Yunmen Wenyan (;
romaji
The romanization of Japanese is the use of Latin script to write the Japanese language. This method of writing is sometimes referred to in Japanese as .
Japanese is normally written in a combination of logographic characters borrowed from Ch ...
: ''Ummon Bun'en''; 862 or 864 – 949 CE), was a major Chinese
Chan
Chan may refer to:
Places
*Chan (commune), Cambodia
*Chan Lake, by Chan Lake Territorial Park in Northwest Territories, Canada
People
*Chan (surname), romanization of various Chinese surnames (including 陳, 曾, 詹, 戰, and 田)
*Chan Caldwel ...
master of the
Tang dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...
. He was a
dharma-heir of
Xuefeng Yicun
Xuefeng Yicun (822-908) (; ; ) was a Chinese Chan-master who was influential during the Tang Dynasty. The Yunmen school and Fayan school originated with descendants of his lineage.
Biography
According to the ''Wudeng Huiyuan'' ("Compendium of F ...
br>
}
Yunmen founded the
Yunmen school Yunmen Wenyan (c. 860–949) was a Zen Buddhist master.
Yunmen may also refer to:
* Yunmen school of Chan Buddhism, named after Yunmen Wenyan
*Yunmen, an acupuncture point on the lung meridian
* Yunmen Subdistrict () of Hechuan District, Chongq ...
, one of the
five major schools of
Chán
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 So ...
(Chinese Zen). The name is derived from ''Yunmen'' monastery of
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 ...
where Yunmen was abbot. The Yunmen school flourished into 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 ...
, with particular influence on the upper classes, and eventually culminating in the compilation and writing of the ''
Blue Cliff Record
The ''Blue Cliff Record'' () is a collection of Chan Buddhist kōans originally compiled in Song China in 1125, during the reign of Emperor Huizong, and then expanded into its present form by Chan master Yuanwu Keqin (1063–1135; ).K. Sekid ...
''.
The school would eventually be absorbed by the
Linji school
The Línjì school () is a school of Chan Buddhism named after Linji Yixuan (d. 866). It took prominence in Song China (960–1279), spread to Japan as the Rinzai school and influenced the nine mountain schools of Korean Seon.
History
Song d ...
later in the Song. The lineage still lives on to this day through Chan Master
Hsu Yun (1840–1959).
Biography
Early years
Yunmen was born in the town of
Jiaxing
Jiaxing (), alternately romanized as Kashing, is a prefecture-level city in northern Zhejiang province, China. Lying on the Grand Canal of China, Jiaxing borders Hangzhou to the southwest, Huzhou to the west, Shanghai to the northeast, and the ...
near
Suzhou
Suzhou (; ; Suzhounese: ''sou¹ tseu¹'' , Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Soochow, is a major city in southern Jiangsu province, East China. Suzhou is the largest city in Jiangsu, and a major economic center and focal point of trade ...
and southwest of
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...
[pg 230, Dumoulin 1994.] to the Zhang family, apparently in 864 CE. His birth year is uncertain. The two memorial
stele
A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...
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.
Initial Zen-studies
While a boy, Yunmen became a monk under a "Commandment master" 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 Muzhou or Mu Prefecture (睦州) was a '' zhou'' (prefecture) in imperial China centering on modern Jiande, Zhejiang, China. It existed (intermittently) from 603 to 1121, when its name changed to Yanzhou (and eventually to Yanzhou Prefecture in th ...
(
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 ...
: 睦州道明;
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 ...
: ''Mùzhōu Dàomíng''), also known as Muzhou Daozong (
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 ...
: 睦州道蹤;
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 ...
: ''Mùzhōu Dàozōng'') to gain
enlightenment. According to legend, first mentioned in 1100, he had his leg broken for his trouble:
Daoming told Yunmen to visit the pre-eminent Chan master of the day,
[pg 231 of Dumoulin 1994] Xuefeng Yicun
Xuefeng Yicun (822-908) (; ; ) was a Chinese Chan-master who was influential during the Tang Dynasty. The Yunmen school and Fayan school originated with descendants of his lineage.
Biography
According to the ''Wudeng Huiyuan'' ("Compendium of F ...
of Mount Xianggu, in
Fuzhou
Fuzhou (; , Fuzhounese: Hokchew, ''Hók-ciŭ''), alternately romanized as Foochow, is the capital and one of the largest cities in Fujian province, China. Along with the many counties of Ningde, those of Fuzhou are considered to constitute t ...
in modern-day
Fujian Province
Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its cap ...
, 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.
