Jiufeng Daoqian

Jiufeng Daoqian (九峰道虔, fl. late 9th c.) served for many years as attendant to Shishuang Qingzhu and became his Dharma heir only after a celebrated succession dispute recorded in the *Jǐngdé Chuándēng Lù*. When the head monk proposed that whoever could correctly answer a question about Shishuang's last instructions should inherit the seat, no one but Jiufeng gave a response the senior monk accepted, and the Caodong-stream Shishuang line was preserved through him^[1].

His recorded sayings are sparse but consistent in style with Shishuang's: when asked about the master's "cease and desist" formula, he extends his hands palm-up — a wordless gesture cited in later Caodong commentaries as an example of "stilling without becoming inert"^[2]. His students Jingzhao Mihu and others sustained the Shishuang sub-line for two generations before it was absorbed back into the wider Yaoshan stream that eventually flowed into the Caodong / Sōtō tradition^[3].