Danyuan Yingzhen
Danyuan Yingzhen
Dates uncertain
Danyuan Yingzhen (耽源應真, fl. mid-9th c.) was a Dharma heir of National Teacher Nanyang Huizhong and one of the few figures who carried Huizhong's eclectic Tang-court Chan into the second half of the ninth century[1]. He is best known from the koan-literature account of his role in the "seamless monument" episode preserved in the lamp records and recycled as *Bìyán Lù* Case 18[2].
The episode is set after Nanyang Huizhong's death: a monk asks Danyuan what kind of monument should be built for the late National Teacher, and Danyuan recounts that Nanyang had asked the same question of Emperor Daizong and answered it himself by asking for a "seamless monument" (無縫塔), then sitting in silence — the seamless monument being the silence itself. Yuanwu Keqin's *Bìyán Lù* commentary on Case 18 reads the story as the school's classical statement that authentic memorial of an awakened teacher cannot be reduced to physical form[3].
Names
Teachers and lineage of Danyuan Yingzhen
Teachers / root masters:
Other masters in Qingyuan line
Master Record Sources
n.d.
Danyuan Yingzhen
Qingyuan line
- koan_refsChart of the Chan Ancestors
18 85 17
- nameZen Editorial Overlay - Originals Curation
Danyuan Yingzhen
- teachersZen Editorial Overlay - Originals Curation
Nanyue Daoxuan