The Zen Buddhism that emerged in Tang Dynasty was an important happening to most scholars that studied Buddhism in Sui-Tang Dynasty. Hui-neng(慧能) and Shen-hsiu(神秀) were the key masters that developed Southern and Northern Zen Buddhism. The Platform sutra by Sixth Patriarch recorded how Hongren(弘忍) master passed down his dharma of mind to Hui-neng and announced that Hui-neng received that status of Sixth Patriarch. From then on, other Zen masters scrambled for the position of Seventh Patriarch. However, the transmission of the lamp only kept track of six patriarchs, the other monks were only pupils that simply inherited the dharma, and there was no more patriarch mentioned. After Song Dynasty, the contention for Seventh Patriarch resulted in the various narration of the life story of Hui-neng. Those stories were distortion by Zen masters who wanted to emphasize the importance of Hui-neng.