Advanced Zen-studies
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
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 Budd ...
in
Guangdong
Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...
, 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 Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (), from 907 to 979, was an era of political upheaval and division in 10th-century Imperial China. Five dynastic states quickly succeeded one another in the Central Plain, and more than a dozen conc ...
, 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".
The area of Southern China where Yunmen lived broke free during the rebellion of
Huang Chao
Huang Chao (835 – July 13, 884) was a Chinese smuggler, soldier, and rebel, and is most well known for being the leader of a major rebellion that severely weakened the Tang dynasty.
Huang was a Salt in Chinese history, salt smuggler before ...
, a viceroy of the Liu family. Eventually, the Liu family became the rulers of the
Southern Han
Southern Han (; 917–971), officially Han (), originally Yue (), was one of the ten kingdoms that existed during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. It was located on China's southern coast, controlling modern Guangdong and Guangxi. The ...
(918–978) kingdom during the
Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period
The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (), from 907 to 979, was an era of political upheaval and division in 10th-century Imperial China. Five dynastic states quickly succeeded one another in the Central Plain, and more than a dozen conc ...
. The ruler, Liu Yan, visited the monastery for Rumin's cremation (as Liu often sought Rumin's advice), and met Yunmen.
Abbot of 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 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.
Farewell
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:
Yunmen then sat in a full
lotus posture
Lotus position or Padmasana ( sa, पद्मासन, translit=padmāsana) is a cross-legged sitting meditation pose from ancient India, in which each foot is placed on the opposite thigh. It is an ancient asana in yoga, predating hatha ...
and died. He would be buried with great honors, 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
The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...
.
Yunmen was succeeded as abbot by
Dongshan Shouchu
Dongshan Shouchu (; ja, Tozan Shusho) (died 900) was a Chinese Zen teacher and an heir to Yunmen Wenyan. Dongshan is the subject of Case 18 "Three Pounds of Flax" in The Gateless Barrier, a collection of koans authored by the Chan
Chan may ...
(
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 ...
: 洞山守初; Pinyin: ''Dòngshān Shǒuchū'';
Romanji: ''Tōzan Shusho''; d. 900). His foremost disciple was accounted Baiyun Zixiang (
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 ...
: 白云子祥;
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 ...
: ''Báiyún Zixiáng''), who had founded his own temple on the nearby Mount Baiyun.
Teachings
Yunmen was renowned for his forceful and direct yet subtle teaching, often expressed through sudden shouts and blows with a staff, and for his wisdom and skill at
oratory:
Yet, his teachings are also described as "difficult to understand". According to
Gyomay Kubose
Gyomay Kubose (June 21, 1905–March 29, 2000), born Masao Kubose was a Japanese-American Buddhist teacher. In 1944, after leaving the Heart Mountain internment camp, he founded the Chicago Buddhist Church, later renamed the Buddhist Temple ...
: "Yunmen's school is deep and difficult to understand since its mode of expression is indirect; while it talks about the south, it is looking at the north."
One Word Barriers
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
Koans
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:
Despite this, Yunmen is one of the greatest sources of "live words", "old cases", and paradoxical statements that would later evolve into the
koan
A (; , ; ko, 화두, ; vi, công án) is a story, dialogue, question, or statement which is used in Zen practice to provoke the "great doubt" and to practice or test a student's progress in Zen.
Etymology
The Japanese term is the Sino-Jap ...
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
The ''Blue Cliff Record'' () is a collection of Chan Buddhist kōans originally compiled in Song China in 1125, during the reign of Emperor Huizong, and then expanded into its present form by Chan master Yuanwu Keqin (1063–1135; ).K. Sekid ...
'' involve Yunmen:
:A monk asked Yunmen (Ummon), "What is the teaching that transcends the Buddha and
patriarchs
The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate (bishop), primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholicism, Independent Catholic Chur ...
?"
::Yunmen (Ummon) said, "A sesame bun."
::(From the ''
Blue Cliff Record
The ''Blue Cliff Record'' () is a collection of Chan Buddhist kōans originally compiled in Song China in 1125, during the reign of Emperor Huizong, and then expanded into its present form by Chan master Yuanwu Keqin (1063–1135; ).K. Sekid ...
'', case no. 77)
Eight of Yunmen's sayings are included in ''
Book of Equanimity'', and five in ''
The Gateless Gate
''The Gateless Barrier'' ( Mandarin: 無門關 ''Wúménguān''; Japanese: 無門関 ''Mumonkan''), sometimes translated as ''The Gateless Gate'', is a collection of 48 Chan (Zen) koans compiled in the early 13th century by the Chinese Zen maste ...
