Nanyue Huairang (

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

: 南嶽懐譲;

Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...

: ''Nányuè Huáiràng''; Romanji: ''Nangaku Ejõ'') (677–744) was the foremost student of

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

, the 6th Patriarch of

Ch'an Chan (; of ), from Sanskrit '' dhyāna'' (meaning "meditation" or "meditative state"), is a Chinese school of Mahāyāna Buddhism. It developed in China from the 6th century CE onwards, becoming especially popular during the Tang and S ...

(

Zen Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...

) and teacher of one of his

Dharma heir In Chan and Zen Buddhism, dharma transmission is a custom in which a person is established as a "successor in an unbroken lineage of teachers and disciples, a spiritual 'bloodline' ('' kechimyaku'') theoretically traced back to the Buddha hims ...

Mazu Daoyi Mazu Daoyi (709–788) (, Japanese: Baso Dōitsu) was an influential abbot of Chan Buddhism during the Tang dynasty. The earliest recorded use of the term "Chan school" is from his ''Extensive Records''. Master Ma's teaching style of "strange wo ...

Life

The ancestor of two of the Five Houses of Ch'an, Huairang is traditionally said to have studied with a

Vinaya The Vinaya (Pali & Sanskrit: विनय) is the division of the Buddhist canon ('' Tripitaka'') containing the rules and procedures that govern the Buddhist Sangha (community of like-minded ''sramanas''). Three parallel Vinaya traditions remai ...

master and became ordained. Dissatisfied with his own progress, Huairang found

Shaozhou Shaozhou or Shao Prefecture (邵州) was a '' zhou'' (prefecture) in imperial China centering on modern Shaoyang, Hunan, China. It existed (intermittently) from 636 to 1225. Geography The administrative region of Shaozhou in the Tang dynasty fall ...

and became his disciple, which is recorded in various traditional biographies. Huairang is traditionally said to have given Dharma transmission to six individuals, the most prominent being

. Based on a critical reading of the textual evidence, the scholar John McRae notes that it is unlikely that Huairang actually practiced with Huineng. In the oldest version of the ''

Platform Sutra The ''Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch'' ( or simply: ''Tánjīng'') is a Chan Buddhist scripture that was composed in China during the 8th to 13th century. The "platform" (施法壇) refers to the podium on which a Buddhist teacher speak ...

'' found among the

Dunhuang manuscripts Dunhuang manuscripts refer to a wide variety of religious and secular documents (mostly manuscripts, but also including some woodblock-printed texts) in Chinese and other languages that were discovered at the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang, China, durin ...

, which dates to about 850 CE, Nanyue is not listed as a student of Huineng at all. Although Huairang is mentioned in 952 CE in the ''

Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall The ''Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall'' () is a Chinese text compiled by two Chinese Buddhist monks in 952 during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. It is the oldest existing collection of Chan encounter dialogues, dating from abou ...

'', he is not discussed in the context of Huineng. The same source records a putative conversation between him and Mazu, but there is no explicit suggestion that Mazu is his student. An even earlier source, the ''Transmissions of the Treasure Grove'' of 801, states that Huairang was enlightened under Lao'an, a teacher with connections to

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 th ...

of the so-called Northern School.

References

Chan Buddhist monks Tang dynasty Buddhist monks 677 births 744 deaths Chinese Zen Buddhists {{China-reli-bio-stub