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7. The Fourth Patriarch
and the Emperor Tai Tsung (Tai-so).
The Third 2
Patriarch was succeeded by Tao Sin (Do-shin), who being initiated at the age of
fourteen, was created the Fourth Patriarch after nine years' study and discipline.
Tao Sin is said never to have gone to bed for more than forty years of his
patriarchal career.3 In A.D. 643 the Emperor Tai Tsung (627-649),
knowing of his virtues, sent him a special messenger, requesting him to call on
His Majesty at the palace. But he declined the invitation by a memorial, saying
that be was too aged and infirm to visit the august personage. The Emperor,
desirous of seeing the reputed patriarch, sent for him thrice, but in vain.
Then the enraged monarch ordered the messenger to behead the inflexible monk,
and bring the head before the throne, in case he should disobey the order for
the fourth time. As Tao Sin was told of the order of the Emperor, he stretched
out his neck ready to be decapitated. The Emperor, learning from the messenger
what had happened, admired all the more the imperturbable patriarch, and
bestowed rich gifts upon him. This example of his was followed by later Zen
masters, who would not condescend to bend their knees before temporal power,
and it became one of the characteristics of Zen monks that they
would never approach rulers
and statesmen for the sake of worldly fame and profit, which they set at
naught.
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