Shen-hsiu (Jap., Jinshu), 605?-706; one of the principal students of Hung-jen, the fifth patriarch of Ch’an (Zen). According to tradi tion, Shen-hsiu was defeated in the memorable “competition” for the successorship to the fifth patriarch by Hui-neng, who was later recognized as the sixth patriarch. Shen-hsiu nevertheless claimed the successorship of Hung-jen and founded the Northern school of Ch’an, in which the Ch’an of the earlier patriarchs, which was strongly marked by traditional Indian Meditation Buddhism (Dhyāna Buddhism) and relied on the lankāvatarā-sūtra as its basic scripture, survived for a few more generations.
Shen-hsiu was a Confucian scholar endowed with great intelligence. Driven by inner frustration, he turned to Buddhism and at approximately forty-six years of age found his way to the monastery of Hung-jen on Mount Huang-mei (Jap., Ōbai). Here he became one of the most outstanding students of the fifth patriarch, of which eleven are mentioned in later accounts as important Buddhist masters. After Hung- jen’s death, Shen-hsiu left the latter’s monastery and wandered through the country for nearly two decades.
As concerns his fame and the number of his students, he was already outstripped during these years of wandering by Fa-ju, another student of Hung-jen’s. The fact that it was nevertheless Shen-hsiu who was officially recoginized as the spiritual heir of the fifth patriarch until the middle of the 8th century can be attributed to his connection to the imperial court of the time. Shen-hsiu was already over ninety years old and well known as an outstanding Ch’an master and an advocate of strict zazen practice when Empress Wu summoned him to the imperial court no doubt be cause she found it politically opportune to patronize a school of Buddhism that deviated from the position of the established schools. Shen-hsiu is said to have answered this summons only reluctantly. Installed as “dharma master of Ch’ang-an and Loyang” (the two imperial capitals), he instructed a huge following of monks and scholars from the whole of north China, whom he deeply impressed by his sharp intellect and the earnestness of his commitment to meditative practice.
Whether or not Shen-hsiu was in actual fact the jealous rogue who sought the life of Hui-neng, as he was later made out to be by the followers of the Southern school of Ch’an, can hardly be determined today with certainty, since formation of legend concerning the successorship of the fifth patriarch set in quite early. Nevertheless it is historical fact that the Northern school of Ch’an founded by him, probably not least because of its alliance with the T’ang Dynasty rulers, declined and died out after a few generations, whereas the Southern school founded by Hui-neng flourished and brought forth all the important schools and outstanding masters of Ch’an.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion: Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Zen. Shambhala Publications, Inc.
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