Yuquan Shenxiu

Yuquan Shenxiu was the head student of the Fifth Patriarch Daman Hongren and the most prominent Chan teacher of his generation, serving as National Teacher at the Tang court in the capital cities of Luoyang and Chang'an. He was venerated throughout northern China and received imperial patronage on a scale unmatched by any other Chan master of his era. His verse in the Platform Sutra—"The body is a Bodhi tree, the mind a standing mirror bright; at all times diligently polish it and let no dust alight"—represents the gradual approach to practice that emphasizes ongoing purification.

After the Sixth Patriarch succession controversy championed by Shenhui, Shenxiu's "Northern School" was characterized as teaching gradual enlightenment in contrast to Huineng's sudden awakening. Modern scholarship has complicated this simple dichotomy, recognizing that Shenxiu's actual teaching was more nuanced than the polemical accounts suggest. He was a serious practitioner and accomplished teacher whose emphasis on sustained meditative discipline resonated with both monastic and court audiences.