Zōnggǎo 宗杲
The dominant figure in Southern-Sòng Chán and the codifier of the kànhuà chán 看話禪 (“meditation on the keyword”) method that reshaped Chinese Chán, Korean Sŏn, and Japanese Rinzai practice from the twelfth century onward. Zì Tánhuì 字曇晦, hào Miàoxǐ 妙喜; imperial-title Fórì Dàshī 佛日大師 (early career) and later Dàhuì chánshī 大慧禪師 (from Xiàozōng, early 1160s); posthumous Pǔjué 普覺 (conferred after 1163). Native of Níngguó 寧國 in Xuānzhōu 宣州 (present-day Ānhuī), lay surname Xī 奚. Per DILA A000475 and the Dàhuì pǔjué chánshī niánpǔ: 1089.11.10 (20 December 1089) – Lóngxīng 1.8.10 (16 September 1163), shì 75, xià 58.
Tonsured at seventeen; studied first with Cáodòng-lineage masters (Dòngshān Wēi 洞山微), then with Zhàntáng Wénzhǔn 湛堂文準, and finally with 克勤 Yuánwù Kèqín at Tiānníng 天寧, under whom he attained awakening on Kèqín’s citing of Wǔzǔ Fǎyǎn’s “with words / without words” couplet. Rapid rise in literati-Chán circles; the Right Grand Councillor Lǚ Shùntú 呂舜徒 secured him the purple robe and the title Fórì Dàshī. Taught successively at Yúnjū 雲居, Yángyǔ 洋嶼, Jìngshān 徑山, Héngzhōu 衡州, Méizhōu 梅州, Yùwáng 育王; ultimately returned to Jìngshān for a second abbacy, where he died in the Míngyuè táng 明月堂.
In Shàoxīng 11 (1141) Zōnggǎo was caught up in the political fallout from the peace-party’s persecution of Zhāng Jiǔchéng 張九成 and other allies; his purple-robe credential and ordination certificate (yī dié 衣牒) were revoked and he was exiled first to Héngyáng 衡陽 and then to Méizhōu for fifteen years — an extraordinary privation for a monk of his standing, whose subsequent release under Gāozōng (Shàoxīng 26, 1156) and triumphant late career profoundly shaped the Chán tradition’s memory of him as a victim of political injustice.
His doctrinal signature is kànhuà chán, developed in controversy with the Cáodòng master Hóngzhì Zhèngjué 宏智正覺 — whom Zōnggǎo excoriated as teaching “silent-illumination Chán” (mòzhào chán 默照禪) — and expounded in voluminous letters, sermons, and informal instructions. Two primary recorded-sayings collections survive: the thirty-juan Dàhuì Pǔjué chánshī yǔlù 大慧普覺禪師語錄 (KR6q0060), compiled by his dharma-heir 蘊聞 Yùnwén and submitted to the throne in Qiándào 7 (1171), and the Dàhuì Pǔjué chánshī shū 大慧普覺禪師書 (KR6q0024 — letters). The Zhèngfǎ yǎnzàng 正法眼藏 (KR6q0026) is a niāngǔ / sònggǔ anthology Zōnggǎo compiled himself (often attributed to his disciple Chóng Mì 沖密 as co-editor) during his Méizhōu exile. Seventy-five named dharma-heirs; Lǎn’ān Dǐngxū 懶庵鼎需, Méng’ān Sīyuè 蒙庵思岳, Huī’ān Míguāng 晦庵彌光, and 蘊聞 among the most consequential. The transmission line to Japan via subsequent generations reaches the Ōtōkan and the later Tōfuku-ji lineage.