Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091-1157) was one of the most accomplished Chan masters of the Song dynasty.  He belonged to the house of Caodong. In the Song dynasty this house underwent a revival led by the students of Furong Daokai (1043-1118).  They came to be characterized, following Daokai, by a “family wind” (lineage style) involving an emphasis on seated meditation and the realization of the already present Buddha-nature through the cultivation of a non-attached, non-reifying, open and luminous state of mind (Leighton 2000: 116-126, 131). Hongzhi was an elegant, poetic writer and a very popular teacher who became the pre-eminent figure in the Song revival of the Caodong house. This revival coincided with attacks on the Caodong family wind, including Hongzhi's teachings, from a leading Linji master, Dahui Zonggao. These attacks helped to create an atmosphere of sectarianism which had a great influence on Japanese Buddhism, although its effects in China appear to have been short-lived. Whether Hongzhi knew of Dahui's criticisms, and if he did know, what his response was, cannot be known with certainty. However by re-examining what we know due to recent scholarship and clarifying the nature of Hongzhi's life and teachings, I hope to shed more light on the life and legacy of this great master and propose an explanation of his relationship with Dahui Zonggao. 

Song Caodong

            Government support and elite patronage led to the flourishing of Chan in the early Song. This appears to have benefitted the house of Linji above others, as their vision of Chan practice was particularly compelling to court literati for reasons which have been ably explored elsewhere (Welter 2006). The Caodong, in contrast, appears to have almost disappeared in the early Song (Schlutter 2000: 170-171). The revival of the Caodong tradition began with Furong Daokai, reportedly a Taoist who converted to Buddhism (Ferguson 2000: 384); and his Dharma brother Dahong Bao'en (1058-1111). Daokai and Bao'en were both heirs of Touzi Yiqing (1032-1083) (ibid). Hongzhi and Jianxie Jingliao (dates unknown) were Dokai's two most important second generation descendants. Jingliao's descendant, Tiantong Rujing (1163-1228) would teach at Hongzhi's monastery on Mt Tiantai, where Dogen Zenji (1200-1253), the founder of Soto (Caodong) Zen in Japan, would become one of his disciples.
 
            It is important not to conceive of Caodong as a doctrinally distinct “school” of Chan. The Caodong of the early Song shared with the other lineages a focus on contemplative practice and direct realization of phenomenological Buddhist doctrines such as that of the emptiness of phenomena and the innately free, awakened nature of the mind. Caodong also shared the use of yulu and gong-ans (koans1) as the central literature of their schools rather than scholastic commentaries like Tiantai, and claimed to represent a special transmission outside the scriptures passed from teacher to student since the time of Shakyamuni Buddha. Caodong Chan also valued the use of transformative dialogue, unconventional behaviour, seemingly paradoxical or irrational language, and shouts and blows. As Morten Schlutter has argued, the most that can be attributed to early Caodong masters is a certain similarity in emphasis, a family resemblance (2000: 174-176). This is in contradistinction to the tendency of some Japanese and Western scholarship to project later sectarian developements backwards in time, an oversimplification we will find more reason to contest as we go along.  

Chan Master Vast Wisdom 
           
            Hongzhi's father, Congdao, was a pious Buddhist householder. He was a disciple of Desun, himself a disciple of Huanglong Huinan (d.1069), an important Linji master. He was also a member of the literati, and Hongzhi recieved a solid Confucian education (2004:185). The Linji school was very popular with Buddhist sympathizers amongst the Confucian literati, and Hongzhi's father was apparently involved in this trend. Hongzhi became a monastic at the age of 11. He was given the ordination name Zhengjue, True Awakening. He was a novice in the Huanglong line of Linji Chan, but at 18 he went to Ruzhou in modern Hunan Province and entered the monastery of the eminent Caodong Chan master Kumu Faqeng (1071-1128) (Foster, Shoemaker 1996: 176). Kumu's style is exemplified by his name, Dead Tree. This name comes from a favoured symbol of Caodong literature. For example, in an exchange in the Chuandeng lu biography of the house's traditional co-founder, Caoxan Benji (840-901), we read the following:  Asked about the Way, an earlier master had said, “In a dead tree, a dragon sings.” [ie. in a silenced body and mind the mind of awakening is realized]. When Caoxan was questioned on this, he replied with a poem that began, “The person who says the dragon sings in the dead tree is really one who knows the Way.” Another of the house's earlier masters gained a reputation for teaching kumu Chan, and his community was dubbed the Dead Tree Assembly after its members practice of long hours of seated meditation (ibid).

