In the first year of Longshuo(661)in the Tang Dynasty, Hongren acceted Huineng as a disciple and made hime the Sixth Patriarch afterwards. Huineng was born in a poor Lu family in Lingnan area. His father died when he was three years old. He had to gather firewood to make a living when he was young, never had the chance to learn reading or writing. One day he heard someone reciting Diamond Sutra when he was selling firewood in a market and had an awakening. Later he learnt that Master Hongren was teaching the way of Buddha at Huangmei Fengmao Mountain in Hubei so he decided to go to Hongren. After a long and suffering travelling, he met Master Hongren for the first time, who asked him where he was from and what he wanted form him. Huineng said,"I am a native from south of the mountaines(Lingnan)and I want to learn to become a Buddha." The master rebuked him and said,"You are a southerner, a Barbarian. How can you expect to become a Buddha?" Huineng replied,"Although people are different from northerners to southerners, what difference is there in our Buddha-nature?" Then Hongren believed that Huineng had the root of wisdom and received him in his abode.

One day, Hongren intended to select a successor, so he asked his students each to write a gatha to show their essence of mind. The upper-seat disciple Shenxiu wrote a poem which read:
The Body is a Bodhi-tree;
The mind is a standing mirror bright;
Carefully we cleanse them at all times;
And let no dust alight.
All monks gasped with praises except Huineng, who wrote one contrasted sharply with Shenxiu's, which state:
Originally there was no Bodhi-tree;
Nor was there any mirror；
Since there was nothing fundamentally；
Whereon can the dust fall?

Shenxiu's point of view is that everybody has nature of Buddha, but only possible to become a Buddha needs constant practice to avoid of being covered by secular dust. Huineng believed that Buddha nature was there in everyone, and everyone can attain Buddhahood not necessarily through heavy and complicated practicing meditation. Hongren preferred Huineng 's idea and gave him the robe and alms bowl which ate the insignia of the Patriarchate secretly at night, told him to flee towards south immediately, live in seclusion waiting for his time.

Then Huineng came all the way to the Lingnan area through many places, lived as lay person all alone. One day in the first year of Yifeng of the Tang Dynasty(676), Huineng came to Faxing Temple(now called Guangxiao Temple)in Guangzhou, happened to hear two monks were arguing about the fluttering banners in the monastery. One said it was the wind that moves; the other said it was the banners. Huineng interrupted them and said,"It is neither the wind nor the binners, it is your minds that are wavering." The abbot Master Yingzong had heard about the successor of Zen Buddhasm being in the south, knowing the man who talked with such intellect was the lineage disciple of Master Hongren, he invited Huineng to give lectures and accepted the courtesy and worship from others. He himself shaved Huineng's head made hime being initiated into monkhood officially. Next year he as the Sixth Patriarch , came to Baolin Temple in Caoxi(today's Nanhua Temple in Shaoguan, Guangdong Province)to teach the way of the Zen. Thus rose the Southern School of Zen and Caoxi was the center of Lingnan Zen Buddhism.

The Zen sect split into the Southern School and the Northern School since the Sixth Patriarch Huineng. Shenxiu let his disciples taught and spread Zen Buddhism in northern, they were called the Northern School Zen. And Huineng's activities mainly took place in the southern part, they were known as the Southern School Zen. In the early Tang Dynasty, Shenxiu was favored by Empress Wu Zetian and Emperor Zhongzong of Tang. He was treated with great honors and values greatly as "The Dharma King of Two Capitals and the State Teacher of Three Emperors". his prestige was once as high as the sun at high noon. Ar the ssme time, Huineng was retreat in Lingnan area and not well-known yet. The An Lushan Rebellion changed the Zen scene, the Northern School began to lose its status, and the Southern Scool surpassed the Northern School in popularity. This situation developed to that when people mentioned Buddhism，they were actually talking about Zen Buddhism, which they specified the Southern School.(Essay: Liu Tao   Chinese Zen Buddhism)