Baotang Wuzhu

Baotang Wuzhu (traditional Chinese: 保唐无住, 714–774 CE), was the head and founder of the Baotang School of Chan Buddhism (Chinese: 保唐宗) in Chengdu, Sichuan, southwest China. The Baotang School was known for its radical rejection of rituals and formal Buddhist practices.

Biography

Wuzhu was born in what is now Shaanxi Province. His father had served in the army during the early years of the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang. Wuzhu, also known for his strength and martial abilities, served for a yamen, a local administrative headquarters, as Patrolling Grand Lance Officer before beginning his study of Buddhism under the enlightened layman Chen Chuzang. Chen Chuzang's origins are unknown, but he was regarded as an incarnation of Vimalakīrti. After receiving transmission from Chuzang, Wuzhu continued to practice as a layman for some time. Later he was persuaded by Chan Master Zizai, a dharma heir of Huineng, to renounce lay life. Wuzhu took full monk's vows in 749, at age thirty-five. After this, Wuzhu spent some time travelling to various locations, such as Mount Wutai, where he heard the teaching of Shenhui, as well as to different monasteries in the capital Chang'an.

In 751, Wuzhu travelled to the Helan mountains on the border of now-Inner Mongolia, where he met a merchant named Cao Gui. Cao Gui told Wuzhu that his physical resemblance to the Korean master, Wuxiang, was so uncanny that he must be a transformation-body (huashen). Cao Gui shared some of Wuxiang's teachings with Wuzhu, which he claimed not to understand, but which Wuzhu grasped instantly. Wuzhu now felt a mysterious affinity which prompted him to travel to see Wuxiang in Sichuan.

Wuzhu arrived at Wuxiang's Jingzhong monastery in 759 at the beginning of a bodhisattva-precepts retreat, when Wuxiang invited him to stay at the monastery. Wuzhu attends the retreat for three days, and during his public lectures, Wuxiang would cryptically intone a message that was meant for Wuzhu alone: "Why do you not go into the mountains, what good is it to linger?" Thus, Wuzhu left the monastery to enter the mountains.

Although Wuzhu does not meet Wuxiang again, the Lidai fabao ji depicts him as being intimately aware of events at Wuxiang's distant Jingzhong monastery. From his far away mountaintop, Wuzhu says he and Wuxiang see each other constantly as though they were face-to-face. Wendi Adamek maintains that the "long distance relationship" between Wuzhu and Wuxiang is a device intended to explain away the fact that Wuzhu was never really a disciple of Wuxiang. She points out that the two met face-to-face only once.

When Wuxiang is about to die, he sends a messenger carrying Bodhidharma's robe to give to Wuzhu, thus giving Wuzhu dharma transmission from afar. According to the Lidai fabao ji, Huineng had given Bodhidharma's robe to Empress Wu Zetian, who then passed it to Chan master Zhishen, grandfather-in-dharma to Wuxiang, whom the Lidai fabao ji depicts as the robe's rightful possessor.

Teachings

Sources for Wuzhu's teachings include the Lidai fabao ji, the main text of his Baotang School; as well as Zongmi's accounts and critiques of various Tang era schools of Chan in his writings.

Antinomianism

According to Wendi Adamek, Wuzhu taught that one should not be attached to traditional devotional rituals, including, among other things, bodhisattva vows, visualization techniques, and merit-making. Indeed, Wuzhu's Baotang School was criticized by Zongmi for its radical rejection of some of the more formal aspects of Buddhist practice, such as taking precepts, performing repentance rituals, reading sutras, and keeping buddha images. Wuzhu also rejected the traditional Buddhist practices of chanting and worship, preferring instead a practice of "sitting in idleness" (kongxian zuo). Antiformalism in Wuzhu's Baotang School extended to denial of customary etiquette as well, refusing even to stand up to greet or welcome visitors, regardless of their status. Wuzhu also criticized Vinaya masters who maintained forms of decorum for every occasion, saying:

"These days Vinaya Masters preach about [sense] ‘contact’ and preach about ‘purity,’ preach about ‘upholding’ and preach about ‘violating.’ They make forms for receiving the precepts, they make forms for decorum, and even for eating food—everything is made into forms. ‘If one makes forms, then one is the same as non-Buddhist [practitioners of] the five supramundane powers. If one does not make forms, this is precisely the unconditioned. One ought not have views.’"

