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The Oxhead school (牛頭宗 Niu-t'ou zong) was an important tradition of Chinese Chan Buddhism in the Tang dynasty, which claimed to have been founded by Niutou Farong 牛頭法融 (594–657), whom the tradition regards as a Dharma heir of the Fourth Patriarch Daoxin (580-651).[1] However, the connection between the two monks is tenuous, and the actual formation of the Oxhead School as a lineage independent of both Northern and Southern Chan has been credited to the monk Zhiwei (646–722).[2]
Their main temple was located at Oxhead Mountain (Niu-t'ou shan) in Chiang-su, near modern Nanjing, hence the name. The school throve throughout the Tang and into the early years of the Song dynasty (10th century).[3] Sharf observes that the Oxhead School played a central role in the development of early Chan.[4] According to John R. McRae, the original text of the Platform Sutra may have originated within the Oxhead school.[5]
- ^ Baroni, Helen J. (2002) The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Zen Buddhism, The Rosen Publishing Group, p. 251.
- ^ Robert E. Buswell Jr. and Donald S. Lopez Jr., The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, page 595, Princeton University Press, 2014
- ^ Ferguson, Andy (2011), Zen's Chinese Heritage: The Masters and Their Teachings, Simon and Schuster, p. 38.
- ^ Robert Sharf, Coming to Terms with Chinese Buddhism: A Reading of the Treasure Store Treatise, page 40, University of Hawai'i Press, 2002
- ^ McRae, John R.(1983). The Northern School of Chinese Chan Buddhism. Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University.