Zhàozhōu Cōngshěn | |
|---|---|
 Woodcut fromFozu zhengzong daoying (1880) | |
| Title | Ch'an-shih |
| Personal life | |
| Born | 778 |
| Died | 897 (aged 118–119) |
| Nationality | Chinese |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Buddhism |
| School | Ch'an |
| Zhaozhou Congshen | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese name | |||||||||||||||
| Chinese | 趙州從諗 | ||||||||||||||
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| Vietnamese name | |||||||||||||||
| Vietnamese alphabet | Triệu Châu Tùng Thẩm | ||||||||||||||
| Hán-Nôm | 趙州從諗 | ||||||||||||||
| Korean name | |||||||||||||||
| Hangul | 조주종심 | ||||||||||||||
| Hanja | 趙州從諗 | ||||||||||||||
| Japanese name | |||||||||||||||
| Kanji | 趙州従諗 | ||||||||||||||
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Zhaozhou Congshen (Chinese:趙州從諗;pinyin:Zhàozhōu Cōngshěn;Wade–Giles:Chao-chou Ts'ung-shen';Japanese:趙州従諗,romanized: Jōshū Jūshin; 778–897) was aChan (Zen)Buddhist master who appears frequently in thekoans of theWumenguan and theBlue Cliff Record.
Zhaozhou became ordained as amonk at an early age. At the age of 18, he metNanquan Puyuan (南泉普願 748–835; J: Nansen Fugan), a successor ofMazu Daoyi (709–788; J. Baso Do-itsu), and eventually received the Dharma from him.[1] Zhaozhou continued to practice under Nanquan until the latter's death.
Subsequently, Zhaozhou began to travel throughoutChina, visiting the prominent Chan masters of the time before finally, at the age of eighty, settling in Guanyinyuan (觀音院), a ruined temple in northern China.[1] There, for the next forty years, he taught a small group of monks. This temple, now calledBailin Temple, was rebuilt after theCultural Revolution and is nowadays again a prominent center of Chinese Buddhism.[2]
Zhaozhou is sometimes touted as the greatest Chan master ofTang dynasty China during a time when its hegemony was disintegrating as more and more regional military governors (jiédùshǐ) began to assert their power. Zhaozhou'slineage died out quickly due to the many wars and frequent purges of Buddhism in China at the time, and cannot be documented beyond the year 1000.
Zhaozhou is remembered for his verbal inventiveness and sense of humor.[3] One of his recorded sayings is:
A monk asked the Master, "What is a true statement?" Zhaozhou replied, "Your mother is ugly."[3]
Many koans in both theBlue Cliff Record andThe Gateless Gate concern Zhaozhou, with twelve cases in the former and five in the latter being attributed to him.Wumenguan case (koan) 19 records a dialogue between Nanquan and Zhaozhou, with Jōshū asking Nansen "What is the Way [Tao]?", to which Nansen respondsordinary mind is the way,[note 1] a famous dictum ofMazu Daoyi (709–788) and theHongzhou school. He is probably best known for the first koan inThe Gateless Gate:
A monk asked Chao-chou, "Has the dogBuddha-nature or not?" Chao-chou said, "Wu."[4]
Japanese Zen monkShunryū Suzuki refers to Zhaozhou (as Jōshū) in his bookZen Mind, Beginner's Mind. He uses the following saying from Zhaozhou to illustrate the point that Zen practice should not have a particular purpose or goal: "A clay Buddha cannot cross water; a bronze Buddha cannot get through a furnace; a wooden Buddha cannot get through fire".[5]
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