When Yinyuan was young, he traveled to Zhejiang and visited Putuo Island. At that time, he did not know about Chan Buddhism at all. All he wanted was to become a monk at Putuo Island. Although he was later ordained in Huangbo monastery in his hometown Fuqing, he went to Zhejiang again and became Miyun Yuanwu's student.
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| Portrait of Miyun Yuanwu at Manpukuji |
Reading Ming and Qing Buddhist sources, you can't miss Miyun Yuanwu. Many eminent Chan teachers in the Qing period can trace their dharma transmissions to him. He was the fountain head of dharma transmission on the Linji side.
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| Portrait of Miyun Yuanwu in Jiaxing Canon |
I have discussed him extensively in my previous book Enlightenment in Dispute. Here, in this new book, I examined his relationship with Yinyuan. My conclusion is that Yinyuan absolutely wanted Miyun's transmission but Miyun did not give him. He only offered to 12 people in his whole life. But according to Yinyuan, he experienced enlightenment under Miyun and was greatly influenced by him.
There is very few thing to talk about his teaching though. Miyun's trick was to do beating and shouting: he hit people really hard. I came across several cases when students were hurt severely. His first dharma heir is Poshan Haiming 破山海明. Because he returned to Sichuan shortly after he received dharma transmission, he was not known very well in South China. However, his dharma heirs spread all over southwest China, especially in Chengdu region. This is perhaps why we can still see his statue erected in Baoguang monastery in Chengdu. The spread of Miyun's transmission in Southwest China is going to be a really interesting subject.
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| Statue of Miyun Yuanwu at Baoguang Monastery in Chengdu |
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