'':
:A monk asked Yunmen, "What is Buddha?"
::Yunmen said, "Dried shitstick."
::(From case no. 21, ''
The Gateless Gate
''The Gateless Barrier'' ( Mandarin: 無門關 ''Wúménguān''; Japanese: 無門関 ''Mumonkan''), sometimes translated as ''The Gateless Gate'', is a collection of 48 Chan (Zen) koans compiled in the early 13th century by the Chinese Zen maste ...
)''
Eighteen other koans were later discovered when a subsequent master of the Yunmen school,
Xuedou Chongxian
Xuedou (),Wudeng Huiyuan Vol.15 courtesy name "Yinzhi"() was a Chinese Buddhist monk of Zen. He is best known for his collection of 100 koans which later became the foundation of the koan collection "Blue Cliff Record".
Life
According to " Wuden ...
(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'', and the ''Yün-men Lu''.
While his short ones were popular, some of his longer ones were iconic and among the most famous koans:
Lineage
![Ummon](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Ummon.png)
His disciples reputedly numbered 790, an unusual number of whom became
enlightened. The Yunmen School flourished as one of the ''Five Schools'' for about 300 years, after which it was absorbed into the
Linji school
The Línjì school () is a school of Chan Buddhism named after Linji Yixuan (d. 866). It took prominence in Song China (960–1279), spread to Japan as the Rinzai school and influenced the nine mountain schools of Korean Seon.
History
Song d ...
towards the end of the Southern
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 ...
(~1127 CE).
The lineage still lives on to this day through Chan Master
Hsu Yun (1840–1959). He rebuilt the
Yunmen Temple as well as
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 ...
's temple,
Nanhua Temple
Nanhua Temple () is a Buddhist monastery of the Chan Buddhism, one of Five Great Schools of Buddhism where Huineng, the Sixth Patriarch of Chan Buddhism, once lived and taught. It is located in the town of Maba (), Qujiang District, southeast ...
. The Yunmen school continues through Master Hsu Yun, Fo Yuan, and Master Ming Zhao Shakya, who have disciples in America and abroad.
[pg 233 of Dumoulin 1994.]
Legacy
Despite being a popular place for pilgrimages, the legendary
Mount Wutai in
Shanxi
Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-lev ...
was ordered off-limits by Yunmen and his dharmic descendent,
Linji Yixuan
Linji Yixuan (; ja, 臨済義玄 ''Rinzai Gigen''; died 866 CE) was the founder of the Linji school of Chan Buddhism during Tang Dynasty China.
Línjì yǔlù
Information on Linji is based on the ''Línjì yǔlù'' (臨濟語錄; Japanese: ' ...
. When the legendary monk
Ikkyū
was an eccentric, iconoclastic Japanese Zen Buddhist monk and poet. He had a great impact on the infusion of Japanese art and literature with Zen attitudes and ideals,Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan, entry "Ikkyū" by James H. Sanford as well ...
was studying under Kaso, he was assigned kōan no. 15 from the ''Gateless Gate'' where Yunmen/Ummon rebukes Tozan for wandering from one monastery to another; after being reprimanded, Tozan experiences
enlightenment. When Ikkyū 'penetrated' into understanding this kōan, he was rewarded his
dharma name
A Dharma name or Dhamma name is a new name acquired during both lay and monastic Buddhist initiation rituals in Mahayana Buddhism and monastic ordination in Theravada Buddhism (where it is more proper to call it Dhamma or Sangha name). The nam ...
.
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 E ...
master
Shuho Myocho
- Japanese Zen master of the rinzai school, also known as Daitō Kokushi (大燈 國 師). All the lines of transmission in the rinzai school today are from his teacher. He was the founder and first abbot of the Daitoku-ji (大德寺) in Ky ...
experienced great enlightenment after contemplating a Yunmen kōan for ten days. After the moment of enlightenment, his master
Nanpo Shomyo told him: "Yesterday I dreamed that the great Ummon (Yunmen) personally came to my room. Today, it is you - the second Ummon."
By its preservation in the ''
Blue Cliff Record
The ''Blue Cliff Record'' () is a collection of Chan Buddhist kōans originally compiled in Song China in 1125, during the reign of Emperor Huizong, and then expanded into its present form by Chan master Yuanwu Keqin (1063–1135; ).K. Sekid ...
