66The Life of Linji行錄

師諱義玄，曹州南華人也，俗姓邢氏，幼而頴異，長以孝聞。及落髮受具，居於講肆，精究毘尼，博𦣱經論，俄而歎曰：「此濟世之醫方也，非教外別傳之旨。」即更衣游方，首參黃蘗，次謁大愚，其機緣語句載于行錄。既受黃蘗印可，尋抵河北鎮州城東南隅，臨滹沱河側小院住持，其臨濟因地得名。時普化先在彼，佯狂混眾，聖凡莫測。師至即佐之。師正旺化，普化全身脫去，乃符仰山小釋迦之懸記也。適丁兵革，師即棄去，太尉默君和於城中捨宅為寺，亦以臨濟為額迎師居焉。後拂衣南邁至河府，府主王常侍延以師禮。住未幾，即來大名府興化寺，居于東堂。師無疾，忽一日攝衣據坐，與三聖問答畢，寂然而逝，時唐咸通八年丁亥孟陬月十日也。門人以師全身建塔于大名府西北隅，勅諡慧照禪師，塔號澄靈。合掌稽首，記師大略。住鎮州保壽嗣法小師延沼謹書。

The master's name was Yixuan. He came from Nanhua in Caozhou, and his family name was Xing. Even as a boy he stood out, and growing up he was known for how he served his parents. After he shaved his head and took the full vows, he settled at a lecture hall, dug deep into the monastic rules, and read widely in the scriptures and treatises. But before long he sighed and said, "This is medicine for healing the world. It isn't the teaching handed down outside the scriptures."

So he changed his robe and set out traveling. His first teacher was Huangbo; next he called on Dayu. The exchanges from those visits are recorded elsewhere in this book.

Once Huangbo had given him his seal, Linji made his way to the southeast corner of the city of Zhenzhou in Hebei and took charge of a small temple beside the Hutuo River. That temple, Linji, is where his name comes from.

Puhua was already there, playing the madman and blending into the crowd, so that no one could tell sage from fool. Linji arrived and the two worked side by side. Then, just as his teaching was hitting its stride, Puhua vanished body and all, fulfilling the old prophecy of Yangshan, the one they called the little Shakyamuni.

War broke out, and Linji left. A high official named Mo Junhe gave up his own house in the city to make it a temple, hung the name Linji over the gate, and brought the master in to live there.

Later Linji shook out his robe and headed south, reaching the prefecture of Hefu, where the governor, Wang Changshi, received him with the honors due a teacher. He had not been there long before he came to Xinghua Temple in Daming Prefecture and took up residence in the eastern hall.

The master was not sick. Then one day he straightened his robe, sat upright, traded a few words with Sansheng, and quietly passed away. It was the tenth day of the first month of the year 867. His students built a stupa for his body in the northwest corner of Daming Prefecture. By imperial decree he was given the posthumous title Chan Master Huizhao, and his stupa was named Chengling.

Hands joined, head bowed, I have set down the bare outline of the master's life. Respectfully written by his junior dharma-heir Yanzhao, abbot of Baoshou in Zhenzhou.

Pointer

The closing page of the record, the formal obituary tacked on after all the teaching stories and written by a junior monk in Linji's line. Linji (died 866) founded what became the dominant school of Zen, and "Linji" is both his name and the riverside temple he ran, which is how a teacher in this tradition got named. A few threads to follow: "the teaching handed down outside the scriptures" is Zen's own pitch, that the real thing passes mind to mind and not through books, which is why the bio has him abandon a promising scholarly career to go wandering. A "seal" is a teacher's formal certification that a student has got it, the one Huangbo gives him after the beatings of case 46. Puhua is the holy fool from earlier; "the little Shakyamuni" (Shakyamuni being the historical Buddha) was the nickname of Yangshan, the master who made the prophecy back in case 52 that Puhua here fulfills. Note one slip to read past: the text dates his death to "867," but the year was 866. The page itself is plain enough, here is the man, here is where he taught, and at the end he died the way he'd lived, sitting up and talking, then gone.