Editing Sengcan (section)

==Biography==
The year and place of Sengcan's birth are unknown, as is his family name.

===Huike===
It is said that Sengcan (old spelling: Tsang Tsan) was over forty years old when he first met Huike in 536 <ref>Ferguson  , p 21</ref> and that he stayed with his teacher for six years. (Dumoulin, p 97) It was Huike who gave him the name Sengcan (“Gem Monk”).<ref>Ferguson, p 22</ref>

''[[The Jingde Record of the Transmission of the Lamp|The Transmission of the Lamp]]'' entry on Sengcan begins with a koan-like encounter with Huike:
:Sengcan: I am riddled with sickness.{{refn|group=lower-alpha|Said to be [[leprosy]]}} Please absolve me of my sin.
:Huike: Bring your sin here and I will absolve you.
:Sengcan (after a long pause): When I look for my sin, I cannot find it.
:Huike: I have absolved you. You should live by the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha.<ref>Cleary 1990, p 129</ref>{{refn|group=lower-alpha|Compare with Huike’s meeting with his teacher, Bodhidharma:
:Huike: My mind is not at ease---please pacify it for me!
:Bodhidharma: Bring me your mind, and I will.
:Huike: But no matter how I might look, the mind is not a ‘thing’ I can find.
:Bodhidharma: There, I’ve pacified your mind for you!”<ref>McRae, p 23</ref>}}{{refn|group=lower-alpha|See also [http://www.thezensite.com/ZenEssays/Philosophical/Three_LanguageRelated_Methods.html Three Language-Related Methods In Early Chinese Chan Buddhism by Desheng Zong]</re}}

There are discrepancies about how long Sengcan stayed with Huike. ''The Transmission of the Lamp'' records that he “attended Huike for two years” <ref>Cleary, p 129</ref> after which Huike passed on the robe of Bodhidharma and Bodhidharma's Dharma (generally considered to be the Lankavatara Sutra), making him the Third Patriarch of Chan.

According to Dumoulin,<ref>Dumoulin p 97</ref> in 574 the accounts say that he fled with Huike to the mountains due to the Buddhist persecution underway at that time. However, the Lamp records claim that after giving Sengcan Dharma transmission, Huike warned Sengcan to live in the mountains and “Wait for the time when you can transmit the Dharma to someone else.”<ref>Ferguson, p 22,</ref> as a prediction made to Bodhidharma (Huike's teacher) by Prajnadhara, the twenty-seventh Chan ancestor in India, foretold of a coming calamity.{{refn|group=lower-alpha|the Buddhist persecution of 574-577}}

After receiving transmission, Sengcan lived in hiding on Wangong Mountain in Yixian and then on Sikong Mountain in southwestern Anhui. Thereafter, for ten years he wandered with [[no fixed abode]].<ref>Ferguson, p 23</ref>

===Daoxin===
He met [[Daoxin]], (580-651) {{refn|group=lower-alpha|Wade-Giles: ''{{lang|zh-Latn|Tao-hsin}}'' {{lang|zh|道信}}; Japanese: ''{{lang|ja-Latn|Daii Doshin}}''}} a novice monk of just fourteen, in 592.{{refn|group=lower-alpha|The discrepancy is noted. The 592 date comes from Ferguson, p 24}} Daoxin attended Sengcan for nine years and received Dharma transmission when he was still in his early twenties.

Subsequently, Sengcan spent two years at Mount Luofu (Lo-fu shan, northeast of Kung-tung (Canton)) before returning to Wangong Mountain. He died sitting under a tree before a Dharma assembly in 606.

Dumoulin <ref>pp 104–105, n.54</ref> notes that a Chinese official, Li Ch’ang found Sengcan's grave in Shu-chou in 745 or 746.

Sengcan received the honorary title {{lang|zh-Latn|Jianzhi}} {{lang|zh|鑑智}} (“Mirror Wisdom”) {{refn|group=lower-alpha|Wade-Giles, {{lang|zh-Latn|Chien-chih}}; Japanese, {{lang|ja-Latn|Kanchi}}}} from the Tang dynasty emperor Xuan Zong.