After studying with Kumu for a few years Hongzhi travelled to Xiangshan, where he experienced a breakthrough:
One day as the monks on Mt. Xiang chanted the Lotus Sutra, Hongzhi was instantly enlightened upon hearing the phrase, “Your eye that existed before your parents birth sees everything in three thousand realms.” He then went to the abbot [Facheng] to declare his awakening.
Facheng pointed to a box of incense and said, “What is the thing inside?”
Hongzhi said, “What do you mean?”
Facheng said, “What is in the place of your awakening?”
Hongzhi used his hand to draw a circle in the air and then made the gesture of throwing it behind him.
Facheng said, “What limit is there for old fellows making mud balls?”
Hongzhi said, “Wrong”.
Facheng said, “You've attained it when you don't see others.”
Hongzhi said, “Yes, yes.” (Ferguson 2000: 420)

Zichun asked Hongzhi:

“How about your self before the empty eon?” The master [Hung-chih] answered: “A toad in a well swallows up the moon; at midnight, we don't rely on curtains against the brightness of the night.” [Tan] Hsia [Tzu-ch'un] said: “You are still not there, say some more.” As the master [Hung-chih] was about to make a statement, Hsia hit him with his stick and said “You still say you do not rely [on things]?” The master had an awakening and made obeisance. (Schlutter    2000: 172)

            This question, “what is the self before the empty kalpa” is particularly associated with the Caodong school (174). It refers to the Buddha nature within all sentient beings, which transcends all particulars.  This question seems aimed at deepening Hongzhi's understanding of the Buddha-nature. The occurence of it in Hongzhi's enlightenment record, as well as Danxia's silencing of Hongxhi just before he tries to elaborate on his understanding, echoes motifs within the Caodong lineage, as Schlutter has pointed out (172). In fact both Hongzhi and Ch'ing-liao's enlightenment stories contain these elements, and both are similiar in turn to the enlightenment stories of Furong Dokai and Touzi Yiqing. All four enlightenment stories contain the motif of the student being asked to explain his understanding of the inherently enlightened nature of beings and then being suddenly interrupted by the master (Ibid.). Of course this motif occurs in the records of other lineages as well. The Caodong lineage does tend to emphasize it more, however, and it maybe that this reflects an emphasis on a nonconceptual, or silent, awareness of the Buddha-nature. Combined with the predilection for kumu Chan, this family spirit may be the seed for the mo-chao (Silent Illumination) Chan that Hongzhi gave such elegant expression to in his writings.

            Hongzhi stayed with Danxia, assisting him as his second, when Danxia moved to Hubei Province. Danxia gave Hongzhi his seal, offically allowing him to teach, and passed away in 1119. Hongzhi then made the interesting move of going to study with the Linji teacher Yuanwu Keqin (1063-1135). Yuan-wu was an important Linji master, author of the Piyen lu, or Blue Cliff Record (J. Hekiganroku), one of the most important Koan (gong'an) collections in China and Japan, and the teacher of Tahui Zonggao, who was soon to become Hongzhi's biggest critic.

            In 1129 Hongzhi accepted an invitation to teach at Jingde on Mt. Tiantong, a small temple in bad repair. He was 38 years old. That same year marked the first publications of Hongzhi's koan commentaries, in which he retold koans and added a short commentary in verse and/or prose.  Hongzhi's commentaries were “highly prized for both their elegance and startling qualities by both literati and monastics alike”(Ibid).Like Kumu Hongzhi emphasized sitting meditation in his approach to Chan training. In a preface to Hongzhi's recorded sermons Feng Wushan (n.d.) writes: “The master instructs the congregation to practice stillness and to sit erect like withered trees” (2004:193).

            Hongzhi possessed fabled asceticism and trust in the Way. A story from the  13th century Wudeng Huiyan relates,

Once when Hongzhi's Dharma brother Zhenxie Qingliao assumed the abbacy of Changlu monastery, Hongzhi made the long trip to the opening ceremonies on foot. As he approached the temple, Zhenxie's attendants noticed that his clothes and shoes were ragged and worn. Quickly they obtained a new pair of sandals for him, and when he arrived they welcomed him by presenting them as a gift.
Honzhi said, “Did I come for shoes?” (Ferguson 2000: 421)

Hongzhi's Teachings 

            Hongzhi's distinctive teachings are well illustrated in the poetic practice instructions he left behind in his Tiantong Jue heshang fayu (Dharma lectures by the venerable Tiantong Jue), maintained in the Hongzhi Lu (Record of Hongzhi).These contain, as Schlutter writes, “lyrical celebrations of the Buddhanature of all existence” (2004:193). They are not merely celebrations, however, but practice instructions and descriptions of meditative experience. Hongzhi writes:

With the depths clear, utterly silent, thoroughly illuminate the source, empty and spirited, vast and bright...Then you must take the backward step and directly reach the middle of the circle from where the light issues forth (Leighton 2000: 40).

