禅Masters

Shoushan Xingnian

Linji

Shoushan Xingnian

c. 926 – c. 993

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Shoushan Xingnian was a student of Fengxue Yanzhao who continued strengthening the Linji lineage during the early Song dynasty. He taught on Mount Shoushan and was known for an energetic and direct style that reinvigorated the school's practice. His principal student was Fenyang Shanzhao, who would bring the Linji school to new heights of influence.

Shoushan was particularly known for holding up his staff as a teaching device. When a monk asked about the meaning of the ancestral teaching, Shoushan held up his staff and said, "Do you understand?" The monk said he did not. Shoushan said, "I hold up my staff and give it to you, and you do not understand?" This characteristic Linji gesture—presenting something utterly ordinary and demanding that the student see its extraordinary depth—carried the school's spirit through another generation.

Names

dharma · enShoushan Xingnian
alias · enShou-shan Hsing-nien
alias · enShuzan Shônen

Teachers

Students

Teachings

  • koanShuzan's Short Staff

    Mumonkan Case 43

    Shuzan held out his short staff and said: "If you call this a short staff, you oppose its reality. If you do not call it a short staff, you ignore the fact. Now what do you wish to call this?" Mumon’s comment: If you call this a short staff, you oppose its reality. If you do not call it a short staff, you ignore the fact. It cannot be expressed with words and it cannot be expressed without words. Now say quickly what it is. Holding out the short staff, He gave an order of life or death. Positive and negative interwoven, Even Buddhas and patriarchs cannot escape this attack.

    tr. Nyogen Senzaki, Paul Reps, 1934

    Commentator: Wumen Huikai, Speaker: Shoushan Xingnian

Master Record Sources