Yun-men Wen-yen (Jap., Ummon Bun’en), also called K’uang-chen, 864-949; Chinese Ch’an (Zen) master; a student and dharma successor (hassu) of – Hsueh-feng I-ts’un (Jap., Seppō Gison) and the master of Hsiang-lin Ch’eng-yuan (Jap., Kyōrin Chōon), Tung-shan Shou-chu (Jap., Tōsan Shusho), and Pa-ling Hao-chien (Jap., Haryō Kōkan). Yun-men was one of the most important Ch’an masters and the last of the “Ch’an giants” in the history of Ch’an in China. We encounter him in examples 15, 16, 21 , 39, and 48 of the Wu-men-kuan, and the examples 6, 8, 14, 15, 22, 27, 34, 39, 47, 50, 54, 60, 62, 77, 83, 86, 87, and 88 of the Pi-yen-lu. The most important of his sayings and teachings are recorded in the Yun-men K’uang-chen-ch’an-shih kuang-lu (Record of the Essential Words of Ch’an Master K’uang-chen from Mount Yun-men).
On the incident that led to Yun-men’s first enlightenment under Master Mu-chou, see Mu-chou Ch’en-tsun-ma. Yun-men, who him self had more than sixty dharma successors, was known, like Master Mu-chou, as a particularly strict Ch’an master. He founded the Yun-men school (Jap., Ummon school) of Ch’an, which belonged to the “five houses” (goke-shichishū) of the Ch’an tradition in China, and survived until the 12th century. The dharma heirs of Yun-men played a major role in the preservation of Ch’an literature for later generations. The best-known of them is Yun-men’s “great-grandson in dharma,” the great master Hsueh-tou Ch’ung-hsien (Jap . , Setchō Jūken), who collected a hundred examples of the ancient masters and provided them with “praises” (ju). These master Yuan-wu K’o-ch’in (Jap., Engo Kokugon) later made the basis of his edition of the Pi-yen-lu.
Yun-men was among the first of the great Ch’an masters to use the words of preceding masters as a systematic means of training monks. This style of training eventually developed into kōan practice (kanna Zen, Ta-hui Tsung-kao), one of the most effective methods of Ch’an (Zen) training. Yun-men also often gave “another answer” or an “other word” (Chin., pieh-yu; Jap., betsugo) than the one given in the mondō or hossen cited by him. Then he again posed a question and answered it himself in stead of his students with a “word taking their part” (Chin., tai-yu; Jap., daigo), as in example 6 of the Pi-yen-lu. The answer given in this example became one of the most renowned sayings of the Ch’an (Zen) tradition: “Yu-men said while giving instruction, ‘I’m not asking you about the days before the fifteenth. But about the days after the fifteenth, come forward with a word and speak!’ Taking their part, he said himself, ‘Day for day a good day.’ “
Sometimes he combined the “word taking their part” with the “other word” and in a later explanation gave another answer to a question that he himself had previously posed and answered “taking their part.”
Master Yun-men’s sayings and answers are highly prized in the Ch’an (Zen) tradition. No other master’s words are so frequently cited in the great kōan collections as his. It is said that his words always fulfill three important qualifications of a “Zen word”: (1) his answers correspond to the question posed “the way a lid fits a jar”; (2) they have the power to cut through the delusion of his students’ dualistic way of thinking and feeling like a sharp sword; (3) his answers follow the capacity for understanding and momentary state of mind of the questioner “as one wave follows the previous one.”
Yun-men’s pregnant answers often consist of only one word and are among the most renowned “one-word barriers” (ichiji-kan) in the Ch’an (Zen) tradition.
Such “one-word barriers” are Yun-men’s “Kan!” in example 8 of the Pi-yen-lu (ichiji-kan) and his famous kan-shiketsu from example 21 of the Wu-men-kuan. A further example of Yun-men’s ichiji-kan is found in example 77 of the Pi-yen-lu:
A monk asked Yun-men, “What are the words of the venerable buddhas and the great patriarchs?”
Yun-men said, “Dumplings!”
Yun-men was, however, not only a master of words but also of the wordless gesture, as example 22 of the Pi-yen-lu shows:
Hsueh-feng said while instructing the monks, “On South Mountain there’s a turtle-nosed snake. You should all certainly have a look at it.”
Ch’ang-ch’ing [Hui-Ieng] said, “Today there are many here in the dharma hall who are about to lose their body and life.”
A monk reported this to Hsuan-sha [Shih-pei].
Hsuan-sha said, “There is just Brother Leng [Ch’ang-ch’ing] who can understand that. But however that may be, I am not of that opinion.”
The monk asked, “What is your opinion then, Master?”
Hsuan-sha said, “What does he need the South Mountain for?”
Yun-men took his staff, threw it down in front of him, and made a gesture of fear.”
Yun-men, who made such skillful use himself of the words of the ancient masters, was at the same time very mistrustful of the written word, which could all too easily be understood literally but not really grasped. Thus he forbade his students to write his sayings down. We owe it to one of his followers, who attended his discourses wearing a paper robe on which he took notes in spite of the ban, that many of the imperishable sayings and explanations of the great Ch’an master have been preserved.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion: Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Zen. Shambhala Publications, Inc.
Books on Yun-men Wen-yen
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