Vast and far-reaching without boundary, secluded and pure, manifesting light, this spirit is without obstruction. Its brightness does not shine out but can be called empty and inherently radiant. Its brightness, inherently purifying, transcends causal conditions beyond subject and object. Subtle but preserved, illumined and vast, also it cannot be spoken of as being or nonbeing, or discussed with images and calculations. Right here the central pivot turns, the gateway opens. You accord and respond without hindrance. Everywhere turn around freely, not following conditions, not falling into classifications. Facing everything, let go and attain stability. Stay with that just as that. Stay with this just as this (31).

The practice of true reality is simply to sit serenely in silent introspection. When you have fathomed this you cannot be turned around by external causes and conditions. This empty, wide open mind is subtly and correctly illuminating. Spacious and content, without confusion from inner thoughts of grasping, effectively overcome habitual behaviour and realize the self that is not possessed by emotions (30).  

 This form of meditation requires a balance between silence and illumination, in harmony with  the classical Buddhist relationship between shamatha (calm) and vipashyana (insight):

But if in illumination silence is lost,
then aggressiveness will appear...
But if in silence illumination is lost,
then you will become turbid and leave behind the dharma.
But when silence and illumination both are operating and complete
the lotus flower opens and the dreamer awakens (Schlutter BS 118).

            As Schlutter has argued, these passages show clearly both the neccessity to balance both calm and awareness, and the suggestion that at some point in this process of dwelling in objectless meditation an awakening experience will occur (Ibid). The process advocated by Hongzhi is one of continual refining clarity of awareness and non-attachment. As he writes in another poetic sermon: Silently dwell in the self, in true suchness abandon conditioning. Open-minded and bright without defilement, simply penetrate and drop off everything (34). This is not a process of attaining something new, but rather recognizing what is already there: Today is not your first arrival here. Since the ancient home before the empty kalpa, clearly nothing has been obscured. Still, practice is needed: Although you are inherently spirited and splendid, still you must go ahead and enact it. When doing so, immediately display every atom without hiding a speck of dirt. Dry and cool in deep repose, profoundly understand. An aggresive desire to attain enlightenment, however, is an obstacle: If your rest is not satisfying and you yearn to go beyond birth and death, there can be no such place. Just burst through and you will discern without thought-dusts, pure without reasons for anxiety. Stepping back with open hands, [giving up everything], is thoroughly comprehending life and death. This freedom does not lead to a quietistic self-absorption. Here, as elsewhere, Hongzhi stresses how clear awareness and non-attachment lead to perfect accord with all conditions and to the service of others: Immediately you can sparkle and respond to the world. Merge together with all things. Everywhere is just right (34-35). As Hongzhi writes elsewhere: Transforming according to circumstances, meet all beings as your ancestors...Essentially you exist inside emptiness and have the capacity to respond outwardly without being annoyed, like spring blossoming, like a mirror reflecting forms. Amid all the noise spontaneously emerge transcendent (43).
Hongzhi's beautiful death poem, written on the day of his passing away, seems to express both his lifetime of practice of silent illumination and the coming dissolution of his individuality into pure awareness:

Empty flowers of an illusory dream
sixty seven years.
A white bird disappears in the mist
Autumn waters touch the sky. (Ferguson 2000: 422)

Here white bird disappears in the mist and autumn waters touch the sky refer to two barely distinct entities merging. This expresses the disappearance of the last vestiges of individuality.       Hongzhi's teachings do not only stress the inherent freedom of the Buddha nature and his technique of silent illumination. His teachings also touch on the discernment of emptiness and the Hua-yen teachings of interdependence of the relative and the absolute. Together these teachings on the Buddha-nature, emptiness, and interdependence, make up standard Chan fare. What distinguishes Hongzhi, aside from his brilliant use of nature imagery and indirect meditation instructions, is his emphasis on a natural, non-aggressive, objectless meditation practice as the way to realization. This approach could be misperceived or abused as a form of mere quietism or complacent spacing out. One of Hongzhi's most serious critics, Dahui Zonggao, accused mo-chao Chan, and Hongzhi and his students by implication[2], of doing just that- teaching a self-indulgent, quietistic distortion of Chan that misunderstood the truth about awakening and that lead nowhere.
 
