In the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Zen Buddhism spread to the fifth ancestor, Master Hong Ren, who was giving lectures at Huangmei in Hubei Province, and had more than 5 disciples, among whom Master Shen Xiu was the greatest disciple. Shenxiu is also recognized as the heir to the mantle of Zen. Hong Ren is getting old, so he wants to find an heir among his disciples, so he told his disciples that everyone should make a Ji Zi (a poem with Zen meaning) and pass it on to whoever does well. At this time, Shenxiu wanted to inherit the mantle very much, but she was afraid that she would do it for the purpose of inheriting the mantle, which violated the Buddhist inaction and made the artistic conception. So he got up in the middle of the night and wrote a song on the wall of the courtyard. The body of Kiko is a bodhi tree and the heart is a mirror platform. Always wipe, don't make dust. The meaning of this song is to take care of your mind and state of mind all the time, and to resist the temptation and all kinds of evil spirits through constant practice. It is a mentality of joining the WTO, emphasizing the role of practice. This kind of understanding is not quite consistent with the epiphany of the Mahayana Sect of Zen, so when everyone saw this Jizi the next morning, they all said it was good, and they all guessed that it was made by a beautiful show and admired it. Hong Ren did not make any comments after seeing it. Because he knows that Shen Xiu hasn't had an epiphany.

At this time, when all the monks in the temple were talking about this song, it was heard by a fire-headed monk in the kitchen, Zen Master Huineng. Huineng asked others to take him to see this Kiko at that time. What needs to be explained here is that Huineng is illiterate. He can't read. He heard someone say this Kiko, and at that time he said that this person had not understood the true meaning. So he made another Kiko himself and begged others to write it next to the beautiful Kiko. Bodhi had no trees, and the mirror was not a stage. There was nothing, so there was no dust. With this poem, we can see that Huineng is a man of great wisdom (some people later said that he was reincarnated as the 1th Bhikkhu), and his poem fits the idea of Zen epiphany. It is an attitude of being born, which mainly means that the world is empty, and everything in the world is an empty word. If the heart is empty, there is no need to resist the temptation from outside, and everything passes by the heart without leaving a trace. This is a very high realm of Zen, and those who appreciate this realm are called enlightenment.

When Hong Ren saw this Ji Zi, he asked the people around him who wrote it. The people nearby said that it was written by Huineng, so he called Huineng, said in front of him and other monks that it was a mess and nonsense, and erased the Ji Zi himself. Then he hit Huineng on the head three times and left. At this time, only Huineng understood the meaning of the five ancestors, so he went to Hongren's meditation room in the middle of the night, where Hongren explained to him the Diamond Sutra, one of the most important Buddhist classics, and handed it to him. Then, in order to prevent the beautiful people from hurting Huineng, Huineng was allowed to escape overnight. So Huineng went to the south overnight, and after 1 years of seclusion, he founded the southern Sect of Zen in Shaolin Temple in Putian. After Shen Xiu learned about it the next day, he sent someone to chase Huineng, but he didn't catch up. Later, Shenxiu became the protector of the Liang Dynasty and founded the Northern Sect of Zen.