Yanguan Qian

Yanguan Qi'an (鹽官齊安, c. 750–842) was a Dharma heir of Mazu Daoyi who taught at Haichang-yuan in Yanguan (modern Hangzhou region), the salt-administration town from which his sobriquet derives^[1]. The lamp records preserve a number of his exchanges in the characteristic Hongzhou-line style and document his relatively long abbacy in the second half of the eighth and the first half of the ninth century^[2].

His best-known dialogue is the "rhinoceros fan" exchange preserved as Case 91 of the *Bìyán Lù*: a monk asks Yanguan to fetch the rhinoceros-horn fan, and on being told it is broken, asks Yanguan to bring the rhinoceros itself; Yanguan's response — silence in some recensions, a gestured assent in others — became one of the most contemplated koans on the relation between the symbol and the symbolised^[3]. Yanguan also gave Dharma transmission to the Korean monk Pŏmil (Beomil), founder of the Saguelsan school in the Nine Mountain Schools of Korean Seon, adding to the Mazu line's role in seeding the Korean tradition^[4].