Yunmen Wenyan

Yunmen was born in the town of Jiaxing near Suzhou and southwest of Shanghai[2] to the Zhang family[lower-alpha 4], apparently in 864 CE. His birth year is uncertain. The two memorial stele at the Yunmen monastery states he was 86 years old when he died in 949 CE, which suggests that he was born in 864 CE.

While a boy, Yunmen became a monk under a "Commandment master" [lower-alpha 5] named Zhicheng in Jiaxing. He studied there for several years, taking his monastic vows at age 20, in 883 CE.

The teachings there did not satisfy him, and he went to the school of Reverend Muzhou Daoming (Chinese: 睦州道明; Pinyin: Mùzhōu Dàomíng), also known as Muzhou Daozong (Chinese: 睦州道蹤; Pinyin: Mùzhōu Dàozōng)[lower-alpha 6] to gain enlightenment. According to legend, first mentioned in 1100, he had his leg broken for his trouble:

Yunmen went to Muzhou's temple to seek Chan. The first time he went, he was not admitted. The second time he went, he was not admitted. The third time he went the gate was opened slightly by Muzhou, and thus Yunmen stuck his leg in attempting to gain entrance. Muzhou urged him to "Speak! Speak!"; as Yunmen opened his mouth, Muzhou pushed him out and slammed shut the large gate so swiftly that Yunmen's leg was caught and was broken.

Daoming told Yunmen to visit the pre-eminent Chan master of the day,[4] Xuefeng Yicun of Mount Xianggu, in Fuzhou in modern-day Fujian Province, and become his disciple, as Daoming was by then too old (~100 years old) to further teach Yunmen. After a few years studying with him, Yunmen did so, and received enlightenment after several years.

While Yunmen had received his teacher's seal of approval, he nevertheless did not become abbot, probably because he had only stayed there for 4 or 5 years. When Xuefeng Yicun died, Yunmen began travelling and visited quite a number of monasteries, cementing his reputation as a Chan master.

During a subsequent visit to the tomb of the Sixth Patriarch in Guangdong, Yunmen eventually joined (c. 911 CE) the monastery of Rumin Chanshi/Ling-shu Ju-min, who died in 918 CE. They became great friends. With his death, Yunmen became head priest of the Lingshu monastery on Mount Lingshu.

In this Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, the T'ang dynasty was greatly weakened, and entire sections of the empire had broken away. The South was peaceful and developed, but the "North was torn by the ravages of war".[2] The area of Southern China where Yunmen lived broke free during the rebellion of Huang Chao, a viceroy of the Liu family. Eventually, the Liu family became the rulers of the Southern Han (918–978) kingdom during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. The ruler, Liu Yan, visited the monastery for Rumin's cremation (as Liu often sought Rumin's advice), and met Yunmen.

The front of the modern day Yunmen monastery.

Impressed, Liu Yan extended him his patronage and protection, as well as confirming his appointment as the new abbot of the Lingshu monastery. But Yunmen's fame drew a great flow of visitors from all over China and even from Korea. All these visitors proved too distracting for Yunmen's taste, and in 923, he asked the king [lower-alpha 7] to aid him in building a new monastery on Mount Yunmen. The king acquiesced, and five years later, at the age of 64, Yunmen began living in and teaching in the monastery on the mountain from which he took the name by which he is best known.

While the king and some of Yunmen's disciples continued to try to give Yunmen more responsibilities and honors, Yunmen refused, and returned to his monastery.

One day, when Yunmen was 85 or 86, he composed a farewell letter to his patron, the new king of the Southern Han, and gave a final lecture to his monks, finishing with the statement:

Coming and going is continuous. I must be on my way!

Yunmen then[lower-alpha 8] sat in a full lotus posture and died. He would be buried with great honors[lower-alpha 9], and his well-preserved corpse was exhumed several years later, and given a procession. In honor of this, his monastery was given a new name, and two stele erected, which recorded his biography. His corpse would be venerated until the 20th century, when it would disappear during the chaos of the Cultural Revolution.

Yunmen was succeeded as abbot by Dongshan Shouchu (Chinese: 洞山守初; Pinyin: Dòngshān Shǒuchū; Rōmaji: Tōzan Shusho; d. 900[5]). His foremost disciple was accounted Baiyun Zixiang (Chinese: 白云子祥; Pinyin: Báiyún Zixiáng), who had founded his own temple on the nearby Mount Baiyun.

Yunmen is known for apparently meaningless short sharp single word answers, like "Guan!" (literally, "barrier" or "frontier pass") – these were called "Yunmen's One Word Barriers". These one-word barriers

...were meant to aid practice, to spur insight, and thus to promote realization. Not only his punchy one-syllable retorts, but also his more extended conversation and stories came to be used as koan.[7]

An apocryphal anecdote that began circulating around the beginning of the 12th century has Yunmen going so far as to forbid any of his sayings or teachings from being recorded by his many pupils[lower-alpha 10]:

When Master Yunmen expounded the Dharma he was like a cloud. He decidedly did not like people to note down his words. Whenever he saw someone doing this he scolded him and chased him out of the hall with the words, "Because your own mouth is not good for anything you come to note down my words. It is certain that some day you'll sell me!"
As to the records of "Corresponding to the Occasion"[lower-alpha 11] and "Inside the Master's Room"[lower-alpha 12]: Xianglin and Mingjiao had fashioned robes out of paper and wrote down immediately whenever they heard them.[8]

Despite this, Yunmen is one of the greatest sources of "live words", "old cases", and paradoxical statements that would later evolve into the koan tradition, along with Zhaozhou (Japanese: Jōshū Jūshin). Most were collected in the Yúnmén kuāngzhēn chánshī guǎnglù (雲門匡眞禪師廣錄).

Eighteen koans in the Blue Cliff Record involve Yunmen:

A monk asked Yunmen (Ummon), "What is the teaching that transcends the Buddha and patriarchs?"

Yunmen (Ummon) said, "A sesame bun."

(From the Blue Cliff Record, case no. 77)

Eight of Yunmen's sayings are included in Book of Equanimity, and five in The Gateless Gate:

A monk asked Yunmen, "What is Buddha?"

Yunmen said, "Dried shitstick."

(From case no. 21, The Gateless Gate)

Eighteen other koans were later discovered when a subsequent master of the Yunmen school, Xuedou Chongxian (Setchō Jūken, 980–1052 CE), published his Boze songgu, which contained one hundred "old cases" popular in his teaching line, in which the eighteen Yunmen koans were included. Further examples can be found in the Jen-t'ien Yen-mu,[lower-alpha 13] and the Yün-men Lu.[lower-alpha 14]

While his short ones were popular, some of his longer ones were iconic and among the most famous koans:

Yun-men addressed the assembly and said: "I am not asking you about the days before the fifteenth of the month. But what about after the fifteenth? Come and give me a word about those days."
And he himself gave the answer for them: "Every day is a good day."[9]