Caodong zong
Caodong zong (J. Sōtōshū; K. Chodong chong 曹洞宗), or "Caodong school". One of the five houses of Chan within the Chinese Chan tradition.[1] This school traces its linage back to Huineng, the sixth patriarch of Chan, via his purported students Qingyuan Xingsi and Shitou Xiqian; but its history actually begins with the two Tang-dynasty Chan masters who lend their names to the school: Dongshan Liangjie (807-869) and his heir Caoshan Benji (840-901).[1] The name "Caodong" is derived from the first characters of these two patriarchs: cao and dong.[1]
The Princeton Dictionary states:
- One of the emblematic teachings of the Caodong tradition is that of the “five ranks” (wuwei), taught by Dongshan and further developed by Caoshan, which was a form of dialectical analysis that sought to present the full panoply of Mahāyāna Buddhist insights in a compressed rubric. During the Song dynasty, the Caodong school also came to be associated with the contemplative practice of “silent illumination” (mozhao chan), a form of meditation that built upon the normative East Asian notion of the inherency of buddhahood (see tathāgatagarbha) to suggest that, since enlightenment was the mind’s natural state, nothing needed to be done in order to attain enlightenment other than letting go of all striving for that state. Authentic Chan practice therefore entailed only maintaining this original purity of the mind by simply sitting silently in meditation.[1]
The practice of "silent illumination" is traditionally attributed to Caodong masters Hongzhi Zhengjue and Zhengxie Qingliao, who helped to revive the Caodong tradition to where it became one of the two major traditions of Chan during the Song dynasty.[1]
The success of the revived Caodong school drew opposition from Linji school figures like Dahui Zonggao, who promoted the huatou method of gong'an practice, and attacked silent illumination as quietistic.[2]
In 1227 Dōgen Zenji, a former Tendai student, studied the Caodong teachings under Tiantong Rujing, and returned to Japan to establish the Sōtō sect.[3] His lineage incorporates not only the dharma-transmission via Fushan Fayuan, but also Linji dharma-transmissions via Eisai and his student Myozen, a teacher of Dogen, and the Linji dharma-transmission of Dahui Zonggao via the Nōnin school.[4]
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Buswell & Lopez 2014, s.v. Caodong zong.
- ↑ Schlütter 2008.
- ↑ 道元和日本曹洞宗 (in 中文). Archived from the original on 2014-02-14.
- ↑ Bodiford 1991, p. 428.
Sources
- Bodiford, William M. (Winter 1991). "Dharma Transmission in Soto Zen: Manzan Dohaku's Reform Movement". Monumenta Nipponica. Sophia University. 46 (4): 423–451. doi:10.2307/2385187. ISSN 0027-0741. JSTOR 2385187.
Buswell, Robert E.; Lopez, Donald S. (2014), The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, Princeton University- Schlütter, Morten (2008), How Zen became Zen. The Dispute over Enlightenment and the Formation of Chan Buddhism in Song-Dynasty China, Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, ISBN 978-0-8248-3508-8
