Yangshan Huiji
Yangshan Huiji
c. 807 – c. 883
Yangshan Huiji was a student of Guishan Lingyou and co-founder of the Guiyang school. He was known for an extraordinarily subtle teaching style that employed circular symbols drawn in the air or on the ground to express relationships between the absolute and relative that resist verbal formulation. His dialogues with Guishan are masterpieces of nuanced communication.
Yangshan developed a system of ninety-seven circular figures (yuan-xiang) that could be used to express the student's level of understanding and the teacher's response. This symbolic language represented the most refined pedagogical tool in the Chan tradition—a way of communicating the incommunicable through visual form. The Guiyang school's reputation for elegance and subtlety owes much to Yangshan's creative genius. Though the school did not survive as an independent institution beyond the Song dynasty, its influence on the broader tradition—particularly its insights into symbolic communication—was enduring.
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Teachings
- koanPreaching From The Third Seat
In a dream Kyozan went to Maitreya's Pure Land. He recognized himself seated in the third seat in the abode of Maitreya. Someone announced: "Today the one who sits in the third seat will preach." Kyozan arose and, hitting the gavel, said: "The truth of Mahayana teaching is transcendent, above words and thought. Do you understand?" Mumon’s comment: I want to ask you monks: Did he preach or did he not? When he opens his mouth he is lost. When he seals his mouth he is lost. If he does not open it, if he does not seal it, he is 108,000 miles from truth. In the light of day, Yet in a dream he talks of a dream. A monster among monsters, He intended to deceive the whole crowd.
Master Record Sources
Yangshan Huiji
Caodong
- koan_refsChart of the Chan Ancestors
34,68 15,26,32,37 25 34,91 62,72,77,90
- nameZen Editorial Overlay - Originals Curation
Yangshan Huiji
- teachersZen Editorial Overlay - Originals Curation
Guishan Lingyou