Baoshou Yanzhao

Baoshou Yanzhao was a direct student of Linji Yixuan who carried his teacher's fierce and uncompromising style into the next generation. He was known for the sheer force of his personality and his refusal to accommodate any form of conceptual understanding. His exchanges with monks often featured the shouts and blows that were Linji's signature teaching methods.

As one of Linji's direct heirs, Baoshou played an important role in transmitting the authentic spirit of the Linji teaching. The tradition preserved his encounters as examples of the school's characteristic approach—meeting every student as if the encounter were a matter of life and death, leaving no space for the mind to rest on any concept, and demanding that the student present their own living realization rather than borrowed understanding.