Yunmen Monastery on Mount Yunmen in Guangdong was established by the Chan master Yunmen Wenyan (862 or 864 to 949) after he succeeded his teacher Lingshu Rumin around 918, and where he resided and taught for roughly thirty years. It is the founding seat of the Yunmen school, one of the Five Houses of classical Chan, whose recorded encounter dialogues later fed into the compilation of the Blue Cliff Record, one of the most studied koan collections in the Chan and Zen traditions.
Facts
Geography
LatitudeApproximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; this marks the site's general location for a map, not a survey-grade or precise boundary measurement. LongitudeApproximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; this marks the site's general location for a map, not a survey-grade or precise boundary measurement. Site
Type of SiteMonastery or monastic community 1 Type of Site DetailThe monastery had declined for centuries after Yunmen Wenyan's death until the Chan master Xuyun undertook its full reconstruction beginning in the 1940s, formally reviving the Yunmen lineage by installing a new dharma heir as its thirteenth patriarch; the rebuilt monastery, completed as Communist rule was consolidating in China, remains the school's active seat today. 1 Status
Status TodayIn active religious use 1 UNESCO World Heritage Location
Connections
Belongs to Tradition
Source Seeing Through Zen: Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan BuddhismJohn R. McRae
Contained In
Source Seeing Through Zen: Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan BuddhismJohn R. McRae
Founded By
The monastery on Mount Yunmen was founded as Yunmen Wenyan's own teaching seat and is the site from which the Yunmen school of Chan takes its name.
Source The Princeton Dictionary of BuddhismRobert E. Buswell Jr. and Donald S. Lopez Jr.
Originated In
China, Regions Source Seeing Through Zen: Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan BuddhismJohn R. McRae
Related To
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Located In
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Sources
1. Seeing Through Zen: Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism
John R. McRae, University of California Press, 2003- on Yunmen Wenyan and the Yunmen school of Chan
- Originated In: China, Stored country property on this entity, cited to this source: China
View the Source 2. UNESCO World Heritage List
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO World Heritage CentreView the Source 3. Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)
Encyclopaedia Britannica editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2024View the Source Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005on the Five Houses of classical ChanView the Source Reader Challenges (0)
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