Ungan Donjō
Presentation
Ungan Donjō (Yunyan Tansheng, 780–841) is the 38th patriarch of Sōtō Zen, a disciple of Yakusan Igen and the master of Tōzan Ryōkai, the founder of the Caodong school. After twenty years spent with Hyakujō Ekai without attaining awakening, he found realization under the guidance of Yakusan and received the transmission of the *dharma*. His name evokes Mount Ungan (Hunan) where he taught, and he is traditionally attributed as the author of the *Hōkyō Zanmai* (Chant of the Precious Mirror Samādhi), one of the fundamental texts of the Sōtō tradition.
Biography
Ungan Donjō (Yunyan Tansheng) was born in 780 in the Jianchang region (present-day Jiangxi, China). According to ancient chronicles, he became a monk at the age of sixteen at Shimen Monastery, under the direction of the famous master Hyakujō Ekai (Baizhang Huaihai, 720–814), renowned for his Pure Rules which founded Chan monasticism. He remained with Hyakujō for about twenty years, but without attaining awakening.
After Hyakujō's death in 814, Ungan undertook a long pilgrimage, visiting many masters before settling with Yakusan Igen (Yaoshan Weiyan), at Mount Yakusan. It was under Yakusan's guidance that he finally realized the great awakening and received the transmission of the dharma.
The first part of his name comes from Mount Ungan (雲巌, "Cloud Cliff"), located near present-day Changsha (Hunan), where he settled after his enlightenment and taught until his death. He passed away in 841, following an illness. The day before his death, he ordered his disciples to prepare a banquet, announcing that a monk was about to leave the monastery — referring to his own departure.
The Hōkyō Zanmai — Song of the Precious Mirror Samādhi
Ungan is traditionally associated with the famous poem Hōkyō Zanmai (寶鏡三昧, "Song of the Precious Mirror Samādhi"), one of the foundational texts of the Caodong school. This poem, which expounds the vision of reality through the image of the precious mirror reflecting each thing without discrimination, is attributed to Ungan for the first time in the biographical compilation by Juefan Huihong (1119), the Chanlin sengbao zhuan.
Huihong reports that Ungan entrusted the poem to his disciple Tōzan Ryōkai (Dongshan Liangjie), but that its true authorship might go back further — perhaps to Yakusan Igen himself. Modern historians, including Morten Schlütter, note that the provenance of the text is doubtful and that its style differs significantly from known works from Ungan's time. Most later sources (Japanese Buddhist dictionaries and Zen catalogs) attribute the poem to Tōzan rather than to Ungan.
Whatever its exact origin, the Hōkyō Zanmai has become a central text of Sōtō Zen. Its famous verses — "Like an ox, the Way; like a mirror, awakening" — are recited daily in Sōtō temples in Japan and are commented upon throughout Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō.
The Dialogues with Dōgo Enchi
Ungan is inseparable from his fellow disciple Dōgo Enchi (Daowu Yuanzhi, 769–835), also an heir of Yakusan Igen. The annals of Chan are full of dialogues between the two monks, whose complicity and fraternal tensions offer a living teaching.
The most famous of these exchanges — reported in the Hekiganroku (Case 89), the Shōyōroku (Case 54), and Dōgen's Shinji Shōbōgenzō (Case 105) — concerns the many eyes and hands of Avalokiteśvara (Kannon):
Ungan asked Dōgo: "What does the bodhisattva Kannon do with his innumerable hands and eyes?"
Dōgo replied: "It is like someone who, during the night, searches for a pillow by groping."
Ungan said: "I understand."
Dōgo asked: "What have you understood?"
Ungan replied: "All over the body, they are hands and eyes."
Dōgo said: "You have said much, but it is only ninety percent."
Ungan said: "What I say, it is so. What do you say?"
Dōgo replied: "Throughout the body, they are hands and eyes."
This kōan explores radical compassion: the infinite means of the bodhisattva are not added skills, but the spontaneous manifestation of the totality of the awakened body-mind — every action, every gesture, every moment is a "compassionate hand."
Legacy and Posterity
Ungan's importance in Zen history lies less in his personal fame than in his role as a link between two colossal figures: Yakusan Igen, from whom he received the transmission, and Tōzan Ryōkai, to whom he transmitted it. It is through Ungan that the torch of the dharma passed from the golden age of Tang Chan to the founding of the Caodong school.
Tōzan Ryōkai would not only become the founder of the Caodong school (Sōtō in Japan), but also the author of the famous Hōkyō Zanmai (if one follows the most common attribution), as well as the Sandokai and the treatise on the Five Ranks. In the Denkōroku, Ungan is the 38th patriarch, between Yakusan Igen (37th) and Tōzan Ryōkai (39th).
Dōgen, the Japanese founder of Sōtō, abundantly cites the dialogues of Ungan and Dōgo in his Shōbōgenzō, seeing in them a perfect illustration of the non-dual expression of awakening in the relationship between masters and disciples.
Sources
- Andy Ferguson, Zen's Chinese Heritage: The Masters and Their Teachings, Wisdom Publications, 2011 — pp. 220–222
- Keizan Jōkin, Denkōroku — Case 38 (Ungan)
- Morten Schlütter, How Zen Became Zen: The Dispute over Enlightenment and the Formation of Chan Buddhism in Song-Dynasty China, University of Hawai'i Press, 2008
- Dōgen, Shōbōgenzō — chapter "Kannon"
- Hekiganroku (Blue Cliff Record), Case 89
- Shōyōroku (Book of Serenity), Case 54
- Wikipedia — Yunyan Tansheng
CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 — Unless otherwise indicated, the contents of this site are distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.