Chao-chou Ts’ung-shen (Jap., Jōshū Jūshin), 778-897; one of the most important Ch’an (Zen) masters of China; a student and dharma successor (hassu) of Nan-chüan P’u-yüan (Jap., Nansen Fugan). The great Japanese master Dōgen Zenji, who applied the strictest possible standards in evaluating Zen masters, called him deferentially “Joshu, the old buddha.” Chao chou had thirteen dharma successors, but since there were few who equaled him, let alone surpassed him, in profundity of experience, his lineage died out after a few generations.
The life story of Chao-chou is an especially good example of what Zen masters repeatedly stress that enlightenment is only the beginning of real training on the path of Zen. Chao chou had already experienced profound enlightenment at the age of 18; following that he trained himself for forty more years under his master Nan-ch’üan. After the latter’s death, he set about wandering in order to deepen his experience further through hossen with other Ch’an masters. It is said that during this period he sought out as many as eighty of the dharma successors of his “grandfather in Ch’an,” Ma-tsu Tao-i (Jap. , Baso Dōitsu). Finally, at the age of 80, he settled in a small Ch’an monastery in the town of Chao-chou. There at last students gathered around him and he led them on the path of Ch’an until his death at the age of 120.
Chao-chou had a way of instructing his students that people called “Chao-chou’s lip and mouth Ch’an.” In a soft voice, often almost whispering, he answered his students’ questions with short, simple pronouncements. His words were, however, very powerful; it is said they were able to cut through the deluded feeling and thinking of his students like a sharp sword. Many famous kōans originated with Chao-chou, among them the one used by Master Wu-men Hui-k’ai (Jap.,Mum on Ekai) as the first example in his renowned kōan collection, the Wu-men-kuan. “A monk once asked Master Chao-chou: ‘Does a dog really have buddha-nature, or not?’ “Chao-chou said, ‘Wu,’ ” [Jap., mu].
Since the time when words of the old masters began being used as a means of training (kōan ), this so-called kōan mu has helped thousands of Zen students to a first enlightenment experience(kenshō, satori). Still today it is given to many Zen students as their first kōan.
We encounter Master Chao-chou in examples 1 , 7, 11 , 14, 19, 31 , and 37 of the Wu-men kuan, as well as in examples 2, 9, 30, 41 , 45, 52, 57, 58, 59, 64, 80, and 96 of the Pi-yen-lu. The biography and the record of the words of Master Chao-chou are found in the Chao-chou Chen chi-ch ‘an-shih yü-lu hsing-chuan.
For the incident that led to the enlightenment of the eighteen-year-old Chao-chou in mondō with his master Nan-ch’üan (Wu-men-kuan 19), Heijōshin kore dō. For Chao-chou’s famous answer to a monk’s question about the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming out of the west (seirai-no-i), mondō.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion: Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Zen. Shambhala Publications, Inc.
Books on Chao-chou Ts’ung-shen
External links