Chan Buddhism


Chan, from Sanskrit dhyāna, is a Mahāyāna Chinese Buddhist tradition. It developed in China from the 6th century CE onwards, becoming especially popular during the Tang and Song dynasties. By the Ming and Qing dynasties, it had become one of the most influential forms of Buddhism practiced in China. In contemporary times, it remains one of the most prominent traditions of Chinese Buddhist practice in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and overseas Chinese communities.
Chan is the originating tradition of Zen Buddhism. Chinese Chan Buddhism spread from China south to Vietnam as Vietnamese Thiền and north to Korea as Korean Seon, and, in the 13th century, east to Japan as Japanese Zen.
A major part of Chan is the practice of meditation, direct insight into one's own Buddha nature, and the personal expression of this insight in daily life for the benefit of others. Some common Chan techniques include the zuochan, contemplation of gong'ans and huatous as well as the nianfo. Most Chan monasteries also typically partake in traditional Buddhist practices like chanting sutras and dharanis or mantras, the taking of precepts, walking meditation, rituals and ceremonies, monasticism and scriptural study.
With an emphasis on Buddha-nature thought, intrinsic enlightenment and sudden awakening, Chan teaching draws from numerous Buddhist sources, including Sarvāstivāda meditation, the Mahayana teachings on the Bodhisattva path, Yogachara and Tathāgatagarbha, and the Huayan school. The Prajñāpāramitā literature, as well as Madhyamaka thought, have also been influential in the shaping of the apophatic and sometimes iconoclastic nature of Chan rhetoric.

History

The historical records required for a complete, accurate account of early Chan history no longer exist.

Periodisation

The history of Chan in China can be divided into several periods. Chan, as we know it today, is the result of a long history, with many changes and contingent factors. Each period had different types of Chan, some of which remained influential, while others vanished.
Andy Ferguson distinguishes three periods from the 5th century into the 13th century:
  1. The Legendary period, from Bodhidharma in the late 5th century to the An Lushan Rebellion around 765 CE, in the middle of the Tang dynasty. Little written information is left from this period. It is the time of the Six Patriarchs, including Bodhidharma and Huineng, and the legendary "split" between the Northern and the Southern School of Chan.
  2. The Classical period, from the end of the An Lushan Rebellion around 765 CE to the beginning of the Song dynasty around 950 CE. This is the time of the great masters of Chan, such as Mazu Daoyi and Linji Yixuan, and the creation of the yü-lü genre, the recordings of the sayings and teachings of these great masters.
  3. The Literary period, from around 950 to 1250, which spans the era of the Song dynasty. In this time the gong'an collections were compiled, collections of sayings and deeds by the famous masters, appended with poetry and commentary. This genre reflects the influence of literati on the development of Chan. This period idealized the previous period as the "golden age" of Chan, producing the literature in which the spontaneity of the celebrated masters was portrayed.
Although John R. McRae has reservations about the division of Chan history in phases or periods, he nevertheless distinguishes four phases in the history of Chan:
  1. Proto-Chan and Sui dynasty ). In this phase, Chan developed in multiple locations in northern China. It was based on the practice of dhyana and is connected to the figures of Bodhidharma and Huike. Its principal text is the Two Entrances and Four Practices, attributed to Bodhidharma.
  2. Early Chan . In this phase, Chan took its first clear contours. Prime figures are the fifth patriarch Daman Hongren, his dharma-heir Yuquan Shenxiu, the sixth patriarch Huineng, protagonist of the quintessential Platform Sutra, and Shenhui, whose works elevated Huineng to the status of sixth patriarch. Prime factions are the Northern School, Southern School and Oxhead School.
  3. Middle Chan until Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period ). In this phase developed the well-known Chan of the iconoclastic zen-masters. Prime figures are Mazu Daoyi, Shitou Xiqian, Linji Yixuan, and Xuefeng Yicun. Prime factions are the Hongzhou school and the Hubei faction. An important text is the Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall, which contains many "encounter-stories" and the canon genealogy of the Chan-school.
  4. Song dynasty Chan. In this phase, Chan took its definitive shape including the picture of the "golden age" of the Chan of the Tang dynasty, and the use of gong'an for individual study and meditation. Prime figures are Dahui Zonggao who introduced the Hua Tou practice and Hongzhi Zhengjue who emphasized Silent Illumination. Prime factions are the Linji school and the Caodong school. The classic gong'an collections, such as the Blue Cliff Record were assembled in this period, which reflect the influence of the "literati" on the development of Chan. In this phase Chan is transported to Japan, and exerts a great influence on Korean Seon via Jinul.
Neither Ferguson nor McRae gives a periodisation for Chinese Chan following the Song dynasty, though McRae mentions

