Chanzongzushi Legend
01 · Historical Records
The Sixth Patriarch legend comes from records in the classics and from oral transmission among the common people.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Sixth Patriarch legend is an oral folk literature based on the legendary experience, sacred traces and sacred objects of Huineng, the sixth patriarch of Chan Buddhism. It circulates mainly in Xinxing county of Guangdong, most widely in the county town and in Xialu village, Tajiao village, Longshantang village and Sitian village of Jicheng town, and also in the vast areas reached by Huineng's footsteps, including other parts of Guangdong and Hubei and Jiangxi. Huineng, 638-713, is a real historical figure, ranked with Laozi and Confucius as the three great sages of the East and with Sun Yat-sen as the two great men of Lingnan. At twenty-four he heard the scriptures and awakened to the Way, went to the Huangmei temple in Hubei to study the Dharma and received the robe and bowl from the Fifth Patriarch Hongren, becoming the Sixth Patriarch of Chan. Xinxing county is where Huineng was born and entered nirvana and where the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch was compiled, with a deep historical and cultural deposit. Xinxing county has a wide circulation of various folk stories and legends and a deep soil for folk creation. The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch compiled by Huineng's disciple Fahai records the deeds of Huineng's lifelong transmission and attainment of the Dharma and is the general collection of the Sixth Patriarch stories. Besides this, such documents as The Outer Record of the Origins of the Sixth Patriarch, the Jingde Record of the Passing On of the Lamp and the Five Lamps Meeting the Origin and a great many historical materials such as the successively compiled Zhaoqing Prefectural Gazetteer, Xinxing County Gazetteer and Longshan Guo'en Temple Gazetteer also record Huineng. The life experience of Huineng recorded in these classics, through folk oral re-creation, formed folk stories and legends. The Sixth Patriarch legend unfolds around the whole life of Huineng, from birth and study of the Dharma to spreading the Dharma and entering nirvana, and contains two great series: first, the various legends current among the people, including the Sixth Patriarch legends created orally and current in modern and contemporary times; second, the legends derived from Huineng's deeds of spreading the Dharma. In its legendary narrative the Sixth Patriarch legend contains the philosophy of life, expressing people's esteem for and pursuit of the true, the good and the beautiful and embodying the upward and good spirit of calm composure, compassion and kindness, equality and tolerance, propriety and filial piety, forsaking evil for good and helping the poor and relieving the world, reflecting the morality, ethics, view of life and cultural pursuit of folk society, with relatively high historical and cultural value.
The Sixth Patriarch Gets His Name
One of the folk legend series of the Sixth Patriarch legend.
Huineng Hears the Scriptures and Awakens to the Way
One of the folk legend series of the Sixth Patriarch legend.
The Mind Moves, the Banner Moves
One of the folk legend series of the Sixth Patriarch legend.
The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch
Compiled by Huineng's disciple Fahai, the general collection recording the deeds of Huineng's lifelong transmission and attainment of the Dharma.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Sixth Patriarch legend circulates mainly in Xinxing county of Guangdong, most widely in the county town and in Xialu village, Tajiao village, Longshantang village and Sitian village of Jicheng town, and also in other parts of Guangdong and in Hubei and Jiangxi reached by the footsteps of the Sixth Patriarch Huineng.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Chanzongzushi Legend.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Sixth Patriarch legend is an indispensable part of the life of the people of Xinxing and is integrated into their daily life, handed down by word of mouth among the people, the main transmitting group being the Guangdong Xinzhou Sixth Patriarch Huineng Culture Research Society.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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