Yuquan Shenxiu (Chinese: 玉泉神秀; pinyin: Yùquán Shénxiù; Wade–Giles: Yü-ch'üan Shen-hsiu, 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), honored by Wu Zetian (r. 690–705) of the Tang dynasty.
As a youth, Shenxiu read widely, and was reputed to be versed in the classics of Taoism and Confucianism. The uncertainty of the era may have impelled him into monastic life, as the Tang dynasty had not yet coalesced into the ruling power. He may have even been ordained as a monk in the very year of the first Tang emperor's accession, 618. Following this, there is a lengthy lacuna in the historical record wherein we have no information on any of Shenxiu's activities until 656, whereupon he met Hongren, Fifth Patriarch of Chan and current head of the East Mountain School. Though the patriarch was only a few years Shenxiu's senior, Shenxiu took him for his master and studied with him for six years. He studied the Laṇkāvatāra Sūtra under the patriarch, and eventually attained the master's seal of enlightenment. Afterwards, he left the East Mountain community and withdrew into solitude for a time. In contradiction to the Platform Sutra account that depicts Shenxiu competing for the patriarchate in a poetry contest with Huineng (638-713), Shenxiu's departure can be dated to 661, some ten years before Huineng's arrival at East Mountain.
Again, following this period this is little information on him for the next fifteen years of his life, and there is even some speculation that he may have returned to lay life for a time. In any case, at 70 years old, he enrolled at Yuchuan monastery in 676. He practiced at a hermitage a mile or so from the temple for ten years before accepting students. During this time, one such student he taught was Shenhui - somewhat ironically, as this same monk would later go on to denounce Shenxiu was a gradualist and false patriarch. When Empress Wu Zetian came to power, she surrounded herself with eminent Buddhist clergy, allegedly to legitimize her rule. Shenxiu had gained some repute, and by the time he was invited to the court in Luoyang in the year 700, he was already well over 90. When he arrived, the empress breached all protocol by prostrating to him. As recorded in the Record of the Masters and Disciples of the Lankavatara:
Empress Wu Zetian sent a palace messenger to escort Shenxiu to Luoyang. Monks and laypeople spread flowers in his path, and the banners and canopies [on the vehicles of the wealthy and prestigious] filled the streets. He entered the palace riding on an imperial palanquin decked with palm leaves. Empress Wu, following him, touched her forehead to the ground and knelt for a long time in a spirit of reverent dedication and chaste purity. When Shenxiu administered the precepts to the court ladies, all the four classes of Buddhists took refuge in him with the same feelings of veneration that they had for their own parents. From princes and nobles on down, everyone in the capital took refuge in him.
Both the Empress and her successors honored the master with titles such as National Teacher (kuo shih), and kept him at court despite his wish to return to his home temple. He died in 706, reportedly over 100 years old. He was buried with state honors, and he is one of only three Buddhist monks to receive a biographical notice in the official histories of the Tang dynasty. In spite of, or perhaps because of, the unwanted eminence that was thrust upon him, envy and hostility grew against him in some quarters after his death.
Shenxiu's contributions to Chan included his innovative style of reinterpreting Buddhist sutras and teachings as largely metaphor. For example, he related a number of teachings of the Buddha to practice instructions. To take a few examples from his Treatise on Cultivating the Mind:
There are infinite skillful means in the scriptures that Buddha preached. Sentient beings have dull faculties: they are narrow and mean and do not understand very profound meanings. Therefore Buddha made a temporary use of things involving contrived activities to represent inner truth, which is without contrivance. If you do not cultivate inner practices, but just concentrate on external seeking, hoping to get blessings, it will not work.
When he talks of building monasteries, this means pure places. If you remove the three poisons forever and always purify the six sense faculties, so that body and mind are profoundly clear, and inner and outer are pure, this is "building a monastery".
As for "casting images", this refers to all the various provisional forms of enlightening practices cultivated by sentient beings who seek the Path of enlightenment. It certainly does not mean that the wondrous true visage of the Tathagata is something made out of cast metal. Therefore, those who seek liberation use their personal existence as the furnace, the Dharma as the fire, wisdom as the smith, and the three pure disciplines as the six perfections as the gold.
While Shenxiu certainly did not share the later Chan attitude towards the written word or sutra study, this style of writing indicates that he took practice, especially dhyana practice, to be paramount, eschewing ritual and ceremony. He was not inclined to sectarianism, and took a robust attitude that incorporated many schools of thought in Chinese Buddhism. Rather than advocating gradualism, Shenxiu advocated for constant practice on the basis of continuously manifesting the bodhisattva ideal. As the East Mountain School consistently emphasized the immanence of enlightenment and the illusoriness of the defilements, Shenxiu's teaching seems to have focused on practice for the purposes of constantly bringing the mind back to its original, pure nature, rather than arriving at it by steps.
