Zhìyú 智愚
Late-Southern-Sòng Yángqí-branch Línjì Chán master, conventionally styled Xūtáng Zhìyú 虛堂智愚 and (later, at Jìngshān) also Xīgēng sǒu 息耕叟 (“Elder of Rested Tillage”). Native of Xiàngshān 象山 in Sìmíng 四明 (present-day Níngbō), lay surname Chén 陳. Per DILA A009654 and his xíngzhuàng appended to the yǔlù: 1185 – Xiánchún 5.10.7 (9 November 1269), shì 85, xià 53.
Tonsured at sixteen under Shī Yùn 師蘊 at Pǔmíng sì 普明寺. Studied initially with Xuědòu Huàn 雪竇煥 and Jìngcí Zhōng’ān Jiǎo 淨慈中庵皎 (Mì’ān lineage); attained transmission under Yùn’ān Pǔyán 運菴普巖 (1156–1226), dharma-heir of Sōngyuán Chóngyuè (崇岳) and thus the fourth in the Mì’ān → Sōngyuán → Yùn’ān line from Hǔqiū Shàolóng (紹隆).
Emerged into public teaching at Shàodìng 2 (1229) with the abbacy of Xīngshèng chán sì 興聖禪寺 in Jiāxīng fǔ; subsequently at Bào’ēn 報恩, Xiǎnxiào 顯孝, Ruìyán 瑞巖, Yánfú 延福, and Bǎolín 寶林. Installed as forty-third abbot of the Yùwáng shān Guǎnglì chán sì 育王山廣利禪寺 in Bǎoyòu 6 (1258). Imperial rescript of Jǐngdìng 5 (1264) summoned him to Jìngcí sì 淨慈寺, his final abbacy. Died at Jìngshān aged 85.
His ten-juan recorded sayings, compiled by a collective of twenty-six disciples led by 妙源 Miàoyuán, is the Xūtáng héshàng yǔlù (KR6q0065). Among his Chinese dharma-heirs, Xiánjí Fǎyún 閑極法雲 and Bǎoyè Dàoyuán 寶業道源 are the most prominent. But Xūtáng’s historical significance lies principally with his Japanese heir Nānpo Jōmyō 南浦紹明 (1235–1309), the founder of the Ōtōkan 応燈関 line through which the principal current of koan-practice Rinzai Zen descends: Nānpo → Shūhō Myōchō 宗峰妙超 → Kanzan Egen 関山慧玄, and ultimately Hakuin Ekaku 白隠慧鶴 and the eighteenth-century renewal of Rinzai koan study in Japan. For the later Japanese Rinzai tradition Xūtáng is invoked as the “Japanese house patriarch” (Nihon sōmon no sōshi 日本宗門の祖師).