Concept
Yongming Yanshou
Overview
Yongming Yanshou (Chinese: 永明延壽; pinyin: Yǒngmíng Yánshòu; Wade–Giles: Yung-ming Yen-shou; Japanese: 永明延寿 or Yōmyō Enju; Korean: Yŏngmyŏng Yŏnsu; Vietnamese: Vĩnh Minh Diên Thọ) (904–976) was a prominent Buddhist monk during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period and early Song Dynasty in China. He promoted a non-sectarian and inclusive Mahayana Buddhism, drawing on Chan, Huayan, Tiantai and Pure Land. Yanshou promoted a holistic and syncretic teaching which saw the sudden enlightenment focused practice of Chan as fully compatible with the myriad skillful means of Chinese Buddhism (such as rituals, bodhisattva precepts, worship, nianfo and cultivation of good deeds).
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
According to this account we may say that the diffusion of our great doctrines in the East began from the setting up of this image. If it had not been through that Maitreya, the great spiritual master who is to be the successor of the Sâkya, who could have caused the 'Three Precious Ones,' [3] to be proclaimed so far, and the people of those border lands to know our Law? We know of a truth that the opening of the…
Confucius, Chinese literature
Close in meaning to Yongming Yanshou; the term itself is not named.
Since the fall of the Mongols (1370), the Government has uniformly favoured Confucianism as the teaching of the State; before that, there were struggles with Buddhism and Taoism, which were connected with magic, and appealed to superstitious Emperors, quite a number of whom died of drinking the Taoist elixir of life. The Mongol Emperors were Buddhists of the Lama religion, which still prevails in Tibet and Mongolia…
Bertrand Russell, The Problem of China
Close in meaning to Yongming Yanshou; the term itself is not named.
Therefore Europe has only lately obtained some slight knowledge of the religious state of the Chinese. We now know, that is to say, that in China there exists first of all a worship of Nature, which is universally professed, and dates from the earliest times, even, it is alleged, from before the discovery of fire, wherefore animals were sacrificed raw. The sacrifices offered up publicly at certain seasons or after…
Arthur Schopenhauer, On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, and On the Will in Nature
Close in meaning to Yongming Yanshou; the term itself is not named.
Related ideas
- Sudden awakening
- Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana
- Nirvana (Buddhism)
- Prajnaparamita
- Linji school
- Pure Land Buddhism
- Tiyong
- Chinese Buddhism
- Huayan
- Guifeng Zongmi
- Tiantai
- East Asian Yogācāra
- Lotus Sutra
- Nianfo
- Zen
- Buddhism
- Chan Buddhism
- Buddhists
- China
- Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period
- Upaya
- Buddha-nature
- Buddhist music
Place in the tradition
Part of Zen.