Hongzhi, Dahui, and Yuanwu

             Schlutter has shown at length that Dahui's criticisms of mo-chao Chan are based on a distortion of its nature. Schlutter argues that Dahui was likely motivated by a desire to stem the growing popularity of Caodong, which threatened the dominance of the house of the Linji (Schlutter 1999: 109-147). Chan had become more dependent on the patronage of literati as government support had lessened. Schlutter points out that Dahui's criticisms of Silent Illumination Chan occur mostly in letters to literati, and extrapolates that his motivations were to draw the support of these literati away from the burgeoning Caodong movement. It is certainly possible that Schlutter's analysis is correct, although his evidence is purely circumstantial. Dahui's approach to meditation practice was in fact diametrically opposed to Hongzhi's in its attitude and its rhetoric. Dahui viewed the essence of Chan as consisting of attaining a breakthrough to a transformative and dramatic experience of Awakening: “you must break your mind of birth and death” (112). The practice Dahui advocates has come to be known as Kung-an Introspection Chan (kan-hua Chan ). This consisted of intense concentration on the critical phrase (hua t'ou) of a kung-an, free of intellection or any conscious attempt to understand it, until a breakthrough to an Awakening experience was attained. As Dahui taught:

A monk asked Chao-chou: Does even a dog have Buddha-nature?” Chao-chou answered: “No!” (wu). Whether you are walking or standing, sitting or lying down, you must not for a moment    cease [to  hold this no/wu in your mind]. When deluded thought arise, you must also not suppress them with your mind. Only just hold up this hua-t'ou [ie., no/wu]. When you want to meditate and you feel dull and muddled, you must muster up all of your energies to hold up this   word. Then suddenly you will be like the old blind woman who blows [so diligently] at the fire that her eyebrows and lashes are burnt right off (115).

Hongzhi was a Chan master of considerable talents. Due to his skill as a teacher, abbot, and writer, the Caodong lineage and its mo-chao Chan practice were empowered in Song culture. Hongzhi's writings beautifully expressed this approach to Chan, in which the practitioner refines their awareness and non-attachment in choiceless awareness, allowing the Buddha-nature to reveal itself. This did not preclude an involvement in active contemplation of koans, but in Hongzhi's case, as in the Soto school in Japan, koan contemplation tended to be more of an intellectual way to refine one's understanding of Buddhist practice, as in Hongzhi's koan commentaries which became the Book of Serenity. In contrast Dahui's approach to koan practice is fundamentally anti-intellectual. It is ironic that whereas Hongzhi appears to have visited Yuanwu to learn from him about intellectual koan contemplation, Dahui attempted to destroy Yuanwu's Blue Cliff Record in order to prevent his students from engaging with koans this way (Wright 2000: 200-209). Thus Hongzhi turns out to be the one in the intellectual lineage of Yuanwu, not Dahui.

            The 9th century master Zong-mi, writing in his Chan Preface, bemoaned the sectarian conflicts which he felt were obscuring true Chan (Cleary 1986: 9-14). Hongzhi did not respond to Dahui's criticisms with a counter-attack. He may have understood that this would make little sense, since Dahui too taught a method for pentrating beyond concepts and desires to a direct experience of the depths of the mind, despite Dahui's different ideas about the correct attitude and ideas neccessary to make this journey. Instead Hongzhi responded with support of Dahui, a teaching gesture which spoke directly against sectarianism in true Chan style, not relying on words and letters but rather on a surprising gesture expressing the Awakened mind.
 

Works Cited

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Foster, Nelson; Shoemaker, Jack. The Roaring Stream: A New Zen Reader. New Jersey: The Ecco Press 1996.
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____________ “Silent Illumination, Kung-an Introspection, and the Competition for Lay Patronage in Sung Dynasty Chan”, in Gregory, Peter N; Getz Jr., Daniel A.; Buddhism in the Sung. Honolulu: Univeristy of Hawai Press 1999.
____________ “The Record of Hongzhi and the Recorded Sayings Literature of Song Dynasty Chan” in Heine, Steven; Wright, Dale S. The Zen Canon: Understanding The Classic Texts. NY: Oxford Univeristy Press 2004.
Tanahashi, Kazuaki,ed. Enlightenment Unfolds: The Essential Teachings of Zen Master Dogen. Boston: Shambhala Publications 1999.
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Wright, Dale S. “Koan History: Transformative Language in Chinese Buddhist Thought.” in Heine, Steven; Wright, Dale S., ed. The Koan: Texts and Contexts in Zen Buddhism. NY: Oxford University Press 2000.