Linji Yixuan

Linji Yixuan (traditional Chinese: 臨濟義玄; simplified Chinese: 临济义玄; pinyin: Línjì Yìxuán; Wade–Giles: Lin-chi I-hsüan; Japanese: 臨済義玄 Rinzai Gigen; died 866 CE) was the founder of the Linji school of Chán Buddhism during Tang dynasty China.

Linji Yixuan
Japanese painting of Linji Yixuan (Jap. Rinzai Gigen).
TitleCh'an Master
Personal
Bornunknown
China
Died866 CE
ReligionBuddhism
SchoolCh'an
Senior posting
TeacherHuangbo Xiyun
禪 Zen
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Línjì yǔlù
See also: Linji school

Information on Linji is based on the Línjì yǔlù (臨濟語錄; Japanese: Rinzai-goroku), the Record of Linji. The standard form of these sayings was not completed until two hundred fifty years after Linji's death, and likely reflects the teaching of Chán in the Linji school at the beginning of the Song dynasty rather than that of Linji in particular.[1]

The Línjì yǔlù contains stories of Linji's interactions with teachers, contemporaries, and students. The recorded lectures are a mixture of the conventional and the iconoclastic; those who resented the iconoclasm saw Linji as “one of the most infamous Chinese Chan masters who censored traditional Buddhist practices and doctrines.” [2] Despite the iconoclasm, however, the Línjì yǔlù reflects a thorough knowledge of the sūtras; Linji's style of teaching, as recorded in that text, exemplifies Chán development in the Hongzhou school (洪州宗) of Mazu and his successors, such as Huangbo, Linji's master.

Biography

According to the Línjì yǔlù, Linji was born into a family named Xing (邢) in Caozhou (modern Heze in Shandong), which he left at a young age to study Buddhism in many places. He was trained by the Chán master Huángbò Xīyùn (黃蘗希運), but attained kensho while discussing Huángbò's teaching during a conversation with the reclusive monk Dàyú (大愚). Linji then returned to Huángbò to continue his training after awakening. In 851 CE, Linji moved to the Linji temple in Hebei from which he took his name, and which also became the name for the lineage of his form of Chán.

Teaching style
A statue of Linji Yixuan under the southern gate of Zhengding Hebei, China
Main articles: Zen and Chinese Chán

Iconoclasm

Linji is reputed to have been iconoclastic, leading students to awakening by hitting and shouting.[3]

Three Mysterious Gates

Chán faced the challenge of expressing its teachings of suchness without getting stuck in words or concepts; the alleged use of shouting and beating was instrumental in this non-conceptual expression—after the students were well educated in the Buddhist tradition.[4]

Linji is described as using the Three Mysterious Gates to maintain the Chán emphasis on the nonconceptual nature of reality, while employing sūtras and teachings to instruct his students:[4]

  1. The First Gate is the "mystery in the essence", the use of Buddhist philosophy, such as Huayan, to explain the interpenetration of all phenomena.
  2. The Second Gate is the "mystery in the word", using the Hua Tou[lower-alpha 1] for "the process of gradually disentangling the students from the conceptual workings of the mind".
  3. The Third Gate is the "mystery in the mystery", "involving completely nonconceptual expressions such as striking or shouting, which are intended to remove all of the defects implicit in conceptual understanding".

The titular story of Volume 2 of Kazuo Koike & Goseki Kojima's manga comic Lone Wolf and Cub revolves around Linji's saying "if you meet a buddha, kill the buddha," in which the protagonist must overcome his self to assassinate a living buddha.

In the manga Gensōmaden Saiyūki by Kazuya Minekura, Genjō Sanzō purports to live by the concept of "無一物 (muichimotsu)," as taught by his teacher Sanzō Kōmyō, who is quoted as saying:

JapaneseRomanizedEnglish
「無一物」"Muichimotsu""Have Nothing"
仏に逢えば仏を殺せButsu ni aeba butsu (w)o koroseIf you meet a buddha, kill him.
祖に逢えば祖を殺せSo ni aeba so (w)o koroseIf you meet your forefather, kill him.
何物にも捕われずNanimono ni mo torawarezuAttached to nothing,
縛られずShibararezuBound [to nothing],
ただあるがままに己を生きるTada aru ga mama ni onore (w)o ikiruLive your own life simply as it is.

