Six Chinese Patriarchs of Zen

Complete Inheritance of the 28 Western Heavenly Patriarchs and Six Chinese Patriarchs of Zen

The First Chinese Patriarch: Bodhidharma

Identity: The 28th Patriarch of Zen in Western Heaven and the First Patriarch of Chinese Zen, a Brahmin monk from South India.
Era: The Northern and Southern Dynasties.
Major Deeds:

  1. He sailed east to China and first visited Emperor Wu of Liang in Jinling. Failing to reach spiritual resonance with the emperor, he crossed the Yangtze River on a single reed and traveled north to Songshan Mountain.
  2. He secluded himself in Shaolin Temple, facing the wall in meditation for nine years, contemplating the mind silently while awaiting destined disciples.
  3. He established the core tenets of Zen: No reliance on written words, direct pointing to the human mind, and seeing one’s nature to attain Buddhahood. He took the Lankavatara Sutra as the heart seal scripture and founded the dual practice of Principle Entry and Practice Entry.
    Inheritance: He passed down the Zen mind Dharma and kasaya robe to his disciple Huike, appointing him the Second Chinese Patriarch.

The Second Chinese Patriarch: Master Huike

Identity: Surnamed Ji, born in Luoyang. He was well-versed in Confucianism and Taoism from an early age and later devoted himself to Buddhism.
Era: From the Northern and Southern Dynasties to the early Sui Dynasty.
Major Deeds:

  1. He traveled afar to worship Bodhidharma as his teacher. To demonstrate his sincere resolve for Dharma, he stood in snow and cut off his arm, finally gaining recognition from the Patriarch.
  2. He inherited the kasaya robe and Lankavatara mind Dharma from Bodhidharma, becoming the Second Patriarch of Zen.
  3. He propagated Dharma in seclusion amid turbulent times, upholding the tenet of transcending forms and abandoning thoughts, illuminating the mind and realizing one’s nature, prioritizing mind essence over ritual forms.
    Inheritance: In his later years, he transmitted the Dharma and robe to Sengcan, appointing him the Third Patriarch.

The Third Chinese Patriarch: Master Sengcan

Identity: Little is recorded of his early life; he was the direct disciple of Huike.
Era: The Sui Dynasty.
Major Deeds:

  1. Amid the persecution of Buddhism in the Northern Zhou Dynasty and social turmoil, he secluded himself in Sikong Mountain in Anhui, practicing and transmitting the Dharma in secret without public mass preaching.
  2. He composed no elaborate scriptures in his lifetime but authored the renowned Zen treatise Faith in Mind, opening with the famous line: The supreme way is not difficult; it only abhors discrimination.
  3. He advocated the unity of all dharmas and the inherent purity of the mind-nature, teaching that liberation lies in letting go of discriminatory attachments.
    Inheritance: He transmitted the Dharma to the young Daoxin, continuing the lineage of the Fourth Patriarch.

The Fourth Chinese Patriarch: Master Daoxin

Identity: Surnamed Sima, born in Guangji, Hubei. He left home at a young age to study Zen under Sengcan.
Era: The transition period between the Sui and Tang Dynasties.
Major Deeds:

  1. He settled permanently at Shuangfeng Mountain in Huangmei, Hubei, pioneering the fixed forest monastic system for Zen, ending the previous solitary and wandering practice tradition.
  2. He gathered monks for settled practice, with his community growing to over five hundred practitioners, laying the foundation for the prosperity of Zen.
  3. He integrated Lankavatara Zen and Prajna thought, advocating Samadhi of One Practice, which emphasizes concentrating the mind on purity and unifying Buddha recitation and mind observation.
    Inheritance: He passed the Dharma to his eminent disciple Hongren, appointing him the Fifth Patriarch.

The Fifth Chinese Patriarch: Master Hongren

Identity: Surnamed Zhou, born in Huangmei, Hubei. He became a disciple of Daoxin in childhood with extraordinary natural wisdom.
Era: Early Tang Dynasty.
Major Deeds:

  1. He preached Dharma at Fengmao Mountain in Huangmei, known as the Eastern Mountain Dharma Gate. With over a thousand disciples, Zen formally developed into a major Buddhist school.
  2. He upheld a simple and pragmatic Zen style, devaluing textual formalism and focusing on observing the mind in the present and liberating oneself through inherent nature, accommodating all sentient beings regardless of their aptitude.
  3. In his later years, he sought a successor by asking all disciples to compose gathas to manifest their enlightenment and distinguish their spiritual attainment.
    Two Eminent Disciples:
    • Shenxiu: Representative of the gradual cultivation school and leader of Northern Zen.
    • Huineng: Attained enlightenment through sudden realization, received the secret robe and Dharma from the Fifth Patriarch, and was designated the Sixth Patriarch.

The Sixth Chinese Patriarch: Master Huineng

Identity: Surnamed Lu, born in Xinxing, Guangdong. He grew up in poverty, making a living by cutting firewood. Though illiterate, he possessed supreme innate spiritual insight.
Era: Prosperous Tang Dynasty.
Major Deeds & Core Contributions:

  1. While selling firewood, he heard a line from the Diamond Sutra — “Abiding in no dharmas, yet giving rise to the mind” — and attained immediate enlightenment. He then traveled to Huangmei to seek teachings from the Fifth Patriarch Hongren.
  2. He composed the renowned gatha: There is no tree of Bodhi, Nor stand of mirror bright. Originally there is nothing, Where can dust alight? His profound insight won the full spiritual validation of the Fifth Patriarch.
  3. That night, the Fifth Patriarch transmitted the core Zen mind and kasaya robe to him, instructing him to flee south for refuge. He concealed himself among hunters for fifteen years to cultivate in obscurity.
  4. He later received full monastic ordination at Guangxiao Temple in Guangzhou and preached Dharma for thirty-seven years at Nanhua Temple in Shaoguan.
  5. He propagated the Sudden Enlightenment Dharma, asserting that all sentient beings possess inherent Buddha-nature and can achieve liberation through one instant of sudden enlightenment, without prolonged gradual cultivation.
  6. His disciples compiled his teachings into the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, the only work composed by a Chinese monk honored as a “Sutra” in Buddhist history.
  7. He founded Southern Zen, which later branched into five major schools: Linji, Caodong, Weiyang, Yunmen, and Fayan. Southern Zen became the mainstream of Chinese Zen and spread far across East Asia and the world.

Summary of the Overall Inheritance Lineage

28 Western Heavenly Patriarchs →
First Patriarch Bodhidharma → Second Patriarch Huike → Third Patriarch Sengcan → Fourth Patriarch Daoxin → Fifth Patriarch Hongren → Sixth Patriarch Huineng

After the Sixth Patriarch, Zen abandoned the single-line robe-and-Dharma inheritance system. The Dharma lineage spread widely, diversified into multiple schools, and became the largest school of Chinese Buddhism.