The traditional account of Huineng and Shenxiu unfolds around a poetic test arranged by the Fifth Patriarch, Hongren, to discern who had truly realized Buddha‑nature. At that time, Shenxiu was the head monk, widely regarded as the natural successor, while Huineng was an illiterate laborer from the south, working in the monastery’s kitchens or rice mill. Hongren asked the community to compose verses expressing their understanding of the Dharma, promising that the one who revealed genuine insight would receive the robe and bowl of transmission. Shenxiu, hesitant to claim realization openly, wrote his verse anonymously on a corridor wall at night, where it was soon praised by the other monks.

Shenxiu’s verse likened the body to a bodhi tree and the mind to a bright mirror stand, urging constant polishing so that no dust could collect. This image suggests a path of gradual cultivation, in which defilements are removed step by step through diligent practice. When Huineng heard the verse recited, he immediately recognized its partial depth yet also its limitations. Unable to write, he asked another to inscribe his own verse on the wall opposite Shenxiu’s, overturning the imagery by asserting that bodhi has no tree, the mirror has no stand, and that originally there is not a single thing upon which dust could alight.

Huineng’s response pointed to the mind’s original purity and the direct realization of Buddha‑nature, a perspective often associated with sudden enlightenment. When Hongren examined both verses, he acknowledged that Shenxiu’s composition was suitable for guiding practitioners but did not fully embody complete realization. Huineng’s verse, by contrast, revealed a more thorough understanding of emptiness and the nature of mind. To shield Huineng from the inevitable jealousy of the community, Hongren publicly downplayed the significance of the second verse while inwardly recognizing its profundity.

Later, under the cover of night, Hongren secretly summoned Huineng, transmitted the robe and bowl, and confirmed him as the Sixth Patriarch. He then urged Huineng to flee south to avoid conflict with those who would not accept that an uneducated lay worker had surpassed the esteemed head monk. Thus the “encounter” between Huineng and Shenxiu is less a face‑to‑face debate than a meeting of visions, crystallized in two short poems. Their contrasting verses came to symbolize the tension between gradual cultivation and sudden awakening, and to illustrate the Chan conviction that genuine insight is not bound by status, learning, or outward position in the monastic hierarchy.