Huìjīng 慧經
Late-Míng Cáodòng 曹洞 Chán master, hào Wúmíng 無明; posthumously revered as Shòuchāng gǔfó 壽昌古佛. 20 February 1548 – 11 February 1618 (lunar 嘉靖 27 — 萬曆 46.1.17), shìshòu 71. Dharma-heir of Yùnkōng Chángzhōng 蘊空常忠 (hào Lǐnshān 廩山), in the Cáodòng line that had — by the mid-Míng — very nearly disappeared. Native of Chóngrén 崇仁 (Fǔzhōu, Jiāngxī), lay surname Péi 裴. The leading figure of the late-Míng Cáodòng revival.
At seventeen, a “xiàngdào zhì 向道志” resolution; at twenty-one, reading the Diamond Sūtra, he “received it as if recovering something long-familiar”; promptly gave up meat and wine and went to Lǐnshān Zhōng 廩山忠 (Chángzhōng). Reading the Jǐngdé chuándēnglù generated an intense yíqíng 疑情 doubt-mass that kept him from food and sleep. On a work detail one day, trying to lift an immovable stone, he forced it with all his strength and “was suddenly greatly awakened” — producing a verse that Zhōnggōng accepted as yìnkě. Thereafter, ordained and full-precepted, he remained on the mountain without leaving for twenty-four years.
In Wànlì 26 (1598) took the Bǎofāng 寶方 abbacy in his home prefecture; travelled briefly to meet Dáguān Zhēnkě 達觀真可, Ruìfēng 瑞峰, and Shàolín 少林; returned to Bǎofāng and began formal preaching. Three abbacies in sequence: Bǎofāng, Éfēng 峨峯, and Shòuchāng 壽昌 — which became the seat after which the revival was named (壽昌派 Shòuchāngpài, alternately Shòuchāng zōngfēng 壽昌宗風, the form by which late-Míng / early-Qīng Cáodòng is generally distinguished from the Yúnmén / Bóshān line via Wúyì Yuánlái and the various Jiāngnán restorations). Founded more than twenty subsidiary hermitages in his later years. Died seated at Shòuchāng on the 17th of the 1st month of Wànlì 46.
Four principal dharma-heirs: Wúyì Yuánlái 無異元來 (1575–1630, DILA A000114), Huìtái Yuánjìng 晦臺元鏡 (A015910), Yuánbì 元謐 (A015916), and 元賢 Yǒngjué Yuánxián 永覺元賢 (1578–1657, A000135). Through these heirs — especially Yuánlái’s and Yuánxián’s substantial yǔlù enterprises — the Shòuchāng revival entered MíngQīng Cáodòng as a distinct, vigorous tradition in parallel to the simultaneous Línjì disputes of the Mìyún Yuánwù 密雲圓悟 line. His own yǔlù survives as Wúmíng Huìjīng chánshī yǔlù 無明慧經禪師語錄 (KR6q0362; X72 n1432), re-edited (chóngbiān 重編) by Yuánxián.