Talk:Yequan Shenxiu

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page.
Start This article has been rated as start-Class on the project's quality scale. [FAQ]
This article is supported by the Science and academia work group.
Maintenance An appropriate infobox may need to be added to this article, or the current infobox may need to be updated. Please refer to the list of biography infoboxes for further information.
This article is part of WikiProject China, a project to improve all China-related articles. If you would like to help improve this and other China-related articles, please join the project. All interested editors are welcome.
Start This article has been rated as Start-Class on the quality scale. (add comments)
WikiProject Buddhism This article falls within the scope of WikiProject Buddhism, an attempt to promote better coordination, content distribution, and cross-referencing between pages dealing with Buddhism. Please participate by editing the article Yequan Shenxiu, or visit the project page for more details on the projects.
Start This article has been rated as Start-class on the quality scale.
??? This article has not yet received a rating on the importance scale.

Article Grading:
The article has been rated for quality and/or importance but has no comments yet. If appropriate, please review the article and then leave comments here to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article and what work it will need.

An entry from Yequan Shenxiu appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? column on 18 March 2007.
Wikipedia

[edit] Biography assessment rating comment

The article may be improved by following the WikiProject Biography 11 easy steps to producing at least a B article.-- Jreferee 15:52, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] latest edits

I can't agree with the edits on this page by Dsantayana. I feel they do not have a NPOV. I do not know what "some fierce crushing aided by the regime on Dharma succession." means. I also do not agree with "which was replaced by Chinese monism to entertain its egalitarian social thinking." This is a subjective POV. While China may not have a "cast[e]" system, it is still very hierarchical and there has traditionally been little mobility for the masses and very little egalitarianism.

Furthermore, "The destroy of Shenxiu's teaching was done during the period." is not true. There is considerable current academic thought that much of the Platform Sutra was based on (if not actually written by) Shenxiu and his teaching. Hence, I wrote: "The influence of Shenxiu’s teachings on subsequent Chan doctrine and practices is still a somewhat open question." to leave the question open as it is not absolutely certain what his influence on later Chan was although there is little doubt that he did influence the Southern School and hence, all subsequent Zen. Yanagida Seizan wrote: "The Southern School is predicated on the Northern School. Without the Northern School there could not have been any Southern School" (McRae, 1986:338 n.291) Shenxiu's teaching was not "destroyed".

Could someone point me to a reference to Shenxiu's "Traces of Dualism in his moral cosmology"?

The decline of the Northern School as a separate entity in the history of Chan is far more complex than Dsantayana makes out. These are complicated questions fraught with myth, politics and uncertain documentation. I suggest great care be taken so as not to mislead readers who are unfamiliar with the topic. I would appreciate some feedback as to whether others believe that these edits are inappropriate. thank you Thinman10

As no one has commented on my comment above, I've taken the liberty of removing some additions which I believe do not have a neutral point of view. Thinman10 06:34, 30 April 2007 (UTC)