Qingyuan Xingsi
Qingyuan Xingsi
Unknown – 740
Qingyuan Xingsi was a student of the Sixth Patriarch Dajian Huineng and the founding ancestor of the Qingyuan branch of Chan, from which the Caodong (Soto), Yunmen, and Fayan schools all descend. Little is recorded of his early life, but the lamp records describe his awakening under Huineng as arising from the question of what does not fall into stages or ranks. Huineng affirmed his realization and entrusted him with the Dharma.
Qingyuan's principal heir was Shitou Xiqian, through whom the entire southern branch of Chan developed. Though Qingyuan himself left no written works and his recorded sayings are few, his lineage became the most broadly branching in the history of Chan. The tradition honors him as the fountainhead of a vast river of teaching that eventually produced the major schools of Chinese and Japanese Zen.
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- sayingMountains Are Mountains
Before I studied Zen for thirty years, I saw mountains as mountains and rivers as rivers. When I arrived at a more intimate knowledge, I came to the point where I saw that mountains are not mountains, and rivers are not rivers. But now that I have got its very substance, I am at rest. For it is just that I see mountains once again as mountains, and rivers once again as rivers.
Master Record Sources
d. 740
Qingyuan Xingsi
Qingyuan line
- koan_refsChart of the Chan Ancestors
5 1,2
- nameZen Editorial Overlay - Originals Curation
Qingyuan Xingsi
- teachersZen Editorial Overlay - Originals Curation
Dajian Huineng