Tiāntóng Rújìng 天童如淨 (1163–1228), hào Chángwēng 長翁, Southern Sòng Cáodòng 曹洞 master and the teacher of the Japanese Sōtō founder Dōgen Kigen 道元希玄 (1200–1253). Native of Wěijiāng 葦江 in Qìngyuán 慶元 prefecture (modern Níngbō 寧波 region), lay surname Yú 俞. Dharma-heir of Zúān Zhìjiàn 足庵智鑒 (A014688) at Xuědòu 雪竇; awakened on the bǎi shù zǐ 柏樹子 precedent (Zhàozhōu’s “the cypress tree in the front courtyard”). Successively held abbacies at Jiànkāng Qīngliáng 建康清涼 (from Jiādìng 3 = 1210), Míngzhōu Ruìyán 瑞巖, Hángzhōu Jìngcí 杭州淨慈 (twice), and finally — by imperial edict — Míngzhōu Tiāntóng Jǐngdé chánsì 明州天童景德禪寺. Six times took the high seat. Died on Shàodìng 1.7.17 (25 August 1228), aged sixty-six; sēnglà 僧臘 fifty-three.
Doctrinally Rújìng is known for the formula shēnxīn tuōluò 身心脫落 (“dropping away of body-and-mind”), which Dōgen received directly from him in 1225–1227 at Tiāntóng and made the pivot of the Japanese Sōtō tradition. Dōgen’s records of Rújìng’s direct instruction are preserved in the Hōkyōki 寶慶記 (the journal of Dōgen’s Chinese study years) and in extensive citation throughout the Eihei kōroku 永平廣錄 and Shōbōgenzō 正法眼藏. Rújìng stands with Hóngzhì Zhèngjué 宏智正覺 (1091–1157) as one of the two principal Southern Sòng exponents of the Cáodòng school, and the two masters — both associated with the Tiāntóng abbacy — anchor the later Japanese Sōtō view of a continuous Sòng-to-Kamakura Cáodòng transmission.
Fourteen-plus named fǎsì 法嗣 recorded in DILA A013813, including the Chinese-side Lùmén Jué 鹿門覺, Gūchán Yíng 孤蟾瑩, Cóngjǐn 從瑾, Yìyuǎn 義遠 (the compiler of the Xù yǔlù KR6q0072), plus the Japanese Dōgen 道元 (A001499). Death date per DILA: 紹定元年七月十七日 (1228); birthyear 1163 per sui-reckoning from the 66-year lifespan.
Works in the Kanripo corpus: