Fayan Wenyi

Fayan Wenyi was the founder of the Fayan school, the last of the Five Houses of Chan to emerge during the late Tang and early Song periods. He was a student of Luohan Guichen whose awakening was catalyzed by Luohan's remark, "Not knowing is most intimate." Before this encounter, Fayan had been a brilliant scholar of Buddhist philosophy, but his intellectual mastery had become an obstacle to direct realization. Luohan's simple words dissolved that obstacle and opened a new way of understanding.

The Fayan school was distinctive for its willingness to draw on the entire range of Buddhist philosophy—including Huayan thought and its teaching of the mutual interpenetration of all phenomena—while remaining rooted in the direct experience of Chan. Fayan's ten guidelines for Chan masters set standards for teaching integrity that influenced all subsequent schools. His dialogues are characterized by a quality of lucid simplicity that makes the profound appear obvious. The Fayan school flourished for several generations before being absorbed into the Linji tradition during the Song dynasty.