Cultural Gems of Guangdong

    After eight months of voting and evaluation, 10 aspects of Guangdong culture, ranging from opera styles to outstanding historical figures, have been chosen by the Guangdong Provincial Government to represent the cultural gems of Guangdong. The 10 gems are Guangdong opera, Cantonese cuisine, Cantonese arcade architure, Cantonese music, lion dance, the Lingnan school of painting, Duan inkstone, Kaiping diaolou, and two historic figures: Sun Yat-sen, the leader of China’s republican revolution, and Huineng, the sixth Patriarch of the Chan.

   Sixth Patriarch Huineng                             

    DAJIAN HUINENG (638-713), a Guangdong local, was one of the most important figures in the Chinese Chan monastic tradition. He is the Sixth Patriarch of Chan Buddhism, as well as the last official patriarch.

    He did not pass on the Dharma and robe of succession to any of his disciples. All surviving schools of the Chinese Chan regard Huineng as their ancestor. He is known as Daikan En in Japan and as Hyeneung in Korea. His foremost students were Nanyue Huairang, Qingyuan Xingsi, Nanyang Huizhong, Yongia Xuanjue and Heze Shenhui.

    He is said to have advocated an immediate and direct approach to Buddhist practice and enlightenment and is considered the founder of the “Sudden Enlightenment” Southern Chan school of Buddhism.

    The two primary sources for Huineng’s life are the preface to the Platform Sutra and the Transmission of the Lamp.

    The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, attributed to Huineng, is one of the most influential texts in the East Asian meditative tradition. Chan grew to become the largest sect in Chinese Buddhism.

    The teachers claiming Huineng’s posterity branched off into numerous different schools, each with its own special emphasis, but all of them kept the same basic focus on meditative practice, personal instruction and personal experience. The Chan school was transplanted to Korea as Seon, to Japan as Zen and to Vietnam as Thien.

    Huineng’s father died when he was young and his family was poor, so he did not have a chance to learn to read and write. One day, while he was delivering firewood to an inn, he heard a guest reciting the Diamond Sutra and he had an awakening. He immediately decided to seek the Way of Buddha.

    The guest gave him 10 taels of silver to provide for his mother and Huineng embarked on his journey. After travelling 30 days on foot, Huineng arrived at Huangmei Mountain, where the Fifth Patriarch Hongren presided.

    (Jane Lai)