Eyes of Human and Nature, a book of the essential teachings of the “five schools” (wuzong gangyao) of Chan, was compiled in 1188 after 20 years of editorial work by Huiyan Zhizhao (d.u.), a disciple of the fourth generation from Dahui Zonggao in the lineage of Yangqi Fanghui of the Linji school in the Southern Song dynasty. To reveal and explain these essential teachings and methods for human beings and even gods to practice, namely, to open their eyes, the book collected the founding Chan masters’ most important sayings and poems and the later masters’ prosaic and poetic commentaries on them. The book was revised by Wuchu Daguan (1201–1268) in 1258 and by Tianfeng Zhiyou (d.u.) in 1317. The book started with the Linji school, which occupied the longest section, followed by the Guiyang school, the Caodong school, the Yunmen school, and the Fayan school. It consisted of three fascicles. However, by the time of the book’s reprinting in Korea in 1368, it had six fascicles and followed the sequence Linji, Yunmen, Caodong, Guiyang, and Fayan schools. In the edition with six fascicles, the fifth and sixth fascicles were newly added, previously neglected materials. This edition of six fascicles became the basis for the version included in the Ming continuous Buddhist canon (Xuzang Jing) and the one included in the modern Taisho. There appears to have been another revised and enriched version of the Rentian Yanmu of two fascicles in 1703, which was very different in content.
This Chinese word was most noticeably used by the masters of the Hongzhou School and later became a popular Chan term. It means to follow along with the movement of all things or circumstances. Zongmi, in his critical examination of Chan schools, characterized the position of the Hongzhou School quite accurately as “following along with the movement of all things or circumstances and being free (renyun zizai).” The use of the word renyun by Mazu Daoyi and Huangbo Xiyun is recorded in their sermons. With the notion of renyun the masters instructed Chan students that the living process of change and flux ruthlessly undercuts every fixed position and every attachment to self or self-identity without ever stopping. Reality itself is flowing and deconstructing. Enlightenment can neither occur nor last outside this flow. Enlightenment is nothing but being harmonious with change and flux. An enlightened person would find inexhaustible wonders by living a life in harmony with change and flux.
This Chinese phrase can be translated into English as “express (or teach) Chan by taking a detour.” It was first coined by the Song Linji Chan master Yuanwu Keqin in his commentary on the first gong’an case of Xuedou Chongxian’s Songgu Baize (Verses on One Hundred Old Cases), collected in Yuanwu’s famous gong’an anthology, Blue Cliff Record (Biyan Lu). It is a mature and influential characterization of Chan linguistic strategy, based on the unconventional and extraordinary use of language by numerous Chan masters from the Tang and Five Dynasties, and Song Chan masters’ understanding and further development of it.
It is true that the Chan rhetoric of non-establishment of words (buli wenzi) and its critique of conventional discursive or descriptive ways of using words were never abandoned by mainstream Chan. But many Chan masters since the Tang dynasty have either clarified the non-dualistic perspective on speaking and silence (e.g., Huangbo Xiyun in his notion of yumo bu’er), provided a new interpretation of the slogan buli wenzi (Baizhang Huaihai in his buju wenzi—“not being fettered by words”), or emphasized the middle way between opposite extremes (Dazhu Huihai in his feili yuyan, feibuli yuyan—“neither separate from, nor tied to language”). These insights laid the foundation for the Chan formation of successful linguistic strategies. A noticeable example is the strategy of “bushuopo (never tell too plainly),” first brought up by Xiangyan Zhixian and Dongshan Liangjie. Bushuopo clearly indicates the indirect nature of Chan communication in soteriological practice, as well as strategies for teaching Chan indirectly or suggestively, like using finger pointing at the moon without confusing the finger with the moon, in order for students to experience their own awakening without being misled by words. Much of Chan negation of words or double negation serves the same purpose.
As Chan Buddhists entered into the mainstream of Song society, a society dominated by literati culture, and the interactions between Chan and this culture grew stronger, the Chan Buddhist use of various literary genres to convey Chan spirit also became unprecedentedly prosperous. It was in this period that the study of Chan gong’an, including prosaic or poetic commentaries on old Chan stories, anecdotes, or dialogues, became popular. As a master of using gong’an, Yuanwu Keqin’s outlining of raolu shuochan further developed the early formulation of bushuopo by making the more evident point that there is no direct path of teaching or expressing Chan by words. Words and concepts are discriminative or dualistic, but the reality of enlightenment is holistic and transcends all conventionally dualistic or oppositional distinctions. Enlightenment or Buddha-mind is not an objective or external entity for words to designate or represent.
Moreover, communication between a master and a student aims at the triggering or realization of the resonance of two enlightened minds, which breaks away from all conventional ways of objectification and representation. There is no direct, straightforward relationship of correspondence between words and the realization of Buddha mind, which achieves the existential-practical transformation of the personhood and lives a life of dynamic functioning in the world. To utilize words for the above-mentioned Chan soteriological practice, one must take a detour, work with the twisting of words, or make an indirect path by suggestive, poetic, enigmatic, elusive, or paradoxical words with shocking or overturning effects. Such a detour avoids objectifying words, or words that mislead students and cause their attachments, through a self-erasing performance, and at the same time skillfully uses words to point to the meaning that is often absent in the words themselves or to what cannot be adequately described in the words. It is a play of “living words” at the limit of language. Raolu shuochan is thus an important principle and strategy characteristic of the use of Chan gong’an and the rise of the wenzi Chan (Chan of letters and words).
Also called Tiantong Rujing or Changweng Rujing. A Congdong Chan master of the Song dynasty, Rujing was a native of Mingzhou (in present-day Ningbo, Zhejiang province). His family name was Yu. He entered monastic life in his youth. At the age of 19, he started to visit great teachers. At Mount Xuedou, he studied with the Caodong master Zu’an Zhijian (1105–1192), who was a disciple of the fifth generation of the Song Caodong reviver, Furong Daokai. Rujing reached enlightenment and became Zhijian’s dharma heir. After that, he continued his practice at various monasteries. At the age of 48, he took abbacy at Qingliang Temple in Jiankang (in present-day Jiangsu province). He then took up residence in several other temples. In 1225, by imperial edict, he became abbot of the famous Jingde Temple at Mount Tiantong. However, it was said that Rujing refused to accept the purple robe granted by imperial edict. Rujing’s teachings are preserved in the Rujing Hershang Yulu of two fascicles and the one-fascicle Rujing Chanshi Xu Yulu. He had several known disciples, but his lineage did not continue after them. Although Rujing did not have a huge influence on Chinese Chan Buddhism, his Japanese disciple Dōgen Kigen (1200–1253) became the founder of the Japanese Sōtō Zen school. Dōgen regarded Rujing as the only orthodoxy for the Japanese Sōtō school and greatly promoted Rujing’s teaching of “just sitting” and “body and mind dropped off,” as well as Rujing’s negation of other Chan lineages.
Literally embryo-container of Buddha. It is a Chinese translation of the Sanskrit word tathāgatagarbha, which means the womb or matrix of Tathāgata (Buddha). Rulaizang is a synonym of another Chinese word, foxing (Buddha-nature), which also translates tathāgatagarbha. Rulaizang and foxing are interchangeable and often used together in Chinese Buddhist and Chan texts.