Lineage
CHINESE NAME[5] LIFE DATES VIỆT NAME[6] JAPANESE NAME[7] KOREAN NAME[8]
28 / 1達磨 / Damo?達磨 / Đạtmaだるま / Daruma달마 / Dalma
29 / 2慧可 / Shenguang Huìke487–593Huệ KhảEka혜가 / Hyega
30 / 3僧璨 / Jianzhi Sengcan?–606Tăng XánSōsan승찬 / Seungchan
31 / 4道信 / Dongshan Daoxin580–651Đạo TínDōshin도신 / Doshim
32 / 5弘忍 / Huangmei Hongren601/2–674/5Hoằng NhẫnKōnin홍인 / Hongihn
33 / 6慧能 / Caoxi Huineng638–713Huệ NăngEnō혜능 / Hyeneung
34 / 7南嶽懷讓 / Nanyue Huairang677–744Nam Nhạc Hoài NhượngNangaku Ejō남악회양 / Namak Hweyang
35 / 8馬祖道一 / Mazu Daoyi[9]709–788Mã Tổ Đạo NhấtBaso Dōitsu마조도일 / Majo Toil
36 / 9百丈懷海 / Baizhang Huaihai720?/749?–814Bách Trượng Hoài HảiHyakujō Ekai백장회해 / Paekchang Hwehae
37 / 10黃蘗希運 / Huangbo Xiyun?–850Hoàng Bá Hy VậnŌbaku Kiun황벽희운 / Hwangbyeok Heuiun
38 / 11臨濟義玄 / Linji Yixuan?–866/7Lâm Tế Nghĩa HuyềnRinzai Gigen임제의현 / Imje Euihyeon

See also

Notes
  1. Stuart Lachs: "The Chinese term Hua-t’ou can be translated as “critical phrase.” Literally it means the “head of speech” or the “point beyond which speech exhausts itself.” In Korean, hua-t’ou are known as hwadu and in Japanese as wato [...] A hua-t’ou is a short phrase (sometimes a part of a koan) that can be taken as a subject of meditation and introspection to focus the mind in a particular way, which is conducive to enlightenment.[web 1]

References

Written references
  1. Welter & Year unknown.
  2. George A. Keyworth, “How the Mount Wutai Cult Stimulated the Development of Chinese Chan in Southern China at Qingliang Monasteries,” Studies in Chinese Religions 2019, 5.
  3. McRae 1993.
  4. Buswell 1992, pp. 245–246.
  5. characters and Wade-Giles Romanization
  6. See Thiền Sư Trung Quốc for a list of Chinese Zen Masters in Vietnamese.
  7. Romaji
  8. Hangeul and South Korean Revised Romanization
  9. extensive article in Mazu Daoyi

Web-references
  1. Stuart Lachs (2012), Hua-t’ou : A Method of Zen Meditation

Sources
  • Buswell, Robert E. Jr. (1992). "Ch'an Hermeneutics: A Korean View". In Lopez, Donald S. Jr. (ed.). Buddhist Hermeneutics. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press (Kuroda Institute Studies in East Asian Buddhism 6). pp. 231–256.
  • Keown, Damien. A Dictionary of Buddhism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-19-860560-9
  • Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima. "Lone Wolf and Cub 2: The Gateless Barrier". Dark Horse, 2000. ISBN 1-56971-503-3, ISBN 978-1-56971-503-1
  • Lowenstein, Tom. The Vision of the Buddha: Buddhism – The Path to Spiritual Enlightenment. ISBN 1-903296-91-9
  • McMahan, David L. (2008), The Making of Buddhist Modernism, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-518327-6
  • McRae, John (2003), Seeing Through Zen. Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism, The University Press Group Ltd, ISBN 978-0-520-23798-8
  • Schloegl, Irmgard. The Zen Teaching of Rinzai. Shambhala Publications, Inc., Berkeley, 1976. ISBN 0-87773-087-3
  • Watson, Burton (1999), The Zen Teachings of Master Lin-Chi: A Translation of the Lin-chi lu, New York: Columbia University Press, ISBN 0-231-11485-0
  • Welter, Albert (n.d.), The Textual History of the Linji lu (Record of Linji): The Earliest Recorded Fragments

Further reading
  • Ruth Fuller Sasaki, The Record of Linji
  • Welter, Albert (2006), Monks, Rulers, and Literati. The Political Ascendancy of Chan Buddhism, Wisdom Books
  • Welter, Albert (2008), The Linji Lu and the Creation of Chan Orthodoxy: The Development of Chan's Records of Sayings Literature, Oxford University Press
  • Schlütter, Morten (2008), How Zen became Zen. The Dispute over Enlightenment and the Formation of Chan Buddhism in Song-Dynasty China, Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, ISBN 978-0-8248-3508-8
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