Danxia Tianran

Danxia Tianran (丹霞天然, 739–824) was one of the most striking figures of Tang Chan. The standard biographical sources — the *Sòng Gāosēng Zhuàn* and the *Jǐngdé Chuándēng Lù* — describe him as a Confucian scholar travelling to Chang'an to sit the civil-service examinations when a fellow traveller suggested that "becoming a Buddha is better than becoming an official"; he turned aside, presented himself first to Mazu Daoyi, was sent on to Shitou Xiqian, and there received transmission^[1].

He is best remembered for the episode preserved in the lamp records and recycled in dozens of later Chan texts: stopping at Huilin Temple on a cold night, Danxia took a wooden Buddha statue from the hall and burned it for warmth. When the abbot protested, he said he was looking for *śarīra* (sacred relics) in the ashes; told that a wooden statue contained none, he replied, "Then why are you upset? Bring me the other two to burn as well"^[2]. The story became a Chan *locus classicus* for the doctrine that no form, however sacred, should be confused with the awakening it points to, and Linji-line teachers from Linji Yixuan onward cite it as authoritative when warning against attachment to images^[3].