Nanyang Huizhong

Nanyang Huizhong (南陽慧忠, c. 675–775) is named in the lamp records as a Dharma heir of the Sixth Patriarch Huineng who lived for some forty years as a hermit on Mount Baiya in Henan before being summoned to the Tang court, where he served as National Teacher (*guóshī*) under Emperors Suzong and Daizong^[1]. His position is unusual within the Southern School: a hermit-turned-imperial-adviser whose long isolation gave him an authority distinct from the court-tied northern teachers of the same generation^[2].

Huizhong is best remembered for his teaching that the inanimate world preaches the Dharma — that walls, tiles, and pebbles expound it no less than the sūtras or any human teacher; this *wúqíng shuōfǎ* (無情説法) formulation is recorded across several lamp-records exchanges and was taken up by Dōgen in *Mujō Seppō*^[3]. He is also remembered for the "seamless monument" (無縫塔) episode, preserved by his successor Danyuan Yingzhen and recycled as Case 18 of the *Bìyán Lù*^[4].