Hsüeh-feng I-ts’un (Jap., Seppō Gison), 822-908; one of the most important Chinese Ch’an (Zen) masters of ancient China; a student and dharma successor (hassu) of Te-shan Hsüan-chien (Jap., Tokusan Senkan). Hsüeh-feng, who is one of the forefathers of the Ummon and Hōgen schools in China, is said to have had fifty-six dharma successors, among whom the best known are Hsüan-sha Shih-pei (Jap., Gensha Shibi) and Yun-men Wen-yen (Jap., Ummon Bun’en). We encounter Hsüeh-feng in example 13 of the Wu-men-kuan and in examples 5, 22, 49, 51, and 66 of the Pi-yen-lu.
By far the most renowned koan with Hsüeh-feng is example 5 of the Pi-yen-lu, which is as follows:
“Hsüeh-feng said in instructing the assembled: ‘The whole great earth, taken between the fingers, is of the same size as a grain of rice. I throw it down before you. A paint bucket that you don’t grasp. Beat the drum, spare no effort, search, search!’ “
Hsüeh-feng already wanted to become a monk at the age of nine, but was held back by his parents. When at the age of twelve he visited his father at Yu-chien monastery in P’u-t’ien, he saw the Vinaya master there and declared, “That is my master,” and stayed at the monastery. His first Ch’an master was Ling-hsün, a “dharma grandchild” of Ma-tsu Tao-i (Jap., Baso Dōitsu). After Hsüeh-feng had been fully consecrated as a monk, he wandered through the country, visited many Ch’an masters, and served in a number of monasteries as kitchen master (tenzo). In example 13 of the Wu-men-kuan we see him as a tenzo in the monastery of Te-shan, whose dharma successor he is considered to be, although at the time of Te-shan’s death he still had not experienced profound enlightenment. Only after Te-shan had passed away did Hsüeh-feng experience profound enlightenment, at about the age of forty-five, in a mondō with his dharma brother Yen-t’ou Ch’üan-huo (Jap., Gantō Zenkatsu), who was also a student of Te-shan. The circumstances surrounding this experience as well as more about the life of Hsüeh-feng we learn in Master Yuan-wu’s discourse concerning example 5 of the Pi-yen-lu.
At about fifty years of age Hsüeh-feng gave into some monks who were seeking instruction from him and settled on Mount Hsüeh-feng (from which his name comes). From the brushwood huts that he and his students built there soon grew a large monastery; for within ten years 1,500 monks had gathered around him. The monastic community lived following Hsüeh-feng’s model-he was known for his care and earnestness in practice and all other matters. The community became known throughout China for its diligence and for a lifestyle concerned only with the essential. A number of Hsüeh-feng’s dharma successors, as well as their dharma successors, became important masters of Ch’an.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion: Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Zen. Shambhala Publications, Inc.
Books on Hsüan-sha Shih-pei
External links