Nan-ch’uan P’u-yuan (Jap., Nansen Fugan), 748-835 ; one of the great Chinese Ch’an (Zen) masters of the T’ang period; a student and dharma successor (hassu) of Ma-tsu Tao-i (Jap., Baso Dōitsu). Nan-ch’uan had seventeen dharma successors, among them one of the most important Ch’an masters, Chao-chou Ts’ung shen (Jap., Jōshū Jūshin) and – Ch’ang-sha Ching-ts’en (Jap., Chōsha Keij in). Nan-ch’uan appears in examples 14, 19, 27, and 34 of the Wu-men-kuan, and in examples 28, 31 , 40, 63, 64, and 69 of the Pi-yen-lu.
Nan-ch’uan already had a period of intensive study of Buddhist philosophy behind him (including the teachings of the Fa-hsiang, Hua-yen, and San-lun schools of Chinese Buddhism) when he came to Master Ma-tsu, under whose guidance he realized profound enlightenment. In the year 795 he built a hut on Mount Nan-ch’uan, from which his name is derived, and lived there for more than thirty years in seclusion. Finally some Ch’an monks persuaded him to come down from Nan-ch’uan, settle in a monastery, and lead students on the way of Zen. It is said that from that time on the students never numbered less than a hundred.
One of the most impressive koans with Nan ch’uan is example 40 of the Pi-yen-lu: Lu-keng Tai-fu (Jap., Riku-kō Taifu) said to Nan ch’uan in the course of their conversation, “Chao the dharma teacher said, ‘Heaven and Earth and I have the same root; the ten thousand things and I are one body.’ Absolutely wonderful!”
Nan-ch’uan, pointing to a blossom in the garden said, “The man of our times sees this blossoming bush like someone who is dreaming.”
From Nan-ch’uan, who is famed for his vivid expressions and paradoxical pronouncements in the course of Zen training, come a number of much-cited Zen sayings. Thus, in apparent contradiction of his master Ma-tsu (for whose statement, Ta-mei Fa-chang), he said, “Consciousness is not Buddha, knowledge is not the way” (Wu-men-kuan 34). Equally well known is the wato from example 27 of the Wu-men kuan: “It is not mind, it is not Buddha, it is not things.” For the mondō with his principal student Chao-chou, which arose out of the question, “What is the Way?” Hezjōshin kore dō.
Nan-ch’uan’s comments and instructions are recorded in the Ch’ih-chou Nan-ch’uan P’u-yuan ch’an-shih kuang-lu (‘Great Collection of the Words of the Ch’an Master Nan ch’uan P’u-yuan from Ch’ih-chou’).
Source: The Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion: Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Zen. Shambhala Publications, Inc.
Nan-ch’uan P’u-yuan documents
Books on Nan-ch’uan P’u-yuan
External links