Hui-nêng died at the age of seventy-six in A.D. 712, while the T‘ang
dynasty was enjoying its halcyon days and Chinese culture reached
the highest point in its history. A little over one hundred years
after the passing of the sixth patriarch, Liu Tsung-yüan, one of
the most brilliant literati in the history of Chinese literature,
wrote a memorial inscription on his tomb-stone when he was honoured
by the Emperor Hsien-tsung with the posthumous title, Great Mirror
(_tai-chien_),and in this we read[4.65]: “In a sixth transmission after
Dharma there was Tai-chien. He was first engaged in menial labour and
servile work. Just a few words from the master were enough and he at
once understood the deepest meaning conveyed in them. The master was
greatly impressed and finally conferred on him an insignia of faith.
After that he hid himself in the southern district, nobody heard of
him again for sixteen years when he thought the time was ripe for him
to come out of the seclusion. He was settled at Ts‘ao-ch‘i and began
to teach. The number of disciples is said once to have reached several
thousands. According to his doctrine, non-doing is reality, emptiness
is the truth, and the ultimate meaning of things is vast and immovable.
He taught that human nature in its beginning as well as in the end is
thoroughly good and does not require any artificial weeding-out, for
it has its root in that which is serene. The Emperor Chung-tsung heard
of him and sent his courtier twice asking him to appear at Court but
failed to get him out. So the Emperor had his words instead which he
took for his spiritual guidance. The teaching [of the sixth patriarch]
in detail is generally accessible to-day; all those who talk at all
about Zen find their source of information in Ts‘ao-ch‘i.”[f103]
After Hui-nêng Zen was split up into several schools, two of which
have survived even down to this day, in China as well as in Japan. The
one represented by Hsing-szŭ, of Ch‘ing-yüan, (died 740), continues now
as the Soto (Ts‘ao-tung) school of Zen, and the other coming down the
line of Huai-jang, of Nan-yüeh (677–744),[4.66] is now represented by
the Rinzai (Lin-chi) school. Though much modified in various aspects,
the principle and spirit of Zen Buddhism is still alive as it was in
the days of the sixth patriarch, and as one of the great spiritual
heritages of the East it is still wielding its unique influence
especially among the cultured people in Japan.