The Sixth Patriarch (六祖) of Chinese Chán Buddhism and the foundational figure of the Southern Chán school. Lay surname Lú 盧; native of Xīnzhōu 新州 in Lǐngnán 嶺南 (modern southern Guǎngdōng). Born 638 CE; died 713 CE, age 76, at Cáoxī 曹溪 in northern Guǎngdōng.
He was the dharma-heir of the Fifth Patriarch Hóng-rěn 弘忍 (601–674) — receiving the patriarchal yī-bāo 衣鉢 (robe-and-bowl) transmission, per the foundational legend, in a poetry-contest with the senior disciple Shén-xiù 神秀 (606?–706) — and established the Southern Chán lineage at Bǎo-lín-sì 寶林寺 (later renamed Nán-huá-sì 南華寺) on Cáo-xī mountain. His enlightenment is famously narrated as occurring upon hearing the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā-sūtra’s passage “Where the heart abides nowhere, there it should abide”.
The Liùzǔ tánjīng 六祖壇經 (Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, Taishō 2007 / 2008) is the principal source for his life and teaching — itself a foundational Chán scripture. The text exists in multiple recensions including the early Dunhuang manuscripts and the standardized late-Tang / Sòng versions.
His doctrinal-meditative contribution is the Southern Chán “sudden awakening” (頓悟 dùnwù) doctrine — distinguished from the Northern Chán “gradual cultivation” (漸修 jiànxiū) of the Shénxiù lineage. Through his successors — particularly Nányuè Huáiràng 南嶽懷讓 (677–744) and Qīngyuán Xíngsī 青原行思 (671–740) — the Southern Chán lineage gave rise to the Five Houses (五家) of mature Tang Chán: Línjì 臨濟, Cáodòng 曹洞, Yúnmén 雲門, Fǎyǎn 法眼, Wěiyǎng 溈仰. All subsequent Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Japanese Chán / Sŏn / Thiền / Zen lineages descend from his Southern Chán transmission.
He was posthumously titled Dàjiàn chánshī 大鑑禪師 (“Great Mirror Chán Master”) by Tang Xiànzōng 憲宗 in 815 CE, after the famous epitaph composed by Liǔ Zōngyuán 柳宗元.
The two Vajracchedikā commentaries attributed to him in the Buddhist canon (KR6c0047–KR6c0048) are of modern-scholarly disputed authenticity — likely Sòng-period Chán-school compositions attached to his name to lend the foundational patriarchal authority.
Source: DILA Buddhist Person Authority A002009; Liùzǔ tánjīng 六祖壇經 (T2007/T2008); Sòng gāosēng zhuàn 宋高僧傳, j. 8; comprehensive Chinese / Japanese Chán-school biographical sources.