According to traditional Chan histories, Shenxiu was the founder of the "Northern School", a gradualist sect that could be described as a degeneration of Chan. As such, Shenxiu's line is represented as a 'dead-end' in the lineage. However, more critical examination of the historical record has revealed a different picture. The gradualist account of Shenxiu's teaching given by Shenhui appears to have been little more than a polemic in light of the content of East Mountain School texts. There may have been residual hostility due to Shenxiu's popularity, or Shenhui may have been looking to legitimize himself at the expense of Shenxiu's successors. There may even have been some grain of truth to Shenhui's story, although it is not possible that the events of the Platform Sutra occurred exactly as they were recorded. Ultimately, the reasons for Shenhui's disparaging remarks of Shenxiu cannot be known. However, in the year 734, when Shenxiu's successor Puji was at the height of his influence, Shenhui made the following claims:
"Bodhidharma gave to Huike a robe (袈裟) as testimonial of the transmission of the true Law. This robe was handed down by Huike to his chosen successor, and in four generations it came to Hung-jen. But Hongren gave it, not to Shenxiu, but to Huineng … Even Shenxiu himself always said that the robe of transmission had gone to he South. That is why he never claimed in his life-time that he was the sixth successor. But now the Chan master Puji claims that he is the seventh generation, thereby falsely establishing his teacher, Shenxiu, to be the sixth successor. That is not to be permitted."
Prior to Shenhui's claims, the concept of the patriarchate as signified by an official robe of office does not appear in any of the histories. Shenhui may have invented this concept to further legitimize himself as the true inheritor of Bodhidharma's lineage. In any case, according to the Record of the Masters and Disciples of the Lankavatara, Hongren in fact designated Shenxiu and Xuanze as his heirs and relegated Huineng to a marginal figure:
"In my life I have taught numberless people. Many good ones have perished. I only give approval to ten as the ones who can transmit my path in the future. With Shenxiu I have discussed the Lankavatara Sutra, and he has penetrated its subtle truth: he is sure to bring much benefit. Zhixian of Zizhou and Registrar Liu of White Pine Mountain both have refined their natures. Huizang of Xinzhou and Xuanye of Suizhou I recall as worthy, though now I don't see them. Old An of Songshan profoundly practices the Path. Faru of Luzhou, Huineng of Shaozhou, and the Korean monk Zhide of Yangzhou are all fit to be people's teachers, but only local figures. Yifang of Yuezhou will continue to lecture and preach."
More information about the controversy and the truth of Hongren's lineage can be found on the transmission page. In any case, Shenxiu's lineage was destined to fade after it had been thoroughly discredited by Shenhui, and Shenhui himself failed to create a lasting lineage of his own.
If one generates such a body on the basis of nonsubstantiality, then that body is also nonsubstantial. If one generates such a practice on the basis of nonsubstantiality, that practice is also nonsubstantial. One’s buddha realm and expedient means are also as space. Why? Because the dharmadhatu arises fundamentally on the basis of space, it is no different from space.
It is like waves on water. Fundamentally, the waves arise on the basis of the water. The waves actually are water and the water no different from its waves; likewise the nirmanakaya. If [both] principle and practice (li-hsing) are realized, it is called cause and result. Therefore, it is called cause and result.
[Question] : If it is called cause and result before the influences are extinguished, how can it be called cause and result after they are extinguished?
[Answer]: There are no cause and result. Why? There is only the practice of nonsubstantiality and the salvation of beings, but no additional intention whatsoever. It is called result because it is like an apparition, etc. [The term] “result” is used in speaking to practitioners— the principle of this cannot be understood with the ordinary person’s way of thinking or by reading a text.
You must make effort for many a day, dispensing with conventional toils and sitting quietly in meditation (ching-tso ssu-wei). You cannot understand the principle of this through an [insight] into a text [gained] during recitation. There is no mutual relationship [between that kind of insight and the realization referred to here]. This is an understanding [based on something] other than one’s own efforts. This is a practice [based on something] other than one’s own practice. By meditating thus you will avoid such errors.
Shenxiu said: “Is this a mind that exists? What kind of mind is the mind?”
He also said: “When you see form, does form exist? What kind of form is form?”
He also said: “You hear the sound of a bell that is struck. Does the sound exist when the bell is struck? Before it is struck? What kind of sound is sound?”
He also said: “Does the sound of a bell that is struck only exist within the monastery, or does the bell’s sound also exist throughout the universe in all the ten directions?”
Also, seeing a bird fly by, he asked: “What is that?”
He also said: “Can you sit in meditation on the tip of a tree’s hanging branch?”
He also said: “The Nirvána Sutra says, ‘The Bodhisattva with the Limitless Body came from the East.’ If the bodhisattva’s body was limitless in size, how could he have come from the East? Why did he not come from the West, South, or North? Or is this impossible?”