U
nder the Song emperors (960–1279), the new school ofChan
Buddhism gradually gained importance, until it was second
only to Neo-Confucianism.
The Chan school traced its origins through a series of patriarchs
(the founder and early leaders, joined in a master–pupil lineage).
The First Chan Patriarch was Bodhidharma, a semilegendary sixth-
century Indian missionary. By the time of the Sixth Chan Patriarch,
Huineng (638–713;FIG. 7-25), in the early Tang period, the religious
forms and practices of the school were already well established.
Although Chan monks adapted many of the rituals and cere-
monies of other schools over the course of time, they focused on
the cultivation of the mind or spirit of the individual in order to
break through the illusions of ordinary reality, especially by means of
meditation.
In Chan thought, the means of enlightenment lie within the in-
dividual, and direct personal experience with some ultimate reality
is the necessary step to its achievement. Meditation is a critical prac-
tice. In fact, the word “Chan” is a translation of the Sanskrit word for
meditation. Bodhidharma is said to have meditated so long in a cave
that his arms and legs withered away.
The “Northern School” of Chan holds that enlightenment
comes only gradually after long meditation. The “Southern School” be-
lieves that the breakthrough to enlightenment can be sudden and
spontaneous.
These beliefs influenced art and aesthetics as they developed
in China and spread to Korea and Japan. In Japan, Chan (Japanese
Zen) had an especially extensive, long-term impact on the arts and
remains an important school of Buddhism there today (see “Zen
Buddhism,” Chapter 28, page 736).
Chan Buddhism
RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY7-25Liang Kai,Sixth Chan Patriarch Chopping Bamboo,Southern
Song period, early 13th century. Hanging scroll, ink on paper, 2 51 – 4
high. Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo.
Liang Kai was a master of an expressive style of ink painting. Here,
he depicted the Sixth Chan Patriarch’s “Chan moment,” when the
chopping sound of his blade propelled the patriarch to enlightenment.
and seemingly casual execution ofpaintings has traditionally been
interpreted as a sign of a painter’s ability to produce compelling
pictures spontaneously as a result of superior training and character,
or, in the Chan setting, progress toward enlightenment.
ZHOU JICHANGAnother leading Southern Song painter of
Buddhist themes was Zhou Jichang(ca. 1130–1190), who painted
Lohans Giving Alms to Beggars (FIG. 7-26) around 1178. The scroll
was one in a series of 100 scrolls produced at the southern coastal
city of Ningbo for an abbot who invited individual donors to pay for
the paintings as offerings in the nearby Buddhist temple.Lohans are
enlightened disciples of the Buddha who have achieved freedom
from rebirth (nirvana) by suppression of all desire for earthly things.
They were charged with protecting the Buddhist Law until the ar-
rival of the Buddha of the Future. In his Ningbo scroll, Zhou Jichang
arranged the foreground, middle ground, and background vertically
to clarify the lohans’ positions relative to one another and to the beg-
gars. The lohans move with slow dignity in a plane above the ragged
wretches who scramble miserably for the alms their serene benefac-
tors throw down. The extreme difference in deportment between the
two groups distinguishes their status, as do their contrasting fea-
tures. The lohans’ vividly colored attire, flowing draperies, and quiet
gestures set them off from the dirt-colored and jagged shapes of the
people physically and spiritually beneath them. In this painting,1 in.China 201