Niànchang 念常 (1282–after 1341), with sobriquet Méiwū 梅屋 (“Plum Cottage”), was a Línjì 臨濟 Chán monk of the late Yuán 元 active principally in Sūzhōu 蘇州 and the lower Yangzi region. The autobiographical preface to his Fózǔ lìdài tōngzài (KR6r0013) gives his native place as Huátíng 華亭 (modern Sōngjiāng 松江, near Shànghǎi). He took ordination in his youth and became a Dharma-heir in the Línjì line.
His sole surviving work is the Fózǔ lìdài tōngzài 佛祖歷代通載, the major Yuán-period Buddhist universal history. Compilation occupied him over the years roughly 1325–1341, and the work was presented to the throne in 1341 (Zhìzhèng 1). 念常’s historiographical project was synoptic — he used Chán lamp records, Tiāntái histories, doctrinal-school compendia, and the standard Confucian dynastic histories as sources, and his work was sufficiently broad-based that the Sìkù quánshū editors later admitted it to the imperial collection.
His death-date is not recorded; he was alive in 1341 and presumably died not long thereafter.