Guizong Zhichang

Guizong Zhichang was a Caodong school master who taught at Guizong Temple. He maintained the tradition's contemplative approach and trained students in the methods of the Caodong school—seated meditation, the investigation of the Five Ranks, and the direct recognition of awakened nature in ordinary experience.

Zhichang's teaching reflected the Caodong emphasis on the identity of practice and realization. Unlike traditions that view meditation as a means to a separate goal of enlightenment, the Caodong approach taught that sitting itself is the expression of Buddha nature. This understanding, carried through generations of teachers like Zhichang, would eventually become the foundation of Dogen's shikantaza teaching.