Shenhui, a successor of Huineng, publicly criticized Shenxiu and associated him with the "Northern School", a term which Shenhui is thought to have invented. He claimed this "school" taught a "gradualist" ("jian jiao" 漸教) idea of enlightenment as opposed to Huineng's supposedly superior "sudden" ("dun jiao" 頓教) teaching. However, although a substantial amount of Shenhui's polemics survive, he is never recorded as mentioning this verse contest, which he presumably would have done in order to bolster the case for his descent from the superior Huineng. For this reason, in part, scholars doubt the historicity of the verse contest. Instead, it is thought that the Platform Sutra was composed by the Oxhead school in an attempt to reconcile the artificial split between the so-called Northern and Southern Schools. According to the Buddhologist John McRae, the two verses were likely intended to complement one another and speak of two sides of one practice. Further, Shenxiu's verse does not explicitly suggest gradualism, but rather alludes to a need for constant, unending practice. Whatever the case may be, historically speaking it is clear that Shenxiu was a far more respected and prominent teacher than the virtually unknown Huineng, who only became famous through later hagiography, including the Platform Sutra.