The Heze School (), also called the Ho-tse School, was a short-lived school of Chinese Chan Buddhism during the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdom ...

that was founded by

Heze Shenhui Heze Shenhui (Chinese:菏泽神會/神会; Wade–Giles: Shen-hui; Japanese: Kataku Jinne, 684–758) was a Chinese Buddhist monk of the so-called "Southern School" of Zen, who "claimed to have studied under Huineng." Shenhui is notable for his s ...

(670–762) and who last patriarch was

Guifeng Zongmi Guifeng Zongmi () (780–1 February 841) was a Tang dynasty Buddhist scholar and bhikkhu, installed as fifth patriarch of the Huayan school as well as a patriarch of the Heze school of Southern Chan Buddhism. He wrote a number of works on the ...

. Zongmi's writings and interpretation of Chan would later have a strong influence on

Korean Seon Seon or Sŏn Buddhism ( Korean: 선, 禪; IPA: ʌn is the Korean name for Chan Buddhism, a branch of Mahāyāna Buddhism commonly known in English as Zen Buddhism. Seon is the Sino-Korean pronunciation of Chan () an abbreviation of 禪那 ( ...

Buddhism particularly through

Chinul Jinul Puril Bojo Daesa (, "Bojo Jinul"; 1158–1210), often called Jinul or Chinul for short, was a Korean monk of the Goryeo period, who is considered to be the most influential figure in the formation of Korean Seon (Zen) Buddhism. He is credi ...

even after the school had died out.

History

During the Tang dynasty, Chan Buddhism was roughly divided into a "

Northern School East Mountain Teaching () denotes the teachings of the Fourth Ancestor Dayi Daoxin, his student and heir the Fifth Ancestor Daman Hongren, and their students and lineage of Chan Buddhism. ''East Mountain Teaching'' gets its name from the East ...

" led by

Yuquan Shenxiu Yuquan Shenxiu (, 606?–706) was one of the most influential Chan masters of his day, a Patriarch of the East Mountain Teaching of Chan Buddhism. Shenxiu was Dharma heir of Daman Hongren (601–674), honoured by Wu Zetian (r. 690–705) of t ...

and a Southern School, with the Northern School being the ascendant school due its government patronage. Heze Shenhui was a reputed disciple of

Huineng Dajian Huineng (); (February 27, 638 – August 28, 713), also commonly known as the Sixth Patriarch or Sixth Ancestor of Chan (traditional Chinese: 禪宗六祖), is a semi-legendary but central figure in the early history of Chinese Chan Buddhi ...

and starting in 732, began a concerted attack on the Northern School teachings. Eventually, this led to the exile of Shenhui until the

An Lushan Rebellion The An Lushan Rebellion was an uprising against the Tang dynasty of China towards the mid-point of the dynasty (from 755 to 763), with an attempt to replace it with the Yan dynasty. The rebellion was originally led by An Lushan, a general offi ...

, which devastated both Tang capitals. Shenhui and others were recalled to help with rebuilding the eastern capital Luoyang, and Shenhui successfully raised money for the government, which in turn reversed the exile punishment and allowed Shenhui to set up a monastery at

Luoyang Luoyang is a city located in the confluence area of Luo River and Yellow River in the west of Henan province. Governed as a prefecture-level city, it borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyang ...

. The Northern School greatly diminished after this, but Shenhui's disciples were unable to maintain the status of the Southern School or effectively propagate its teachings until Zongmi. Zongmi, the fifth patriarch, was the most articulate of Shenhui's disciples and went on to write many treatises that influenced Chan Buddhism throughout East Asia. However, after Zongmi, the school declined further and virtually disappeared after the Anti-Buddhist Persecution of 845.

References

{{reflist Buddhism in China