'', Yunmen's famous saying ''"Nichinichi kore kōnichi"'' (''"Every day is a good day"'') became a useful phrase for later Zen teachers, including
Kōdō Sawaki
was a prominent Japanese Sōtō Zen teacher of the 20th century. He is considered to be one of the most significant Zen priests of his time for bringing Zen practice into the lives of laypeople and popularizing the ancient tradition of sewing the ...
and his student
Taisen Deshimaru
was a Japanese Sōtō Zen Buddhist teacher, who founded the ''Association Zen Internationale''.
Biography
Early life
Born in the Saga Prefecture of Kyūshū, Deshimaru was raised by his grandfather, a former Samurai before the Meiji Revolution, ...
. The
avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
composer
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...
featured the saying in his ''
Song Books
A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetition ...
'' as "Solo for Voice 64", specifically as a repetition of ''“kichi kichi kiri ko nichi”''.
The
''shit stick'' kōan of Yunmen (case no. 21, ''
The Gateless Gate
''The Gateless Barrier'' ( Mandarin: 無門關 ''Wúménguān''; Japanese: 無門関 ''Mumonkan''), sometimes translated as ''The Gateless Gate'', is a collection of 48 Chan (Zen) koans compiled in the early 13th century by the Chinese Zen maste ...
'') became renowned for its incomprehensibility.
[ Mair, Victor H. (2008), "The Synesthesia of Sinitic Esthetics and Its Indic Resonances", ''Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews'', 30: 103–116. p. 107.] American Zen teacher
Robert Baker Aitken
Robert Baker Dairyu Chotan Aitken Rōshi (June 19, 1917 – August 5, 2010) was a Zen teacher in the Harada-Yasutani lineage. He co-founded the Honolulu Diamond Sangha in 1959
together with his wife, Anne Hopkins Aitken. Aitken received Dharma ...
explained that the term was used as "a soft stick that was used the way our ancestors used a corncob in their outhouses"
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation.
Of French-Canadian a ...
paraphrased the kōan in his book ''
The Dharma Bums
''The Dharma Bums'' is a 1958 novel by Beat Generation author Jack Kerouac. The basis for the novel's semi-fictional accounts are events occurring years after the events of ''On the Road''. The main characters are the narrator Ray Smith, based on ...
'' as "The Buddha is a dried piece of turd."
[ Kerouac, Jack (1958), ''The Dharma Bums'', Viking Press, p. 173.] Wumen Huikai
Wumen Huikai (; Wade-Giles: Wu-men Hui-k'ai; ja, Mumon Ekai) (1183–1260) was a Chinese Chán (Japanese: Zen) master during China‘s Song period. He is most famous for having compiled and commentated the 48-koan collection ''The Gateless Barri ...
appended the kōan with the following verse:
Yunmen's Japanese name, Ummon, was the namesake for a prominent character in
Dan Simmons
Dan Simmons (born April 4, 1948) is an American science fiction and horror writer. He is the author of the Hyperion Cantos and the Ilium/Olympos cycles, among other works which span the science fiction, horror, and fantasy genres, sometimes wi ...
's
Hyperion Cantos
The ''Hyperion Cantos'' is a series of science fiction novels by Dan Simmons. The title was originally used for the collection of the first pair of books in the series, '' Hyperion'' and '' The Fall of Hyperion'', and later came to refer to the ...
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
series; Simmon's Ummon was a vastly advanced
AI from the "TechnoCore", who reveals key plot elements to the main characters through kōans and
''mondo'' (dialogue).
See also
*
Jingde (era) Record of the Transmission of the Lamp
*
The Gateless Gate
''The Gateless Barrier'' ( Mandarin: 無門關 ''Wúménguān''; Japanese: 無門関 ''Mumonkan''), sometimes translated as ''The Gateless Gate'', is a collection of 48 Chan (Zen) koans compiled in the early 13th century by the Chinese Zen maste ...
*
The Blue Cliff Record
Notes
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
*
*
* Sørensen, Henrik Hjort
"The Life and Times of the Ch'an Master Yūn-men Wen-yan" pp. 105–131, Vol. 49 (1996) of ''Acta orientalia'',
*
External links
*
ttp://www.seanparnell.com/Hyperion%20Cantos/Web%20Pages/Ummon.htm UmmonTranscription online of Pen-chi of Ts'ao-shan's ''Questions and Answers'', as translated in ''Sources of Chinese Tradition'' (de Bary, Chan and Watson, ed. and trans.)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wenyan, Yunmen
860s births
949 deaths
Year of birth uncertain
Chinese scholars of Buddhism
Chan Buddhist monks
Tang dynasty Buddhist monks
Chinese Zen Buddhists