Moshan and Zhixian
- Told in
- Jingde chuandeng lu (fascicle 11, entry for Moshan Liaoran (T51n2076_p0288c28–p0289a14))Tiansheng guangdeng lu (fascicle 13, entry for Guanxi Zhixian (X78n1553_p0479a13–a14))
- People
- Moshan Liaoran (the teacher)Guanxi Zhixian (the student)Linji Yixuan (Zhixian’s other teacher)
- Place
- Moshan, Jiangxi
- Used as
- EncounterTeaching story
- Standing
- Traditional: told by the tradition, not independently attested
Zhixian, a student of Linji, came to Moshan intending to test the nun who taught there, and if she was no good, to overturn her seat. The nun, Moshan Liaoran, sent an attendant to ask whether he had come to look at the mountain or for the dharma. For the dharma, he said. She took the high seat and he came up.
What is Moshan? he asked. Its peak is not revealed, she said. Who is the master of Moshan? Not a male or female form, she said. Then why don’t you change? he said. I am not a spirit or a ghost, she said; what would I change? He submitted, and stayed three years as her gardener.
Later, teaching, he said he had received half a ladle at Linji’s and half a ladle at Moshan’s, and had not been hungry since.
Retold for this site from Jingde chuandeng lu, fascicle 11, entry for Moshan Liaoran (T51n2076_p0288c28–p0289a14).
In the text
問。如何是末山。然云。不露頂。閑云。如何是末山主。然云。非男女相。
He asked: What is Moshan? Liaoran said: Its peak is not revealed. Zhixian said: Who is the master of Moshan? Liaoran said: Not a male or female form.
What the tradition does with it
- a woman recognised as a master
- form and gender
- the record counting only the male line
Sources
- Daoyuan (comp.), Jingde chuandeng lu 景德傳燈錄 (1004), Taishō T.2076
- Li Zunxu 李遵勗 (comp.), Tiansheng guangdeng lu 天聖廣燈錄 (1036), Zokuzōkyō X.1553
- Miriam L. Levering, The Dragon Girl and the Abbess of Mo-shan: Gender and Status in the Ch’an Buddhist Tradition (1982), Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 5.1 (1982), pp. 19–35
Checked against sources 2026-10-31 by pipeline/opus@f1ee538. Report an error.