11 Facts About Yongming Yanshou

Yongming Yanshou was a prominent Buddhist monk during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period and early Song Dynasty in China.

Yongming Yanshou is first mentioned in biographical form by Zanning in a work called the Song Biographies of Eminent Monks, which was produced in 988,12 years after Yanshou's death.

However, most of this activity took place in the north of China, while Yongming Yanshou resided in the independent Wuyue kingdom of the south, which was relatively stable during this time.

Yongming Yanshou was born in either the capital city of Wuyue, modern-day Hangzhou, or a suburb of it, Yuhang, in the year 904.

Yongming Yanshou would have served as an official before becoming a monk, although the exact nature of the position is disagreed upon in biographical sources.

Yongming Yanshou probably became a monk around 932 under the Zen teacher Ts'ui Yen.

Yongming Yanshou is said to have practiced seated chanting and silent meditation.

In 960, the King of Wuyue, Qian Chu, assigned Yongming Yanshou to be the abbot of Lingyin Temple, which the king had recently re-established.

Yongming Yanshou received gifts from the King of Korea, Gwangjong of Goryeo, and in return he ordained 36 Korean monks, who then returned home to teach.

Yongming Yanshou is best known for attempting to synthesize the diverse and seemingly contradictory teachings of the various schools of Buddhism that existed in China.

Yongming Yanshou is often associated with Pure Land Buddhism and Zen, but Pure Land largely formed after his lifetime, and he is largely concerned with Huayan in his writings, equating Huayan as when the teachings on the One Mind relies on doctrine and these teachings are in the form of Chan when this Mind is directly revealed.