The meditational school of East Asian Buddhism， a comprehensive rubric for a wide variety of sects which developed in China， Vietnam， Korean and Japan. Known in Chinese as Chan zong， in Korean as Sonjong and in Japanese as Zenshu^.
The Chinese Chan school's own historical accounts indicate that the school was founded with the arrival of a somewhat legendary Indian monk named Bodhidharma 达摩， ostensibly the twenty-eighth patriarch in a lineage that extended all the way back to S/a^kyamuni. Bodhidharma is recorded as having come to China to teach a "separate transmission outside of the texts" which "did not rely upon textuality." His special new form of religion was then transmitted to through a series of Chinese patriarchs， the most famous of whom was the Sixth Patriarch， Huineng 慧能. It is more likely however， in terms of history， that Chan began to develop gradually in different regions of China as a grass-roots movement which was reacting to what was perceived as an imbalance in Chinese Buddhism towards the blind pursuit of textual scholarship with a concomitant neglect of the original essence of Buddhist practice--meditation and the cultivation of the right view.
After the time of Huineng， Chinese Chan began to branch off into numerous different schools， each with their own special emphasis， but all of which kept the same basic focus on meditational practice， personal instruction and grounded personal experience. During the late Tang and the Song periods， the tradition truly flowered， as a wide number of eminent teachers， such as Mazu 马祖， Baijang 百丈， Yunmen 云门 and Linji 临济 developed specialized teaching methods， which would become characteristic in each of the "five houses" 五家 of mature Chinese Chan. Later on， the teaching styles and words of these classical masters were recorded in such important Chan texts as the Biyan lu 碧巖录 （Blue Cliff Record） and the Wumen guan 无门关 （Gateless Barrier） which would be studied by later generations of students down to the present. Chan continued to be influential， along with Pure Land as a Buddhist religious force in China， although some energy was lost with the revival of Confucianism from the Song onward. Chan was mostly eliminated in China in the modern era with the appearance of the People's Republic， but still continues to hold a significant following in Taiwan.
Chan was gradually transmitted into Korea during the late Silla period （8th and 9th） centuries） as Korean monks of predominantly Hwaom 华严 and Consciousness-only 唯识 background began to travel to China to learn the newly developing tradition. The first transmission of Chan into Korea is attributed to a monk named Pomnang 法朗， but he was soon followed by a throng of Son students， who later returned to Korea to establish the "nine mountain" 九山 schools， with "nine mountains" becoming a nickname for Korean Son which survives down to the present. Korean Son received its most significant impetus and consolidation from the Koryo monk Chinul 知讷， who established the Songgwangsa 松广寺 as a new center of pure practice. It is from the time of Chinul that the predominant single meditational sect in Korea becomes the Chogye 曹溪， which survives down to the present in basically the same status. Toward the end of the Koryo and during the Choson period the Chogye school would first be combined with the scholarly 教 schools， and then suffer from persecution at the hands of a Confucian influenced polity. Nonetheless， there would be a series of important teachers during the next several centuries， such as Hyegun 慧勤， T'aego 太古， Kihwa 己和 and Hyujong 休静， who continued to developed the basic mold of Korean meditational Buddhism established by Chinul. Son continues to be practiced in Korea today at a number of major monastic centers.
Despite the fact that Japanese Buddhists were aware of the development of the Chan school in China from a fairly early date， no formal schools were established until the 12-13th centuries， when Eisai 荣西 and Do^gen 道元 established the Rinzai 临济 and So^to^ 曹洞 schools， respectively. The Zen movement in Japan was fortunate to receive the patronage of the growing new force in Japanese politics， the military bakufu， and so both schools developed and throve for several centuries. But although the Shogunate of the Edo period supported Zen as an official religion， tight government control of the sect limited its creativity. Nonetheless， the Japanese schools of Zen produced a number of significant creative teachers， including such figures as Ikkyu^ 一休， Bankei and Hakuin 白隐. There are still a number of famous Zen monasteries preserved to the modern day in Japan， although the number of actual practicing Zen monks has declined sharply.