The Ten Oxherding Pictures
From "A Manual of Zen Buddhism"
by
Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki
Preliminary
The author of these "Ten
Oxherding Pictures" is said to be a Zen master of the Sung Dynasty known
as Kaku-an Shi-en (Kuo-an Shih-yuan) belonging to the Rinzai school. He is also
the author of the poems and introductory words attached to the pictures. He
was not however the first who attempted to illustrate by means of pictures stages
of Zen discipline, for in his general preface to the pictures he refers to another
Zen master called Seikyo (Ching-chu), probably a contemporary of his, who made
use of the ox to explain his Zen teaching. But in Seikyo's case the gradual
development of the Zen life was indicated by a progressive whitening of the
animal, ending in the disappearance of the whole being. There were in this only
five pictures, instead of ten as by Kaku-an. Kaku-an thought this was somewhat
misleading because of an empty circle being made the goal of Zen discipline.
Some might take mere emptiness as all important and final. Hence his improvement
resulting in the "Ten Oxherding Pictures" as we have them now.
According to a commentator of
Kaku-an's Pictures, there is another series of the Oxherding Pictures by a Zen
master called Jitoku Ki (Tzu-te Hui), who apparently knew of the existance of
the Five Pictures by Seikyo, for Jitoku's are six in number. The last one, No.
6, goes beyond the stage of absolute emptiness where Seikyo's end: the poem
reads:
"Even beyond the ultimate
limits there extends a passageway,
Whereby he comes back among the
six realms of existence;
Every worldly affair is a Buddhist
work,
And wherever he goes he finds
his home air;
Like a gem he stands out even
in the mud,
Like pure gold he shines even
in the furnace;
Along the endless road (of birth
and death) he walks sufficient unto himself,
In whatever associations he is
found he moves leisurely unattached."
Jitoku's ox grows whiter as Seikyo's,
and in this particular respect both differ from Kaku-an's conception. In the
latter there is no whitening process. In Japan Kaku-an's Ten Pictures gained
a wide circulation, and at present all the oxherding books reproduce them. The
earliest one belongs I think to the fifteenth century. In China however a different
edition seems to have been in vogue, one belonging to the Seikyo and Jitoku
series of pictures. The author is not known. The edition containing the preface
by Chu-hung, I585, has ten pictures, each of which is preceded by Pu-ming's
poem. As to who this Pu-ming was, Chu-hung himself professes ignorance. In these
pictures the ox's colouring changes together with the oxherd's management of
him. The quant original Chinese prints are reproduced below, and also Pu-ming's
verses translated into English.
Thus as far as I can identify
there are four varieties of the Oxherding Pictures: (I) by Kaku-an, (2) by Seikyo,
(3) by Jitoku, and (4) by an unknown author.
Kaku-an's "Pictures" here reproduced are by Shubun, a Zen priest of
the fifteenth century. The original pictures are preserved at Shokokuji, Kyoto.
He was one of the greatest painters in black and white in the Ashikaga period.