Development of Zen Buddhism in China

Abstract

There are two ways of telling a story. According to the traditional version, the origin and development of Zen Buddhism in China can be very easily and simply told. We are told that this school was founded by Bodhidharma who arrived at Canton in 520 or 526, and, having failed to persuade the Emperor Wu-ti of Liang to accept the esoteric way of thinking, went to North China where he founded the school of Ch’an or Zen (禅). Before his death, he appointed his pupil Hui-k’o (慧可) as his successor and gave him a robe and a bowl as insignia of apostolic succession. According to this tradition, Bodhidharma was the 28th Patriarch of the Buddhist Church in India and became the first Patriarch in China. Hui-k’o, the second Patriarch, was succeeded by Seng-ts’an (僧璨). After two more generations, two great disciples of the fifth Patriarch Hung-jen (弘忍), Shen-hsiu (神秀) and Hui-neng (慧能), differed in their interpretation of the doctrines of the school and a split issued. Shen-hsiu became the founder of the Northern or Orthodox School, while Hui-neng, an illiterate monk in Canton, claimed himself the successor to the Patriarchate of the school of Bodhidharma. This Southern School soon became very popular and Hui-neng has been recognized in history as the Sixth Patriarch from whose disciples have descended all the later schools of Zen Buddhism.

Chapter Note: The Chinese Social and Political Science Review. Jan., 1932. Vol. 15. No. 4. pp. 475–505.