Yangqi Fanghui

Yangqi Fanghui was a student of Shishuang Chuyuan who founded the Yangqi branch of the Linji school, which ultimately became the dominant lineage of Linji Chan. His teaching was characterized by a quality of unpredictable spontaneity—he might answer a student with a shout, a laugh, a gesture, or a seemingly irrelevant remark, and the student never knew what was coming. This unpredictability was itself the teaching, breaking the student's habit of anticipating and preparing.

The Yangqi branch proved extraordinarily vital, producing many of the greatest masters of the Song dynasty and beyond, including Wuzu Fayan, Yuanwu Keqin, Dahui Zonggao, and Wumen Huikai. Through the Japanese transmission, the Yangqi line became the basis of the Rinzai school's O-To-Kan lineage, which continues to this day. Yangqi's founding gesture—of playful, unpredictable freedom within the formal structure of Linji practice—set the tone for the entire subsequent history of the school.