| born: c. 12th century died: place: China |
| Chan master: ... Chan disciples: ... |
| stories: Osho The Search: Talks on the Ten Bulls of Zen (entire book uses the paintings and commentaries of the Ten Bulls of Zen) |
Japanese pronunciation: Kakuan Shien
Kuoan Shiyuan
| oshobob The Living Workshop |
| Zen Masters |
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| Basically, there were eight pictures, not ten; and they were not Buddhist, they were Taoist. Their beginning is lost. Nobody knows how they started, who painted the first bulls. But in the twelfth century a Chinese Zen master, Kuoan, repainted them; and not only that, he added two more pictures, and eight became ten. The Taoist pictures were ending on the eighth; the eighth is emptiness, nothingness. But Kuoan added two new pictures. That is the very contribution of Zen to religious consciousness... --Osho The Search, ch. 1 |
廓庵師遠
Expansive Hut Teacher Profound
Chinese simplified: 廓庵师远
These ten images below, generally known in
English as the Ox-herding Pictures, or The Ten
Bulls of Zen, were painted by the 15th century
Japanese Rinzai Zen monk Shubun (1414-63).
They are said to be copies of originals, now lost,
traditionally attributed to Kuoan, the 12th century
Chinese Zen Master. Kept at the Shokoko-ji
Temple in Kyoto, Japan.
English as the Ox-herding Pictures, or The Ten
Bulls of Zen, were painted by the 15th century
Japanese Rinzai Zen monk Shubun (1414-63).
They are said to be copies of originals, now lost,
traditionally attributed to Kuoan, the 12th century
Chinese Zen Master. Kept at the Shokoko-ji
Temple in Kyoto, Japan.
| 1 Looking for the Bull |
| 2 Noticing the Footprints |
| 3 Catching Sight of the Bull |
| 4 Getting Hold of the Bull |
| 5 Taming the Bull |
| 6 Riding the Bull Home |
| 7 Bull Vanished, Herdsman Remaining |
| 8 Bull and Herdsman Vanished |
| 9 Returning to the Source |
| 10 Entering the Marketplace |
| Click on images to enlarge |