He Xin, Stop Trading on Your Age and Trading on Your Ignorance!

Girl Who Likes Mathematics

This He Xin has always traded on his seniority and traded on his ignorance. Today I again came across his "On the Classical Spirit of Chinese Painting and the Decline of Contemporary Painting Style" (preface to "He Xin's Painting Collection"), and the same old problems persist. Since this gentleman has devoted himself to the lineage of Chan painting from the transition between the Southern Song and Yuan -- Yujian, Wen Riguan, and Muqi -- he naturally must show off his knowledge of Chan Buddhism. Laughably, he writes: "In Buddhism, human problems are divided into three realms for consideration. First is the desire realm, second is the form realm where desires are more attenuated, and finally the formless realm where both desire and form have vanished, which is the realm of enlightenment (Buddha). What Chan Buddhism focuses on is precisely liberation from the desire realm and form realm to attain the state of the formless realm." The error here is the most basic kind of common knowledge -- one that even an ordinary old grandmother wouldn't commit. The formless realm equals the Buddha realm? Chan Buddhism focuses on entering the formless realm? Even when an Arhat enters the cessation absorption, they have already transcended the highest heaven of the formless realm -- the Heaven of Neither Perception Nor Non-Perception. Not knowing something this kindergarten-level and still daring to wave the Chan Buddhism flag?

The next error is slightly more advanced. Due to the later erosion of Chan by Laozi-Zhuangzi thought, virtually everyone conflates Chan Buddhism with Laozi and Zhuangzi, spouting nonsense about Chan being sinicized, Laozi-Zhuangzi-ized Buddhism, and other such rubbish. Since this gentleman dares to commit even kindergarten-level errors like the above, the following mistake is hardly surprising: "And ascending one pass from the study of Zhuangzi, one glimpses the workings of Chan." Such Chan Buddhism is truly feeble and tangled.

This gentleman also has another problem: the more ignorant he is, the more fearless. He says things like "wild fox" actually just means "talking nonsense." Well then, since you're talking nonsense, let's see how things look on the last day of the twelfth month. Let's see whether it's nonsense or fox-sense.

This young lady very seriously requests that this gentleman stop talking nonsense henceforth. When the time comes, wanting to be a "hu" (nonsense) will turn you into a "hu" (fox). He also says things like: "The reason Chan Buddhism positions itself outside the teachings, transmitting only the mind-seal, not establishing language or written words, is also to break through the obstacle of apophatic definition." But when has apophatic definition ever been an obstacle? Do not let diseased eyes produce phantom flowers. I request that old Mr. He Xin first study the koan of Jiashan meeting the Boatman, then look at the koan of Deshao meeting Fayan. Matters of the ancestral school are weighty -- do not make a mess of the lineage.