Shitou Xiqian
Shitou Xiqian | |
|---|---|
| Error creating thumbnail: Woodblock print (1880) | |
| Personal | |
| Born | 700 Gaoyao, China |
| Died | 790 (aged 90) |
| School | Chan |
| Senior posting | |
| Teacher | Qingyuan Xingsi Dajian Huineng |
| Predecessor | Qingyuan Xingsi |
| Successor | Yaoshan Weiyan |
Students | |
Shitou Xiqian (J. Sekitō Kisen; K. Sŏktu Hŭich’ŏn 石頭希遷) (700–790). A Chan master during the Tang dynasty. He was a key ancestor of three early Chan lineages: the Caodong zong, the Yunmen zong, and the Fayan zong.[1] According to D. T. Suzuki, all the followers of Chan (or Zen) in China or Japan trace their lineage back to either Shitou Xiqian or his contemporary Mazu Daoyi.[2]
Biography
According to traditional accounts, Shitou Xiqian was a native of Guangzhou.[3] As a boy, he studied briefly with the Chan patriarch Huineng, prior to the latter's death.[3] After Huineng's death, Shitou Xiqian became a disciple of one of Huineng's main students, Qingyuan Xingsi.[3]
- Xingsi is said to have thought highly of his new disciple, famously calling him a unicorn among the other horned animals in his congregation, and eventually made Xiqian his principal dharma heir. In 742, after his teacher’s death, he traveled to Mt. Nanyue (present-day Hunan province), where he lived in a hermitage built on top of a large boulder, hence his cognomen Shitou (“Atop a Stone”).[1]
He died at the age of 90.
Shitouʼs main Dharma successor was Yaoshan Weiyan.[3]
Influence
Shitou Xiqian appears to have been a fairly obscure teacher during his lifetime.[1][4] However, "he retrospectively came to be viewed as one of the two most influential teachers of the classical Chan period, along with Mazu Daoyi (709–788)."[1]
Scholar Mario Poceski writes:
- He was a little-known teacher who led a reclusive life and had relatively few disciples. For decades after Shitou's death, his lineage remained an obscure provincial tradition.[4]
Later accounts to the effect that Shitou and Mazu were the two great masters of their day date from decades after their respective deaths. Shitou's retrospective prominence owes much to the importance of Dongshan Liangjie, a 9th-century teacher who traced his lineage back to Shitou.[1][5]
Shitou's Cantong qi is regarded as a foundational text by the Caodong zong and the Japanese Soto school.[1] This text is highly esteemed for its succinct expression of non-duality.[1]
Writings
Shitou is credited as the author of two well-known Zen Buddhist poems:[6]
- The Cantong qi (J. Sandokai), an expression of the teaching of non-duality
- The Song of the Grass Hut, a paean to a life of secluded meditation.
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Buswell & Lopez 2014, s.v. Shitou Xiqian.
- ↑ Suzuki 1960, p. 104
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3
石頭希遷, Digital Dictionary of Buddhism (to sign in, see DDB sign-in)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Poceski 2007.
- ↑ Poceski 2007, p. 97–98.
- ↑ Leighton 2004.
Sources
Buswell, Robert E.; Lopez, Donald S. (2014), The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, Princeton University- Leighton, Taigen Dan (2004), "Introduction: Hongzhi, Dogen, and the Background of Shikantaza", in Loori, John Daido, The Art of Just Sitting, Wisdom Publications
- Poceski, Mario (2007), Ordinary Mind as the Way: the Hongzhou School and the Growth of Chan Buddhism, Oxford University Press
- Suzuki, Daisetz Teitaro (1960), Manual of Zen Buddhism, Grove PressArchive version
External links
Shitou Xiqian, Wikipedia
