Yuquan Shenxiu - Verse Contest

Verse Contest

One of the most well-known and cherished stories in Chan is the verse writing contest between Shenxiu and Huineng at Hongren's monastery. The story can be found in the Platform Sutra of Huineng but whether it actually occurred historically is doubtful. The account given in the Platform Sutra is as follows. The Fifth Patriarch Hongren, realizing he was coming to the end of his years, instructed his monks to compose a "mind-verse" which would confirm their level of attainment. The winner of the contest would be named Sixth Patriarch and receive the robe of Bodhidharma. None of the monks dared to write anything, deferring to Shenxiu who they believed would be the next Dharma heir. Shenxiu, full of doubts about his own abilities and with the weight of expectation upon him, finally wrote a verse. Uncertain about his worth as a patriarch, he wrote his verse anonymously on a wall in a corridor of the monastery. Shenxiu's verse read:

The body is the bodhi tree

The mind is like a bright mirror's stand.

At all times we must strive to polish it

and must not let dust collect.

Publicly, Hongren praised this verse and instructed all his monks to recite it. Privately, Hongren asked Shenxiu to compose another verse as Hongren believed that Shenxiu's verse did not display true understanding of the Dharma. Shenxiu was unable to compose another verse. Meanwhile, the illiterate Huineng heard the monks chanting this verse and asked about it. When told the story of Hongren's contest, Huineng asked a monk to take him to the wall where Shenxiu's verse was written. There he asked someone to write his own verse. Huineng's verse read

Bodhi originally has no tree.

The bright mirror also has no stand.

Fundamentally there is not a single thing.

Where could dust arise?

The account says that publicly Hongren denigrated this verse but later, in private, he taught Huineng the true meaning of the Diamond Sutra, thereby awakening Huineng to the sutra's profound teaching. Hongren gave Huineng the robe of transmission and told him to flee the monastery in secret at night. Huineng thereby became the Sixth and last Patriarch of Chan.

This verse writing contest was used by Shenhui (神會)(684-758) (Wade-Giles: Shen-hui; Japanese: Kataku Jinne) to malign Shenxiu and his so-called "Northern School" as being gradualist and was instrumental in the split of Chan into "gradualist"　(jian jiao漸教) and "sudden" (dun jiao 頓教) schools.