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CHAPTER FOUR

THE RISE OF THE SOUTHERN SCHOOL

SHENXIU

Today Huineng is the last of the Chinese Zen teachers to be referred to as a patriarch, but this was not an uncontested title. In Shenxiu’s epitaph, he also is identified as Hongren’s successor and Sixth Patriarch.

In contrast to Huineng, who was portrayed as an illiterate wood-cutter, Shenxiu was a scholar before being drawn to the Zen tradition. Although he was ordained a monk at the age of twenty, he was fifty by the time he came to study with Hongren. He distinguished himself by his knowledge of the Confucian and Daoist texts as well as by the breadth of his understanding of Buddhism, and he quickly rose to the rank of chief monk. He stayed with Hongren for six years.

After leaving Hongren, Shenxiu lived as a hermit for a long while, then settled at a temple on Mount Dangyang. When Hongren died in 674, many of his disciples sought out Shenxiu and accepted him as their master’s legitimate heir. His school came to be known as the Northern School to distinguish it from Huineng’s Southern School.

During their lifetimes, Shenxiu and Huineng may not have considered each other rivals but rather colleagues. And there is evidence that Shenxiu’s school may have had more prestige than Huineng’s. Shenxiu was invited to the imperial court by the empress, and it was a member of that court who composed the epitaph carved in the memorial stone over Shenxiu’s grave. He died seven years before Huineng, and for a few generations the Northern School continued to prosper. Then, as the popularity of the Southern School grew, Shenxiu’s successors were unable to attract students, and eventually the school faded away.