Zhongyi Hongen

Zhongyi Hongen was a Chan master in the Nanyue lineage who maintained a practice community and transmitted the Dharma within his lineage stream. He is recorded in the transmission of the lamp records as a dharma heir whose teaching continued the direct, encounter-based approach characteristic of the Nanyue tradition established by Nanyue Huairang and carried forward through Mazu Daoyi.

Hongen's place in the lineage represents the ongoing vitality of the Nanyue line during the Five Dynasties period. Like many masters of his generation, he sustained the tradition through a time of political fragmentation by maintaining the quality of direct transmission from teacher to student that is the essence of Chan.