When Zen spread to the fifth ancestor, Master Hongren, when he started teaching in Huangmei, Hubei Province, there were more than 500 disciples, among whom Master Shen Xiu, the eldest disciple, was the most outstanding. Shen Xiu is also considered as the heir to the mantle of Zen Buddhism. Hongren was old and wanted to find an heir among his disciples, so he told his disciples that everyone should make a collection (a poem with Zen meaning), and whoever did it well would pass it on to him. At this time, Shen Xiu wanted to inherit the mantle, but she was afraid that she would do it for the purpose of inheriting the mantle, which violated the Buddhism's inaction and artistic conception. So he got up in the middle of the night and wrote a song on the courtyard wall, "The body is a bodhi tree and the heart is a mirror." Wipe frequently, and don't create dust. "The meaning of this song is to always take care of your own mentality and state of mind, and resist temptations and various evil spirits through constant practice. It is a mentality of joining the WTO, emphasizing the role of practice. This understanding doesn't quite agree with the epiphany of Zen Mahayana school, so when everyone saw this ji zi the next morning, they all said it was good, and they all guessed that Meixiu did it, and they admired it. Hong Ren didn't make any comments after seeing it. Because he knew that Shen Xiu had not had an epiphany.
What the monks were saying was heard by the rotor monk Zen Master Huineng in the kitchen. Hui Neng had someone take him to see this Kiko. Hui Neng is illiterate. He can't read. When he heard someone say this Kiko, he said at that time that this person had not understood the real meaning. So he made another Kiko himself and begged others to write it next to the beautiful Kiko. Bodhi has no trees, and the mirror is not a stage. There is nothing, so there is no dust. With this poem, we can see that Huineng is a man of great wisdom (later, some people said that he was reincarnated as the tenth monk), and his poem accords with the idea of Zen epiphany. It is an attitude of being born, which mainly means that the world is empty and everything in the world is an empty word. If the heart is empty, there is no need to resist the temptation from the outside world. Everything passes by the heart without leaving a trace. This is a very high realm of Zen, and those who appreciate this realm are called enlightenment.
Hong Ren saw this Kiko and asked the people around him who wrote it. People nearby said Huineng wrote it, so they called Huineng, told him and other monks that it was a mess and nonsense, and personally erased this auspicious word. Then he hit Huineng on the head three times and left. At this time, only Huineng understood the meaning of the Five Ancestors, so he came to Hongren's meditation room in the middle of the night, where Hongren explained to him one of the most important Buddhist classics, the Diamond Sutra, and handed it to him. Then, in order to prevent the honey trap from hurting Huineng, Huineng was allowed to escape overnight. So Huineng went south overnight, lived in seclusion 10, and founded Nanzong Zen in Caoxi Baolin Temple. Shen Xiu sent someone to chase Huineng the next day, but he didn't catch up. Later, Shen Xiu became the protector of the Liang Dynasty and founded the Northern Sect of Zen. Huineng returned to Lingnan, and went to Guangzhou for Beijing on the eighth day of the first month in Yifeng, Tang Gaozong (676). When Master Yinzong talked about Nirvana Sutra in the temple, "sometimes the wind blows, and a monk said," The wind blows; A monk said: move; After endless arguments, Huineng said, "It's not the wind, it's not the movement, it's the heart of the benevolent". Yinzong was taken aback. Knowing that Huineng's Huangmei was a true biography, she became a teacher and shaved her head.
In the second year of Yifeng (677), Wei Kun, the secretariat of Shaozhou, admired his way, led his colleagues into the mountains to invite Hui Neng into the city, and made a public statement in the lecture hall of Brahma Temple without warning. There are more than a thousand monks and nuns here, and disciple Fahai recorded his French.
Huineng went to Baolin Temple in Caoxi (now Nanhua Temple in Shaoguan, Guangdong) to promote Zen and advocate "epiphany", which influenced various sects in South China and was called "Nanzong". He has been teaching Buddhism here for 37 years. At that time, the sixth ancestor, Huineng's fellow brother, was very clever and advocated "gradual enlightenment", which was quite influential in North China and was called "Northern Sect". In the first year of Shenlong (705), Wu Zetian and Tang Zhongzong sent minister Xue Jian to Caoxi to call him to Beijing. Hui Neng has lived in the mountains for a long time. He is old and windy, but he doesn't go. Xue Jian pleaded for a statement and brought the record back to life. Zhongzong gave Mona a collar and 500 silks as a support. He also ordered that Baolin Temple be renamed as Zhongxing Temple, rebuilt by Shaozhou Secretariat, endowed with the forehead of Dharma Body Temple, and named Huineng, the former residence of Xinzhou, as Guo 'en Temple.
In the second year of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty (730), at the naked meeting in Huaxian County, He Zeshen, a disciple of Huineng, argued vigorously, and the master was far-sighted and independent, making Nanzong a Zen orthodoxy in China. In the first year of Yanhe River (7 12), Huineng returned to Xinzhou, and the Ming people built the Gratitude Tower. Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty was born in the second year (7 13) and died in Guo 'en Temple in NSW. He is seventy-six years old and a Buddhist monk, Tang Xianzong, posthumous title. Huineng died, still intact, and was transported back to Caoxi, Shaozhou (now Shaoguan, Guangdong). His master was wrapped in synthetic paint and kept his image all his life. Its statue is still preserved in Nanhua Temple and enshrined in the Hall of Six Ancestors.
Liu Zongyuan, the secretariat of Liuzhou, prefaces the tablet of the six ancestors of Cao Xi. In the 10th year of Yuanhe (8 15), Liu Yuxi wrote the Second Monument to Master Cao at the request of Taoist Lin, a monk of Cao.