Guiyang

Chan

Guiyang

Branch of Nanyue line

The Guiyang school (潙仰宗) was the earliest of the Five Houses of Chan to be formally recognized, founded by Guishan Lingyou (771–853) and his student Yangshan Huiji (807–883) in the lineage of Baizhang Huaihai. The school's name combines the first characters of their respective mountains. The Guiyang school was distinguished by its refined and indirect teaching methods, particularly the use of ninety-seven circular figures (yuan-xiang) to express the relationship between the absolute and relative—a sophisticated non-verbal language that complemented the verbal exchanges used by other schools. Where the Linji school employed shouts and blows, the Guiyang tradition favored subtle gestures, drawn symbols, and the interplay of 'host' and 'guest' as pedagogical tools. Key figures include Xiangyan Zhixian, who awakened at the sound of a pebble striking bamboo after burning all his scholarly notes, and Hangzhou Tianlong, whose one-finger teaching was passed to Juzhi (Gutei) and became one of the most famous koans in the Mumonkan. The Guiyang school did not survive as an independent institution beyond the Song dynasty, but its insights into symbolic communication and the non-verbal dimensions of transmission influenced the broader Chan tradition.