Zhaozhou

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Zhaozhou Congshen (趙州從諗) (778?-897?), known as Chao-chou Ts'ung-shen in Wade-Giles and Jōshū Jūshin in Japanese, was one of the renowned Chan (Zen) masters of ancient China.

Zhaozhou took his monastic name from the name of the small town near Beijing where he lived. He is said to have been born in 778 and to have died in 897, giving him an alleged life span of 119 years. According to the same sources, he only entered monastery life at the ripe age of 61 (or 80), but under the tutelage of Nanquan (Nansen) he learned rapidly and eventually became abbot, a position he held for 40 years. He was known for his asceticism but also his kindness, favouring verbal debate to striking his students.

Even during his lifetime his fame grew rapidly: five of the 48 koans in The Gateless Gate are attributed to Zhaozhou, as well as twelve of the 100 in the Blue Cliff Record. Probably the best known of these is Zhaozhou's Dog, in which a monk asks the question: "Does a dog have Buddha nature or not?" Zhaozhou said "wú!" (無; transliterated into Japanese as "mu"). In plain language, 無 normally signifies "no", "not", or "nonexistence". But Chan/Zen teachers traditionally emphasize that in this case, wú makes no reference to negation or affirmation.

Zhaozhou's style was known as "lips-and-tongue Zen" for its ability to make pithy responses with many layers of meaning.ja:趙州従シン vi: Triệu Châu Tòng Thẩm pl:Zhaozhou