Northern School

A conventional name assigned to a faction of Ch'an Buddhism that flourished during the early T'ang dynasty (618-907) consisting of the distinguished monk Shen-hsiu (606-706) and his disciples P'u-chi (651-739) and I-fu (658-736). In Ch'an lore, this was the school that took the position of ‘gradual enlightenment’ against the so-called ‘Southern School's’ position of ‘sudden enlightenment’ as espoused by Hui-neng (638-713). Whether the controversy happened as recorded in Ch'an literature is a problem for scholars, but the school of Shen-hsiu did exist and put forward a position on Ch'an methods and enlightenment that is open to historical research. (See Northern-Southern School controversy for an account of this debate.)

Shen-hsiu's extant writings reveal that he taught a method of looking at or contemplating the mind (Chinese, k'an-hsin or kuan-hsin) that assumed its inherent purity. In other words, to contemplate one's own mind was in itself to contemplate the pure Buddha-mind. Later Northern School texts equated this mind with ‘the unlocalized’, emphasizing that the mind, seen in its inherent purity, could not be positively identified in this or that place, but pervaded and underlay all reality. This means that their term ‘to gaze at the mind’ indicated an objectless contemplation, since its object was both everywhere and nowhere. The development of this vision might take some practice, and hence the Southern School's later accusation of gradualism may apply, but Ho-tse Shen-hui (670-762), the chief polemicist of the Southern School, also conceded that such practice was necessary for the attainment of ‘sudden’ enlightenment. Thus, the traditional characterization of the Northern School as ‘gradualist’ and the Southern School as ‘subitist’ (see subitism) seems to disappear under historical and textual scrutiny. Shen-hsiu, like other Ch'an masters of the various schools of the time, was also concerned to simplify Buddhist meditation. Perhaps in reaction to the profusion of methods catalogued in the Great Calming and Insight (Chinese, Mo-ho-chih-kuan) of T'ien-t'ai master Chih-i (538-97), Shen-hsiu adapted the phrase ‘one-practice samādhi’ from earlier scriptures and interpreted it to mean that only one practice, that of seated meditation focused on the contemplation of the mind, was necessary.

The Northern School tradition suffered a gradual decline following the Northern-Southern School controversy. The An Lu-shan rebellion of 755 left the central government greatly weakened, and put more power into the hands of provincial military governors. Because of this, the imperial favour that the Northern School enjoyed counted for less and less. In addition, court officials who had entered government service via the examination system generally put their support behind the ‘Ho-tse School’ of Shen-hui rather than the Northern School. Nevertheless, disciples of Shen-hsiu and his two chief successors continued to distinguish themselves, and they managed to found communities away from the capital, many of which attained significant followings. The Northern School finally fell, along with the rest of pre-classical Ch'an, in the persecution of 845. The Northern School's influence extended beyond the borders of China. A monk of the school named Hvashang Mahāyāna represented the Ch'an tradition at the Council of Lhasa which took place in 792 in Tibet but lost the debate according to the official records.