Soshigata Jap.; the “partriarchs” of the transmission lineage of Ch’an (Zen). The patriarchs are great masters, each of whom received the buddha-dharma from his master in the “transmission from heart-mind to heart-mind” (hassu, Denkō-roku) and transmitted it further to his dharma successor(s). In India there were twenty-eight patriarchs in the succession from Shākyamuni Buddha, and in China six. In this sequence Bodhidharma counts both as the twenty-eighth in the Indian lineage and as the first in the Chinese.
The sixth Chinese patriarch Hui-neng never transmitted the patriarchate formally to a successor; thus it came to an end. Nevertheless, Hui-neng had five chief disciples and dharma successors fron1 who1n derive all the schools of Ch’an (Zen) that developed in several parallel lineages of transmission after Hui-neng (see the Ch’an/Zen Lineage Chart). The outstanding masters of these lineages in the generations after Hui-neng, both in China and Japan, are often referred to as “patriarchs” out of a sense of veneration and appreciation for their great accomplishments.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion: Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Zen. Shambhala Publications, Inc.
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