Exalting the South, Eclipsing the North

Shenhui was a late disciple of the Sixth Patriarch Huineng and the founder of the Heze lineage. He played a crucial role in the establishment and flourishing of the Southern School, and was among its greatest champions.

Shenhui's lay surname was Gao, and he was a native of Xiangyang in Hubei. In his youth, he studied the works of various Confucian and Daoist schools. Later, after reading the Book of the Later Han, he learned of Buddhism and was drawn to the Dharma. He then went to Guochang Temple, where he took monastic vows under Master Haoyuan. His grasp of the sutras and treatises far surpassed that of ordinary monks. He subsequently traveled to Yuquan Temple in Jingzhou to study Chan under Shenxiu. In the first year of the Jiushi era of Empress Wu Zetian's reign (700), Shenxiu was summoned to the capital to expound the Dharma, and he encouraged his disciples to travel south to Lingnan and study under Huineng.

Around the age of forty, Shenhui made his way south to Caoxi and paid homage to Huineng. The story goes that when he first met the Sixth Patriarch, their exchange of questions and answers so revealed his glib tongue that the patriarch gave him a sound beating. Through the Sixth Patriarch's pointed instruction, Shenhui transferred his allegiance to Huineng and went on to become the old master's most cherished disciple in his later years. One day before the Sixth Patriarch's passing, while at his residence, he addressed the assembly: "I have something — no head, no tail, no name, no word, neither front nor back. Do you know what it is?"

Shenhui, standing among the crowd, replied: "It is the fundamental source of all Buddhas, the Buddha-nature of all sentient beings."

The Sixth Patriarch said: "I tell you it has no name and no word, and you come back with 'fundamental source' and 'Buddha-nature.'"

Later, the Sixth Patriarch told others that Shenhui would become a scholar-monk of understanding (i.e., the Heze School of Sudden Awakening). He maintained that the Northern School's lineage was a deviation, its method gradual, and therefore not the orthodox transmission. Huineng's Southern School alone was the true Chan lineage, tracing back to Bodhidharma.

On the fifteenth day of the first month in the twenty-second year of the Kaiyuan era, Shenhui convened an Open Assembly at Dayun Temple in Huatai (present-day Hua County, Henan). Before the assembly, he proclaimed to the world: "Today I hold this assembly and solemnly establish this bodhimanda — not for the sake of merit, but to determine the true teaching and distinguish right from wrong for all who pursue the Way!"

Thereafter, Shenhui engaged in fierce debate with Chongyuan, the most renowned scholar-monk of the north at the time, proclaiming the principles of the Southern School and attacking the Chan methods of the Northern School. The two sides fought bitterly, nearly coming to blows. Shenhui spoke with impassioned conviction and fearless resolve, fully embodying a spirit of selfless devotion.

At the assembly, Shenhui also openly criticized Puzhi, the most eminent disciple of Shenxiu. Puzhi regarded Shenxiu as the orthodox successor of Bodhidharma and positioned himself as the one upholding Shenxiu's lineage. At that time, Shenxiu's followers commanded enormous influence, and no one dared question their established line of transmission. Shenhui, however, declared the whole thing a fabrication, asserting that Hongren had never transmitted the Dharma to Shenxiu. He proposed a corrected lineage: Bodhidharma transmitted a single robe as the token of the Dharma to Huike; Huike to Sengcan; Sengcan to Daoxin; Daoxin to Hongren; and Hongren to Huineng — six generations in unbroken succession.

Shenhui continued: "When Chan Master Shenxiu was alive, he himself said that the robe of the sixth-generation transmission was in Caoxi, and he never claimed to be the Sixth Patriarch of Chan. Now Chan Master Puzhi calls himself the Seventh Patriarch and falsely asserts that Shenxiu was the sixth generation. This cannot be tolerated!"

At this point, Chongyuan challenged him: "Chan Master Puzhi is a figure of national renown. Do you not fear for your life in attacking him thus?"

Shenhui replied calmly: "I act now to propagate the Mahayana and establish the true Dharma, for the sake of all sentient beings under heaven. How could I cling to my own life?"

Through Shenhui's impassioned words at the Huatai assembly, Huineng's teachings gradually spread throughout the north. But the day when the Southern School would be acknowledged as orthodox was still far off, and the rivalry between the Northern and Southern schools of Chan only grew more intense.

In the fourth year of the Tianbao era (745), at the advanced age of seventy-eight, Shenhui was invited to Luoyang by Song Ding, Vice Minister of War, and took up residence at Heze Temple. By this time, the leading figures of the Northern School, such as Puying, had passed away one after another. Through Shenhui's efforts, the sudden awakening teachings of Caoxi spread widely throughout Luoyang and became popular across the land. But this also provoked even fiercer retaliation from Northern School adherents. He survived several assassination attempts, escaping each time by sheer luck. Finally, in the twelfth year of the Tianbao era, he was summoned to the Northern Capital by Emperor Xuanzong of Tang. For speaking the truth with uncompromising conviction, he was exiled to Yiyang Commandery in Jiangxi, then moved to Wudang Commandery. In the thirteenth year of Tianbao, he was transferred to Xiangzhou, and later to Kaiyuan Temple in Jingzhou. All of these moves were, in reality, acts of revenge by Northern School partisans.

Although Shenhui lived in exile, drifting from place to place over the course of two years, his reputation never diminished. Just then, the An Lushan Rebellion erupted, shaking the empire to its core. Unexpectedly, this cataclysm became the turning point in Shenhui's fortunes. The imperial court, desperately short of military funds, adopted a proposal by Pei Mian, Right Vice-Director of the Department of State Affairs, to set up ordination platforms across the prefectures. They sold ordination certificates — monastic identification documents — and collected incense money to replenish the state treasury. Since Shenhui was already over seventy and commanded immense moral authority, he was unanimously chosen to oversee the undertaking. He devoted himself wholeheartedly, traveling tirelessly and managing every detail with painstaking care. The results were a great success: he raised a substantial sum in military provisions for the court, playing a significant role in the recapture of both the Eastern and Western capitals.

After the An Lushan Rebellion was suppressed, Shenhui was naturally regarded as a meritorious minister of state. Emperor Suzong of Tang summoned him to the palace and provided for his support. Suzong also dispatched a senior general specifically to oversee the construction of a Chan hall for Shenhui at Heze Temple. Shenhui seized the moment to accomplish two things of vital importance for the Southern School: first, he enlisted the renowned general Guo Ziyi to petition for a posthumous title honoring Bodhidharma as the First Patriarch; second, he enlisted Wei Li, Military Commissioner of Guangzhou, to memorialize the court requesting imperial patronage for the transmission robe of the Sixth Patriarch Huineng.

Thus Huineng's Southern School naturally attained orthodox status, while Shenxiu's Northern School faded into obscurity.

It could be said that Huineng was the founder of the Southern School, while Shenhui, as Huineng's devoted disciple, was its great champion and propagator.

In the twelfth year of the Zhenyuan era of Emperor Dezong of Tang (796), the court officially recognized Shenhui as the Seventh Patriarch of Chan. With that, the Southern School of Chan, represented by Huineng, formally became the orthodox lineage of Chan Buddhism.