Hsüan-sha Shih-pei (Jap., Gensha Shibi); Chinese Ch’an (Zen) master; a student and dharmaVsuccessor (hassu) of Hsüeh-feng I-ts’un (Jap., Seppō Gison) and the master of Lo-han Kuei-ch’en (Jap., Rakan Keijin). Hsüan-sha was one of the most important of the fifty-six dharma successors of Master Hsüeh-feng and as master of the master of Fa-yen Wen-i (Jap., Hōgen Bun’eki) one of the forefathers of the Hōgen school. In the Ching-le ch’uan-teng-lu, this i s still called the Hsüan-sha school. Hsüan-sha had thirteen dharma successors; we encounter him in Master Wu-men’s commentary to example 41 of the Wu-men-kuan, as well as in examples 22, 56 and 88 of the Pi-yen-Ju.
Hsüan-sha was a fisherman until his thirtieth year, an illiterate of whom it is said that he could not even read the four characters with which the then current coins were marked. Nevertheless, one day he abandoned his boat and entered the Ch’an monastery of Ling-hsün of Fu-jung-shan (Lotus Mountain). He received full monastic ordination from a master of the Vinaya school and led for some years thereafter a strict ascetic life in the mountains. Once when he came to see Master Ling-hsün, he met Hsüeh-feng, who was only thirteen years his senior. He attached himself to Hsüeh-feng in 872 in order to help the latter bµifd his monastery on Hsüeh-feng Mountain. On one of the pilgrimages that Hsüan-sha henceforth undertook in order to meet other Ch’an masters, he stubbed his toe on a stone on a mountain path and, with the sudden pain, experienced enlightenment.
Between Master Hsüeh-feng and his student and helper Hsüan-sha there developed such a close relationship that finally they could understand one another entirely without speaking. Later when Hsüan-sha himselfbecame active as a Ch’an master, it is said that he was able to express Hsüeh-feng’s dharma teaching more simply and directly than his master. Hsüan-sha passed away in the same year as his master.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion: Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Zen. Shambhala Publications, Inc.
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