Shenhui's attack
At the Great Dharma Assembly in Henan Province in 732 he coined this term in order to deride Shenxiu's school. Here he claimed that Shenxiu tried to usurp the title of Sixth Patriarch from Huineng. He supported his claims by stating that Huineng possessed the robe of Bodhidharma, the First Patriarch of Zen.
Another attack was staged at the Great Cloud Temple in Huatai in 734. He delivered a talk titled the Exposition on Right and Wrong in regards to Bodhidharma's Southern School. It was presented in the form of a discussion between him and a monk named Chongyuan, who took the side of Shenxiu's Northern School. Shenhui used the opportunity to question Shenxiu's legitimacy as Hongren's successor.
Most memorably, however, he accused the Northern School of advocating "gradual" and not "sudden" enlightenment.
The Record of the Zen Discourses of the Monk Shenhui quotes Shenhui:
[Northern School teachings] are the methods of the ignorant. Zen master Huineng's practice is found apart from the two methods of "subduing" or "not subduing" the mind. This is why it says in the sutra, "mind does not abide within, nor is it external". It is in quiet sitting. When one sits in this manner, one realizes buddhahood. In the six generations that have come before, not a single person performed the practices of Shenxiu. They are entirely different.
In addition to these claims, Shenhui further alleged that Shenxiu's teachings deviated from Zen in their emphasis on ceremony and sutra study, rather than seated meditation and no-mind. He also accused "Northern School" students of trying to steal Bodhidharma’s robe, to sever the head of Huineng’s mummy, and to rewrite the inscription on Shenxiu’s tomb with the words "Sixth Patriarch".
Historical analysis of Shenhui's attack
Several scholars consider Shenhui's arguments against the "Northern School" to be fabrications or exaggerations. Heinrich Dumoulin, commenting on Shenhui's accusations, wrote that Shenhui was "unscrupulous", while Ui Hakuju wrote that he had "“traits deserving of moral censure and criticism for intolerance”.
Scholars such as Philip Yampolsky have suggested that one of his disciples may have written the Platform Sutra, which glorifies Huineng and "sudden" enlightenment while deriding Shenxiu.
Scholars note that both the concept of a "patriarch" and the possession of the robe of Bodhidharma being the indicator of this person probably arose as a result of Shenhui's diatribes. In fact, according to the Platform Sutra, Huineng himself did not pass on the robe, nor did he name a "patriarch" to replace him. Rather, like his teacher Hongren, he had many disciples who went on to teach Zen.
Philip Yampolsky wrote that Shenhui's claim that the Diamond Sutra and not the Lankavatara Sutra was the paramount sutra of Bodhidharma and his disciples was "pure fabrication".