Yantou Quanhuo
Japanese pronunciation: Ganto Zenkatsu
Mt. Yantou (Cliff head)   Complete Life
born:  827
died:  887   60 years

place:  China
Chan master:  Deshan (J., Tokusan)
Chan fellow student:  Xuefeng (J., Seppo)
Chan disciples:  Luoshan, Ruiyan, ...
stories:

Blue Cliff Record (Biyan Lu), Case 51, What is it?

Gateless Gate (Wumenguan), Case 13

Osho
This. This. A Thousand Times This: The Very
Essence of Zen, ch. 2

Zen: The Solitary Bird, Cuckoo of the Forest, ch.
11

Zen: The Diamond Thunderbolt, ch. 7

The Great Zen Master Ta Hui, ch. 19, ch. 35
Yantou met an untimely and violent death, related
in Zen literature.  Bandits and looters entered the
monastery in a time of political upheaval--all the
monks fled to the forest, but Yantou stayed sitting
in zazen meditation. When a bandit stabbed him to
death, Yantou let out a roar that could be heard for
10 miles.
aka: Yen T'ou (old W.G.)
      oshobob  The Living Workshop                                            
                                                Zen Masters

    When Yantou took leave of Deshan,
    Deshan said, "Where are you going?"

    Yantou said, "For now I am taking
    leave of you, master, and going down
    the mountain."

    Deshan said, "After that, then what?"

    Yantou said, "I won't forget you,
    master."

    "By virtue of what do you say this?"
    inquired Deshan.

    Yantou said, "Haven't you heard that
    when a monk's knowledge is equal to
    his teacher's he has less than half his
    teacher's virtue; when his knowledge
    surpasses the teacher's only then is he
    qualified for the transmission?"

    Deshan said, "So it is, so it is. Guard
    it well on your own."


    You cannot surpass the master's knowing
    because the master in the ultimate sense
    knows nothing. How can you surpass
    nothing – do you think there is any
    possibility? Something can be surpassed,
    but nothing cannot be surpassed. Nothing is
    vast and limitless, how can you surpass it?

    But Deshan is one of the great
    compassionate teachers. Rather than hitting
    Yantou, out of compassion he simply says,
    "Yes. It is so, So it is. Guard it well on your
    own. I take back my responsibility for you,
    now you are on your own, be on guard." In
    fact what he is saying is, "Now I am no more
    concerned with you. You are breaking all the
    bridges between you and me. Whatever you
    think, whatever you have understood, guard
    it well and be on your own..."

                                                 --Osho
             Zen: The Diamond Thunderbolt, ch. 7
Chinese simplified:  岩头全活
Note:  In his original English talks,
Osho used the Japanese
pronunciations of the Chinese names
used in these stories, to a large extent.
In his books the names were
romanized using Japanese romaji. In
the instances where Osho used the
original Chinese names, they were
romanized in the books using the old
Wade-Giles system, now seen very
infrequently in world wide usage.

The stories shown on this website will
attempt to revert to the more accurate
original Chinese identification, using
modern Chinese pinyin romanization, if
the people and places are Chinese. If
they are Japanese, then Japanese
romaji will be retained.