Touzi Datong

Touzi Datong (投子大同, 819–914) was a Dharma heir of Cuiwei Wuxue and thus a great-grandstudent of Shitou Xiqian; he settled on Mount Touzi in modern Anhui, where he taught for several decades into great old age^[1]. The lamp records describe his community as small and unobtrusive — students travelled long distances to find him, and Xuefeng Yicun famously visited Touzi three times during the journey that culminated in his transmission from Deshan^[2].

His recorded sayings, gathered in the *Touzi Datong Chánshī Yǔlù*, are spare and elliptical; the *Bìyán Lù* preserves several of his exchanges, including the well-known dialogue beginning "What about the matter prior to the Buddha's appearance?" — to which Touzi turns the question back into the questioner's hands^[3]. His name was deliberately revived two centuries later by Touzi Yiqing of the Caodong revival, who took the mountain as a place of practice in conscious continuity with the older Touzi line^[4].