When the early Buddhists proclaimed that impermanence is the fundamental condition of all things, they were certainly onto something. Almost nothing remains today of the ninth-century Zen Buddhist world of Huang Po. Nothing, that is, but texts. In the absence of everything else, it is the presence of texts that transmits this distant world of Zen to us. Although they don't supply us with much from which to reconstruct the historical details of Huang Po's life, John Blofeld is certainly right when he says that these texts present us with a vivid picture of the Zen master. Huang Po was a powerful Zen master, the abbot of one of the largest and most important monasteries in South-central China where Zen came to prominence. He is placed in the genealogical charts of Zen ancestry as the student of the famous Zen master, Pai-chang Huai-hai, and as the teacher of the great Lin-chi I-hsuan (Rinzai). Huang Po is described as large in physical stature and overpowering in his presence and voice. He is presented as having evoked in his followers both fear and the experience of ecstatic freedom.

Huang Po's ways of teaching seem surprisingly diverse. On the one hand, he lectured on abstruse philosophical topics like the nature of “mind,” while on the other hand, he intimidated disciples with his strange behavior and uproarious laughter.