Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica

Speaker: Ting-shuo Huang (Assistant Research Fellow)

Topic: How Historiography Rewrites the History of Chan Buddhism

Host: Jeng-guo Chen (Research Fellow and Deputy Director)

Date: October 19 (Sun.), 11:00 – 12:00, 2025

Venue: 5F, Conference Room, Museum of the IHP

Note: 2025 Academia Sinica Open House IHP Lectures

Abstract:

The poem contest held by the Fifth Patriarch of Chan Buddhism to decide to whom he would pass down his robe and teachings, which involved Dajian Huineng (638–713)—winner and Sixth Patriarch—and Chan master Yuquan Shenxiu (605–706) of the Northern School, is a well-known story in the history of Chan Buddhism. For centuries, it was often concluded that Huineng’s spiritual attainment had been superior to Shenxiu’s based on their authored verses, leading to the belief that the Southern School, represented by Huineng, becoming the mainstream of later Chan Buddhism was inevitable. This narrative, however, faced a significant challenge with the discovery of the Dunhuang manuscripts in the early twentieth century. The first to employ modern historiographical methodologies in the study of the newly discovered documents and effectively challenge the traditional narrative was our own Hu Shih (1891–1962), president of the Academia Sinica. Guided by his seminal work Biography of Master Shenhui of Heze, an increasing number of scholars began to reexamine history through historiographical approaches, and as a result, our understanding of the history of Chan Buddhism today differs profoundly from that of the past.