Welcome back to our brief history of Zen Buddhism and continuing from Part One, by AD 574 we were in possession of texts outlining the Bodhidharma’s teachings, known as the Two Entrances and Four Acts. Bodhidharma is now said to have appointed a disciple to succeed him and he chose Huike, the first in a line of Chinese ancestral founders. Huike was followed by Sengcan, Daoxin, Hongren and lastly Huineng.
Without resorting to a detailed Chinese history lesson, the fortunes of Zen (Chan) grew and receded over the next fifteen hundred years. During the Tang dynasty (618 – 907), rural schools grew in stature as those in city areas declined somewhat. These rural schools became the Five Houses that most Zen derivations throughout the world trace their lineage to. This period is regarded as the golden age of Chan and a famous saying from that period runs as follows:
Look at the territory of the house of Tang -
The whole of it is the realm of the Chán school
The fifty years of disorder between the fall of the Tang dynasty and start of the Song dynasty (960 – 1297) ultimately led to Chan becoming the central tenet of Chinese Buddhism. The bureaucratic centralised nature of the Song meant temples were drawn into the government structure.
Zen master Hsu Yun
The Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644) brought Chan somewhat closer to the Pure Land Buddhism which traditionally dominated Buddhism (and still does today) and this preceded the Qing dynasty (1644 – 1912) under which Chan saw a gradual decline in influence and popularity. However it underwent something of a revival in the early 20th century after the intervention of Hsu Yun, an almost legendary Zen master who constantly traveled around much of Asia, teaching and earning as he went. Yun was also a devotee of Pure Land Buddhism and lived to the ripe old age of 119.
Many of today’s Zen Buddhist masters trace their interest and influence back to Hsu Yen and many of Asia’s and in fact the world’s Buddhist teachings are based on those of this Zen wanderer.
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