Ts'ao-shan Pen-chi
(Jap., S
zan Honjaku;
840–901)
. Co-founder, with his teacher (of whom he was dharma-successor,
hassu
)
Tung-shan
Liang-chieh, of
Ts'ao-tung
. He stayed with him only three years or so, but perfectly understood what Tung-shan was attempting to say, eventually expressed in the Five Ranks (see also
GO-I
). The histories list nineteen disciples, but within four generations his line ended. His true succession lies in
S
t
.
Ts'ao-tung
(Jap., S
t
). Ch'an/Zen school of Buddhism, the name being derived from the graphs of the two founders,
Tung-shan
Liang-chieh and Ts'ao-shan Pen-chi, who in turn received their names from the mountains of their monasteries. In its Chinese form, it is also known as ‘The Five Ranks’, from its fivefold approach to recognizing the identity of the absolute and the relative, the one and the many. The stanzas of the Five Ranks are now regarded as the consummation of the
k
an
process. See further
GO-I
. Ts'ao-tung is one of the Five Houses of Ch'an Buddhism in the period of the Five Dynasties; but its future lay in Japan as
S
t
.
Tseng-tzu