Introduction of Buddhism in China (c. 200–500)

Sinification of Buddhism and Taoist influences

When Buddhism came to China, it was adapted to the Chinese culture and understanding. Theories about the influence of other schools in the evolution of Chan vary widely and are heavily reliant upon speculative correlation rather than on written records or histories. Numerous scholars have argued that Chan developed from the interaction between Mahāyāna Buddhism and Taoism.
Buddhist meditation was practiced in China centuries before the rise of Chan, by people such as An Shigao and his school, who translated various Dhyāna sutras, which were influential early meditation texts mostly based on the meditation teachings of the Kashmiri Sarvāstivāda school. The five main types of meditation in the Dhyana sutras are anapanasati ; paṭikūlamanasikāra meditation, mindfulness of the impurities of the body; loving-kindness maitri meditation; the contemplation on the twelve links of pratityasamutpāda; and the contemplation on the Buddha's thirty-two Characteristics. Other important translators of meditation texts were Kumārajiva, who translated The Sutra on the Concentration of Sitting Meditation, amongst many other texts; and Buddhabhadra. These Chinese translations of mostly Indian Sarvāstivāda Yogacara meditation manuals were the basis for the meditation techniques of Chinese Chan.
Buddhism was exposed to Confucian, Taoist and local Folk religious influences when it came to China. Goddard quotes D.T. Suzuki, calling Chan a "natural evolution of Buddhism under Taoist conditions". Buddhism was first identified to be "a barbarian variant of Taoism", and Taoist terminology was used to express Buddhist doctrines in the oldest translations of Buddhist texts, a practice termed ko-i, "matching the concepts".
The first Buddhist converts in China were Taoists. They developed high esteem for the newly introduced Buddhist meditational techniques, and blended them with Taoist meditation. Representatives of early Chinese Buddhism like Sengzhao and Tao Sheng were deeply influenced by the Taoist keystone works of Laozi and Zhuangzi. Against this background, especially the Taoist concept of naturalness was inherited by the early Chan disciples: they equated – to some extent – the ineffable Tao and Buddha-nature, and thus, rather than feeling bound to the abstract "wisdom of the sūtras", emphasized Buddha-nature to be found in "everyday" human life, just as the Tao. On the other hand, Taoists at first misunderstood sunyata to be akin to the Taoist non-being.
The emerging Chinese Buddhism nevertheless had to compete with Taoism and Confucianism:
One point of confusion for this new emerging Chinese Buddhism was the two truths doctrine. Chinese thinking took this to refer to two ontological truths: reality exists on two levels, a relative level and an absolute level. Taoists at first misunderstood sunyata to be akin to the Taoist non-being. In Indian Madhyamaka philosophy the two truths are two epistemological truths: two different ways to look at reality. Based on their understanding of the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra the Chinese supposed that the teaching of Buddha-nature was, as stated by that sutra, the final Buddhist teaching, and that there is an essential truth above sunyata and the two truths.

Divisions of training

When Buddhism came to China, there were three divisions of training:
  1. The training in virtue and discipline in the precepts,
  2. The training in mind through meditation to attain a luminous and non-reactive state of mind, and
  3. The training in the recorded teachings.
It was in this context that Buddhism entered into Chinese culture. Three types of teachers with expertise in each training practice developed:
  1. Vinaya masters specialized in all the rules of discipline for monks and nuns,
  2. Dhyāna masters specialized in the practice of meditation, and
  3. Dharma masters specialized in the mastery of the Buddhist texts.
Monasteries and practice centers were created that tended to focus on either the Vinaya and training of monks or the teachings focused on one scripture or a small group of texts. Dhyāna masters tended to practice in solitary hermitages, or to be associated with Vinaya training monasteries or the dharma teaching centers. The later naming of the Zen school has its origins in this view of the threefold division of training.
McRae goes so far as to say:

Legendary or Proto-Chan (c. 500–600)