禅Masters

Bajiao Huiqing

Caodong

Bajiao Huiqing

Unknown – c. 903

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Bajiao Huiqing, whose name means "Plantain," was a Caodong school master known for his distinctive teaching style. He appears in the koan literature in exchanges that reveal a teacher of quiet depth and careful attention. His use of natural imagery—plantain leaves, rain, wind—reflected the Caodong tradition's attentiveness to the natural world as an expression of the Dharma.

Bajiao's teaching maintained the Caodong emphasis on the unity of the mundane and the sacred. His encounters with students, though less dramatic than those of the Linji masters, carried a quality of intimate presence that invited the student to discover the extraordinary within the ordinary. This is the essential Caodong gesture—pointing not away from the world but more deeply into it.

Names

dharma · enBajiao Huiqing
alias · enBashô Esei
alias · enPa-chiao Hui-ch’ing

Teachers

Students

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Teachings

  • koanBasho's Staff

    Mumonkan Case 44

    Basho said to his disciple: "When you have a staff, I will give it to you. If you have no staff, I will take it away from you." Mumon’s comment: When there is no bridge over the creek the staff will help me. When I return home on a moonless night the staff will accompany me. But if you call this a staff, you will enter hell like an arrow. With this staff in my hand I can measure the depths and shallows of the world. The staff supports the heavens and makes firm the earth. Everywhere it goes the true teaching will be spread.

    tr. Nyogen Senzaki, Paul Reps, 1934

    Commentator: Wumen Huikai, Speaker: Bajiao Huiqing

Master Record Sources