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Tang Dynasty Chan Master Mazu Daoyi founded the Chinese monastic community, but his successor, Chan Master Baizhang Huaihai, refined its system of regulations. “Mazu built the community, Baizhang made the rules.” Master Baizhang promoted the agricultural Chan lifestyle of “a day without working, a day without eating.” As well as leading the Sangha in practice, he worked hard every day. Despite old age, he continued leading his disciples up into the mountains to fetch firewood, and then down to labor in the fields. Finally, his disciples could no longer bear to let the old master endure such toil. The Sangha implored him not to go out with the disciples. But Master Baizhang was firm: “I am not virtuous enough to burden other people. Living in this world, if we don’t do our work, would we not become useless?”
The disciples could not sway the determined master. They could only hide his carrying pole and hoe. But after Baizhang went on a hunger strike, the disciples had no choice but return his tools. The spirit of Chan Master Baizhang’s “a day without working, a day without eating” has been a maxim for the monastic community throughout the ages.