Zizhou Chuji

Chuji (處寂, 669–736), known to later tradition as "Master Tang" because his lay surname was Tang, was the chief disciple of Zhishen at Dechun Temple in Zizhou and the link between the early Sichuan Chan generation and the Jingzhong school of Wuxiang^[1]. Early-Chan sources recovered at Dunhuang — most importantly the *Lìdài Fǎbǎo Jì* — place him within the Hongren-descended Sichuan lineage and credit him with several decades of teaching and ordaining monks in the region^[2].

Chuji's historical importance lies almost entirely in his role as a bridge: he received transmission from Zhishen, and in turn gave the robe and the teaching of "no-recollection, no-thought, no-forgetting" (無憶、無念、莫忘) to the Korean-born Musang (Wuxiang), who would carry the line forward as the founder of the Jingzhong school proper at Chengdu^[3]. The doctrinal formula associated with him through Wuxiang is one of the earliest attested specifically Sichuanese Chan teachings.