INSTALACIONES PROVISIONALES DE OBRA

Quan's inscription seems to suggests that Mazu had already heard about Huairang before they met at Nanyue, the famous mountain in Hunan where Huairang resided. He writes, “Later he heard that Chan master [Huai]rang at Hengyue received from the sixth patriarch [Huineng] at Caoxi the teaching that [directly] reaches the true mind, and is [thus] called the sudden approach. As soon as he heard [Huairang's] words, he was freed from mundane worries.”39

The Song gaoseng zhuan biography goes a step further, implying that Mazu first heard about Huairang while he was still in Sichuan.40_{That is improbable, however, since at that time Huairang was a little-known monk living at a mountain}

located far from Sichuan. It is more likely that Mazu heard about him after he arrived in Jingzhou, where Huairang was ordained a few decades earlier.

Although his name figures prominently in normative accounts of Chan history, during his lifetime Huairang was a little-known monk. The earliest extant version of Liuzu dashi fabao tanjing (hereafter referred to as the Platform Scripture), which lists the names of Huineng's leading disciples, makes no mention of Huairang.41_{If we exclude the brief mention}

of his meeting with Mazu in Mazu's stele inscription, the earliest information about Huairang's life dates from the early ninth century, over half a century after his death.42 _{Huairang's subsequent rise to prominence in Chan circles came}

about solely because of his recognition as the teacher of Mazu, and by extension as a link between Huineng and Mazu.43

Huairang was born in 677 in the Du family in Jinzhou.44 _{He entered monastic life in 692, at the age of fifteen.}45 _He

received monastic ordination on the twelfth day of the fourth lunar month in 696 (first year of the Tongtian era) at Yuquan monastery in Jingzhou.46 _{This monastery became an important establishment during the Sui dynasty}

(581–618), when Zhiyi (538–597), the great founder of the Tiantai tradition, resided there. During the Tang period, the monastery continued to function as an important center of Tiantai studies.47 _{Throughout the seventh century, it was}

also a center of meditation practice, and from around 676 until 701 it was the residence of Shenxiu, the leader of the Northern school of Chan.48 _{In addition, the monastery was a hub for Vinaya studies, and Huairang's preceptor}

Hongjing was one of the prominent Vinaya masters who resided there.49 _{As Shenxiu was residing at Yuquan}

monastery at the time Huairang was ordained there, it is probable that the two met. It is even possible that Huairang studied under Shenxiu.

According to an extant fragment from Baolin zhuan's lost tenth fascicle, after his ordination Huairang went to Song mountain, at the time a well-established center of Chan practice, accompanied by a monk named Tanran. There he studied with Lao'an (584?–709, also known as Hui'an), who was among the most prominent Chan teachers at the time.50 _{Some sources identify Lao'an as a student of Hongren, and his name appears among Hongren's ten great}

disciples listed in Lengqie shizi ji. Together with Shenxiu and Faru (638–689), he was among the leaders of the Chan school in the North.51_{Before going to Songshan, Lao'an had also resided at Yuquan monastery, and Huairang must}

have heard about him during his stay there.52

According to his biography in Zutang ji, after visiting Songshan, Huairang traveled south. Around 699 he arrived at Caoxi, in the northern part of Lingnan province (present-day Guangdong), where he met Huineng and studied with him for twelve years.53_{If that is the case, it seems that he might have been a student of three important Chan teachers:}

Shenxiu, Lao'an, and Huineng. After his departure from Caoxi in 711, Huairang traveled north.54 _{Around 720, he}

reached Nanyue and settled on the mountain close to Buore (Prajñā) monastery, the same one where Zhiyi's teacher Huisi (515–577) had resided during the sixth century. There Huairang led a quiet contemplative life until his death in 744. He did not have many disciples; in addition to Mazu, Song gaoseng zhuan lists the name of one more disciple, an obscure monk called Daojun (dates unknown), while Chuandeng lu states that he had sixmain disciples.55

Later versions of the Platform Scripture and other Chan texts compiled during the post-Tang period introduce apocryphal dialogues between Huairang and Huineng, created in order to elevate Huairang's status as one of Huineng's main disciples, while glossing over his earlier connections with other Chan teachers. One the one hand, this might well be an example of how the images of Chan teachers were molded in response to the changing needs of the Chan movement. On the other hand, Mazu's stele inscription already

mentions the teacher-disciple relationship between Huineng and Huairang, so it is apparent that during Mazu's lifetime Huairang was considered a disciple of Huineng and a teacher of Mazu.

