Touzi Yiqing (; ), sometimes also Touzi Qing Huayan, was a

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 ...

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

monk during the early

Song Dynasty The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...

Biography

Touzi Yiqing was born in a city known at the time as Qingshe, which is near the present-day city of

Yanshi Yanshi District () is a district in the prefecture-level city of Luoyang in western Henan province, China. Yanshi lies on the Luo River and is the easternmost county-level division of Luoyang. History After the Zhou conquest of Shang in mid-11th ...

Henan Province Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...

. An account of his life from the ''Wudeng Huiyuan'' (Compendium of Five Lamps), and early 13th century collection of Buddhist biographies, claims he left his parents at the age of seven to study Buddhism at Miaoxing Temple, which was part of the Consciousness-only Sect. Eventually, however, he is said to have found the density of the teachings unhelpful, and so he left to study in the

Huayan school The Huayan or Flower Garland school of Buddhism (, from sa, अवतंसक, Avataṃsaka) is a tradition of Mahayana Buddhist philosophy that first flourished in China during the Tang dynasty (618-907). The Huayan worldview is based prima ...

instead. While studying in that tradition, he supposedly came to the realization that any attempt to teach Buddhism through the study of words could not succeed. He again left, this time settling on the Zen practitioner Fushan Fayuan, also known as Yuanjian, as his teacher. While Touzi's predecessor was said to be the last remaining teacher in the

Caodong Caodong school () is a Chinese Chan Buddhist sect and one of the Five Houses of Chán. Etymology The key figure in the Caodong school was founder Dongshan Liangjie (807-869, 洞山良价 or Jpn. Tozan Ryokai). Some attribute the name "Cáodòng" ...

Sōtō Sōtō Zen or is the largest of the three traditional sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism (the others being Rinzai and Ōbaku). It is the Japanese line of the Chinese Cáodòng school, which was founded during the Tang dynasty by Dòngsh� ...

Zen tradition, the lineage flourished with Touzi's devoted students, recovering much of its former prominence.

Indirect dharma-transmission

Touzi Yiqing is a significant figure in the lineage of

Zen because he did not actually study under the man commonly regarded as his predecessor, namely

Dayang Jingxuan Dayang Jingxuan (; ) was a Zen Buddhist monk during the early Song Dynasty. During his life, he was apparently the only living teacher representing Caodong/Sōtō school, and he was the last monk of that tradition to be mentioned in the influentia ...

. This is a unique exception to an otherwise steadfast rule that a lineage must involve direct teacher-to-student dharma transmission in order to be considered valid. Juefan Huihong's biographical compilation of 1119, the ''Chanlin sengbao zhuan'' (Chronicle of the Sangha Treasure in the Groves of Chan), claims that Touzi Yiqing was the "true son" of Dayang Jingxuan. The ''Xudeng lu'' of 1101 lists Touzi and nine others as disciples of Dayang. However, it also explains that Touzi did not actually ever meet Dayang, let alone receive dharma transmission from him. Instead, Touzi received dharma transmission from Fushan Fayuan, who had been a student of Dayang, but had himself had not received dharma transmission from Dayang either. In fact, Fushan had already received dharma transmission in the

Rinzai The Rinzai school ( ja, , Rinzai-shū, zh, t=臨濟宗, s=临济宗, p=Línjì zōng) is one of three sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism (along with Sōtō and Ōbaku). The Chinese Linji school of Chan was first transmitted to Japan by Myōan ...

tradition, and thus could not receive it again. The scholar Morten Schlütter notes that this form of lineage transfer "has no real parallel in early Chan literature". This refers to the fact that Touzi was able to be considered the immediate heir to Dayang's lineage without having met him, and that Fayuan was able to hold Dayang's lineage "in trust" without actually being a bona fide heir. Schlütter further interprets Huihong's likely embellished account as an attempt to strengthen the rather weak link between Touzi and Dayang, who was the last Caodong monk recorded in the prestigious ''

Transmission of the Lamp ''The Jingde Record of the Transmission of the Lamp'' (), often referred to as ''The Transmission of the Lamp'', is a 30 volume work consisting of putative biographies of the Chan Buddhist and Zen Buddhist patriarchs and other prominent Buddhist ...

'', in order to solidify the legitimacy of the lineage.Schlüter, pp.93–94,210

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yiqing, Touzi Chan Buddhist monks 1032 births 1083 deaths Song dynasty Buddhist monks 11th-century Chinese people People from Yanshi