According to Adamek, such antiformalism was not a kind of laissez-faire spontaneity, and was more similar to Zongmi's sudden awakening-gradual cultivation model of practice than he was willing to credit. That is, according to Adamek, Baotang antiformalism itself functioned as a type of gradual cultivation. Adamek points out that Wuzhu's practice of sitting in idleness was not spontaneity, but rather "forgetting to eat and shit and piss." Furthermore, Zongmi observes that, "in their [the Baotang School's] dwellings they do not discuss clothing and food, but give free rein to people's sending of offerings. If sent, then they have warm clothing and enough to eat. If not sent, then they give free rein to hunger and give free rein to cold." As Adamek puts it, "Bao Tang inversion of institutional norms did not promote carefree spontaneity or a free lunch. It necessitated the hard, gradual training of relinquishing expectations moment by moment, becoming indifferent to the fluctuations of abundance and privation."

Key features of practice

According to Adamek, Wuzhu's signature teaching was no-thought (wunian), which was a kind of practice of no-practice. For example, Wuzhu said, "No-thought is thus no-practice, no-thought is thus no-contemplation. No-thought is thus no-body, no-thought is thus no-mind. No-thought is thus no-nobility, no-thought is thus no-lowliness. No-thought is thus no-high, no-thought is thus no-low. At the time of true no-thought, no-thought itself is not.”

Wuzhu also taught:

“‘The Most Honored Greatly Enlightened One expounded the Dharma of producing no-thought. [Regarding] the mind of no-thought and non-production, the mind is constantly producing and never extinguished.’ At all times self-present, do not retreat and do not turn. Not sinking and not floating, not flowing and not fixed, not moving and not shaking, not coming and not going, lively like a fish jumping! Walking and sitting, everything is meditation.”

Another important teaching found in the Lidai fabao ji is its "three phrases," which Wuzhu attributed to Wuxiang, from whom he claimed transmission: no-recollection (wuyi 無憶), no-thought (wunian 無念), and do not be deluded (mowang 莫妄). Wuzhu associates these three phrases with the traditional three trainings of Buddhism. He says, “They are one, not three. No-recollection is śila, no-thought is samādhi, and ‘do not be deluded’ is prajñā.” However, there seems to have been some controversy regarding the original wording of the three phrases. Adamek observes, following Zongmi, that Wuxiang's original three phrases were slightly different from Wuzhu's version. Instead of “do not be deluded” (mowang 莫妄) for the final phrase, Wuxiang apparently taught the homophone mowang (莫忘), “do not forget.”

See also

• Trisong Detsen (755–797 or 804 CE)
• Shenxiu (Chinese: 神秀; c.606–706)

Further reading

• Adamek, Wendi L. (2011). The Teachings of Master Wuzhu: Zen and Religion of No-Religion. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-15023-1 (pbk.)
• Matsumoto, Shiro (松本史郞) (undated). Critical Considerations on Zen Thought. Komazawa University. Source: [1] (accessed: January 25, 2008)
• Poceski, Mario (undated). Attitudes Towards Canonicity and Religious Authority in Tang Chan. University of Florida. Source: [2] (accessed: January 25, 2008)
• Poceski, Mario (2007). Patterns of Engagement with Chan Teachings Among the Mid-Tang Literati. Association of Asian Studies Annual Meeting, Boston 2007. “Intersections of Buddhist Practice, Art, and Culture in Tang China” Panel. University of Florida. Source: [3] (accessed: January 25, 2008)