460 =soothill

(禪宗, 禅宗)

The Chan, meditative or intuitional, sect usually said to have been established in China by Bodhidharma, v. [lang id =1028]達, the twenty-eighth patriarch, who brought the tradition of the Buddha-mind from India. Cf. [lang id =1028]楞 13 <Laṅkāvatāra sūtra>. This sect, believing in direct enlightenment, disregarded ritual and (sa) sūtras and depended upon the inner light and personal influence for the propagation of its tenets, founding itself on the esoteric tradition supposed to have been imparted to Kāśyapa by the Buddha, who indicated his meaning by plucking a flower without further explanation. Kāśyapa smiled in apprehension and is supposed to have passed on this mystic method to the patriarchs. The successor of Bodhidharma was [lang id =1028]慧可 Huike, and he was succeeded by [lang id =1028]僧璨 Sengcan; [lang id =1028]道信 Daoxin; [lang id =1028]弘忍 Hongren; [lang id =1028]慧能 Huineng, and [lang id =1028]神秀 Shenxiu, the sect dividing under the two latter into the southern and northern schools: the southern school became prominent, producing [lang id =1028]南嶽 Nanyue and [lang id =1028]靑原 Qingyuan, the former succeeded by [lang id =1028]馬祖 Mazu, the latter by [lang id =1028]石頭 Shitou. From Mazu's school arose the five later schools, v. [lang id =1028]禪門.