Zongmi writes that after leaving Mingyue mountain, Mazu went on a pilgrimage. During his visit to Nanyue, Mazu met with Huairang and became his disciple.56_{The best-known account of Mazu's meeting with Huairang first appears}

in Huairang's biography in Zutang ji.57_{According to the Chuandeng lu version of the story, Huairang noticed Mazu while}

the latter was practicing meditation at Chuanfa temple on Nanyue mountain. In order to teach Mazu about the futility of his misguided attempts to achieve awakening by the practice of seated meditation, Huairang grabbed a tile and started to polish it. When the perplexed Mazu asked him what he was doing, Huairang explained that he was trying to make a mirror. When Mazu remonstrated that it was impossible to do that, Huairang explained that Mazu's meditation practice was as likely to make him a Buddha as polishing a brick was to turn it into a mirror. After Mazu realized his folly, Huairang offered him religious instruction. Here is the traditional account of that meeting:

During the Kaiyuan period of the Tang [dynasty], Mazu was practicing meditation at Chuanfa temple in Hengyue.58 _{There he met with Reverend Huairang, who immediately recognized him as a being worthy of}

receiving the teaching. Huairang asked him, ‘Why are you sitting in meditation?” The Master replied, “Because I want to become a Buddha.” Thereupon Huairang took a brick and started to polish it in front of Mazu's hermitage. Mazu asked him, “Why are you polishing that brick?” Huairang replied, “I am polishing it into a mirror.” Mazu asked, “How can you make a mirror by polishing a brick?” Huairang said, “If I cannot make a mirror by polishing a brick, how can you become a Buddha by sitting in meditation?” Mazu asked, “Then what shall I do?” Huairang asked, “When an ox-carriage stops moving, do you hit the carriage or the ox?” Mazu had no reply.

Huairang continued, “Are you practicing sitting in meditation, or practicing to sit like a Buddha? As to sitting in meditation, meditation is neither sitting nor lying. As to sitting like a Buddha, the Buddha has no fixed form. In the non-abiding Dharma, one should neither grasp nor reject. If you try to sit like a Buddha, you are just killing the Buddha. If you attach to the form of sitting, then you do not penetrate this principle.”

Upon hearing these instructions, Mazu felt as if he had tasted ghee. He bowed and asked, “How should one's mind be so that it will accord with the formless samādhi?” Huairang said, “Your study of the teaching of the mind-ground is like planting a seed. My teaching

of the essentials of the Dharma is like heavenly blessing [in the form of rain]. Because you have this opportunity [to encounter the teaching], you will perceive the Way (Dao).”

Mazu also asked, “The Way does not have the characteristics of form; how can it be perceived?” Huairang said, “The Dharma-eye of the mind-ground can perceive the Way.59 _{It is same with the formless samādhi.” Mazu}

asked, “Is that still subject to becoming and decay?” Huairang said, “If you see the Way through such concepts as becoming and decay, aggregating and disaggregating, then you do not truly see the Way. Listen to my verse: The mind-ground contains various seeds,

With rain, they will come to sprout. The flower of samādhi is formless,

How can it be subject to decay or becoming?60

The concluding verse symbolizes the transmission of the Buddha's enlightenment from Huairang to Mazu. The transmission verse became a key fixture of transmission narratives recorded in Chan chronicles, starting with Baolin

zhuan during the early ninth century. Mazu is the only monk after Huineng accorded a transmission verse, which

implies that he was the recipient of the “orthodox” patriarchal transmission. This dramatic depiction of Mazu's initial meeting with Huairang is one of the best-known stories of traditional Chan lore. However, it is unclear if the anecdote is an example of post-Tang literary creation in the “encounter dialogue” style, or evidence about events in Mazu's life.61

Besides this story, there is hardly any information about Mazu's study with Huairang. Since there are no reliable records of Huairang's teachings, we do not know what he taught Mazu. We also cannot be sure about the length of time Mazu spent at Nanyue. Mazu left Huairang well before 744, the year of Huairang's death, and he could not have arrived there before 736.62 _{A stay at Nanyue during the 736–740 period is a plausible conjecture, and his stay there}

might have been even shorter.63