Danxia Zichun

Danxia Zichun 丹霞子淳
Religion	Chán/Zen
School	Caodong/Sōtō
Personal
Born	1064 Zitong, China
Died	1117
Senior posting
Title	Chán master
Predecessor	Furong Daokai
Successor	Zhenxie Qingliao
Religious career
Teacher	Furong Daokai
Students	Hongzhi Zhengjue Zhenxie Qingliao Huizhao Qingyu

Danxia Zichun (1064-1117) (Chinese: 丹霞子淳; Wade–Giles: Tan-hsia Tzu-ch'un; Japanese: Tanka Shijun), was a Zen Buddhist monk during the Song Dynasty. He was born in a city called Zitong, which is in modern Sichuan Province. He is buried in south of Mt Hong near the modern city of Wuhan.^[1] While not a particularly notable monk himself, his three students, Hongzhi Zhengjue, Zhenxie Qingliao, Huizhao Qingyu, were each especially famous during their lifetimes. He is the only student of Furong Daokai that has a collection of recorded sayings that has survived to the present. It these sayings, he advocated a silent illumination approach to seated meditation. For example, he is recorded as saying, "You must completely let go of all worldly concerns and sit totally still in the dry wood hall. You must die a turn and then in this death establish everything in the whole universe."^[2]

References

1. Ferguson, Andrew E. (2000), Zen's Chinese heritage: the masters and their teachings, Wisdom Publications, pp. 384–388, ISBN 978-0-86171-163-5
2. Schlütter, Morten (2010), How Zen Became Zen: The Dispute Over Enlightenment and the Formation of Chan Buddhism in Song-Dynasty China, University of Hawaii Press, pp. 102, 164, ISBN 978-0-8248-3508-8