li Chan) of the Tang dynasty during the Huichang era (841–845). Among its purposes was to appropriate war funds and to cleanse Tang China of foreign influences. As such, ...

was initiated and Deshan was forced from a thirty year long position in Lizhou into hiding on Mt. Dufu. Afterwards the governor of Wuleng in what is now

Hunan Province Hunan is an inland province in Central China. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to the east, Guangdong and Guangxi to the south, and Guizhou and Chon ...

asked Deshan to come to live on Mount Virtue, known in Chinese as "''Deshan''", the mountain after which he is named.

References

{{reflist Chan Buddhist monks 780s births 865 deaths Tang dynasty Buddhists