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