Xuedou Zhijian (; ), was a Chinese 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 ...

monk during the

Song Dynasty The Song dynasty ( ) was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Fiv ...

. He was born in an ancient town called

Chuzhou Chuzhou () is a prefecture-level city in eastern Anhui Provinces of China, Province, China. It borders the provincial capital of Hefei to the south and southwest, Huainan to the west, Bengbu to the northwest, and the province of Jiangsu to the ...

in what is now

Anhui Province Anhui is an inland province located in East China. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze and Huai rivers, bordering Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the east, Jiangxi to the south, Hub ...

. The details of his life have not survived in great detail. In 1154, he is known to have become the abbot of Xizhen Temple near modern

Hangzhou Hangzhou, , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ; formerly romanized as Hangchow is a sub-provincial city in East China and the capital of Zhejiang province. With a population of 13 million, the municipality comprises ten districts, two counti ...

. He moved again in 1184 to Mount Xuedou, where he was said to have many students. In the years leading up to his death in 1192, he apparently lived in seclusion in a cottage to the east of his temple. According to the ''Conglin shengshi'' (Glorious matters from the monasteries), written in 1199 by Guyue Daorong, Zhijian wrote a popular verse that poked fun at the renowned teacher

Hongzhi Zhengjue Hongzhi Zhengjue (, ), also sometimes called Tiantong Zhengjue (; ) (1091–1157), was an influential Chinese Chan Buddhism, Chan Buddhist monk who authored or compiled several influential texts. Hongzhi's conception of ''shikantaza, silent illu ...

. The verse is: “Obtaining one Zong, losing one Chong; Joining his palms in front, beating his chest in back.” "Zong" refers to a well-known student of Hongzhi named Sizong, while "Puchong" is a reference to Yetang Puchong, a student who studied under Hongzhi, but later left to study under Caotang Shanqing, a teacher of the rival

Rinzai The Rinzai school (, zh, t=臨濟宗, s=临济宗, p=Línjì zōng), named after Linji Yixuan (Romaji: Rinzai Gigen, died 866 CE) is one of three sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism, along with Sōtō and Ōbaku. The Chinese Linji school of ...

/ Linji school.

References

{{S-end 1105 births 1192 deaths Song dynasty Buddhist monks Chinese Zen Buddhists 12th-century Chinese people People from Chuzhou