Yuquan Shenxiu - Biography

Biography

Shenxiu was born in Weishi County, suburb of Luoyang, Henan, then secondary capital of China. His family name was Li. His family was aristocratic and may have been related to the Tang Dynasty imperial family He was educated in the Chinese classics and Taoism and became a Buddhist at the age of thirteen when he went to the government granaries at Kaifeng during a famine to plead the release of grain to the starving population. There he met an unnamed Buddhist and was inspired to take up Buddhism. After some seven years of a homeless life visiting the famous mountain centres of China, Shenxiu took the full precepts of Buddhist monk in 625 at Tankong monastery in Luoyang(洛阳), the Buddhist centre at the end of Silk Road since the second century.

Traces of his activities for the next twenty-five years were lost, the Chuan Fabao Ji (傳法寶紀) (Annals of the Transmission of the Dharma-treasure) claim that Shenxiu studied the Buddhist regulations (vinaya) and ceremonies and devoted himself to the practice of meditation (dhyāna) and the development of wisdom (prajñā). In 651 he began to study under Hongren. The aforementioned Chuan Fabao Ji states that he studied with Hongren for six years, thereby leaving in 657, before the arrival of the Sixth Patriarch, Huineng, with whom Shenxiu supposedly had the famous verse-writing contest. (see below)

It is not clear why, but sometime around 665-668, Shenxiu was banished by the emperor and remained incognito for ten years, returning to public notice between 676-679. He initially took up residence at the Jade Spring Monastery (Yuquan Si 玉泉寺) but soon was one built for him, the Monastery of the Six Perfections (Dumen Si　度門寺廟) where spent the next quarter century.

In late 700 the Empress Wu invited Shenxiu to the capital at Luoyang to teach Chan Buddhism. His welcome in 701 was by all accounts quite spectacular. The Annals of the Transmission of the Dharma-treasure describe Shenxiu’s path being bedecked with flowers and the master riding on a litter of the type reserved for the imperial family. In an unprecedented gesture, the Empress knelt before the Chan master, touching her forehead to the ground in great reverence. The Annals go on to say that “From princes and nobles down, everyone took refuge in him.”

For the last five years of his life, Shenxiu traveled between the two capitals of Luoyang and Chang'an, preaching the Buddhist Dharma before passing away at his monastery, Tumen Si, sitting in meditation on February 28, 706. The Lengqie Shi Zi Ji (楞伽師資記)(Records of the Lankavatara Masters) state that his last words were ch’u-ch’u chiao, which Professor Seizan Yanagida translates as “the teachings of the expedient means have been made direct” The reigning Emperor Zhongzong (705-710) granted the posthumous title Datong Chanshi(大通禪師) (Greatly Penetrating Dhyāna Master), only the second time in Chinese Buddhism and the first for three hundred years that this imperial honour had been bestowed.