The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1028 page)

Hsi Wang Mu
.

One of the most popular of the Chinese
hsien
(immortals). She is the Queen Mother of the West, whose peaches of immortality ripen once every 3,000 years. She has many cosmic powers, and became the focus of a cult seeking her aid in salvation at the opening of the Common Era.

 
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Hsi-yün
(Ch'an teacher)
:

see
HUANG-PO HSI-YÜN
.

 
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(Chin., ‘secret teaching’). An early stage of neo-
Taoism
, in the 3rd and 4th cents. CE. Important figures were Wang Pi (226–49), Hsiang Hsiu (221–300), Ho Yen (d. 249), and Kuo Hsiang (d. 312), all of whom wrote commentaries on
Tao-te ching
. They developed
Ch’ing-t’an
, reflective conversation, by which name the ‘movement’ is also known. Against their predecessors, they held that
Tao
, as non-being, is not an agent bringing things into being; things arise spontaneously within the totality of all existent being, which they took to be the meaning of
ti’en
, heaven.

 
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Hsüan-sha Shih-pei
(Jap., Gensha Shibi
;

835–908).
A Ch’an/Zen master, the dharma-successor (
hassu
) of
Hsüeh-feng I-ts’un
, who began life as an illiterate fisherman. He received initial training in a monastery under
Vinaya
rules, and lived an austerely ascetic life until he began pilgrimages to meet Ch’an masters. On one of these, he stubbed his toe against a stone in the road and experienced sudden enlightenment (
Ho-tse
).

 
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Hsüan-t’ien Shang-ti
.

(Lord of the Dark Heaven). A Chinese deity. One of a family of five deities in antiquity, each in charge of a cardinal direction of the cosmos: Lord Green (East), Lord Red (South), Lord White (West), Lord Dark (North), Lord Yellow (Centre). Lord Dark has the power of driving away evil spirits. The religious Taoists, desirous of physical immortality, prayed to the stellar divinities for assistance for the making of the
elixirs
. According to them, the North Pole Star (Plough or Dipper) is the central residence for the stellar deities headed by Hsüan-t’ien Shang-ti.

 
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Hsüan-tsang
,
San-tsang or T’ang-seng

(
c.
600–64).
A Chinese Buddhist monk and pilgrim, who was a major influence on the development of Buddhism in China through his translation of Skt. texts. He became a monk at the age of 13 and studied
Mah
y
na
under several teachers. The discrepancies led him to travel to India in order to return to the sources of the teaching. His famous pilgrimage is described in
Ta-t’ang hsi-yu chi
(Record of the Western Journey, tr. S. Beal, 1906), which became the basis for the 16th cent. novel
Hsi-yu chi
(tr. A. C. Yu, 1980; cf. also A. Waley,
Monkey
). His pupil, K’uei-chi (636–82) wrote commentaries on many of the translations, using them to systematize the Fa-hsiang teachings.