Běnzhì 本智 (Lǎngmù Běnzhì 朗目本智)
Late-Míng Línjì-lineage Chán master and monastic institutional restorer. Initial dharma-name Huìguāng 慧光 (“Wisdom-Light”); later renamed Běnzhì 本智 (“Foundational Wisdom”). Hào Lǎngmù 朗目 (“Clear-Eye”), conferred by his official-friend Huáng Dàoyuè 黃道月 after the mountain on which Běnzhì had originally taken tonsure (Lǎngmùshān 朗目山 in Qǔyáng 曲陽). Popular sobriquet Cónglín báiméi 叢林白眉 (“White-Brow of the Chán Monastic Community”), conferred after his emergence as a teaching master. Lay surname Lǐ 李. Native of Qǔjìng 曲靖 (Yúnnán). Lifedates 1555/6–1606 (died Wànlì 34 / 12 / 24 = 1606/2/1, aged “fifty-some” with 40+ sēnglà).
Tonsured under Báizhāi héshàng 白齋和尚 at Lǎngmùshān in Qǔyáng. Pilgrim-wandered across multiple Chinese Buddhist centres, receiving teachings from many of the leading late-Wànlì Chán masters: Wǔdāng Bùèr 武當不二, Fúniú Dàfāng 伏牛大方, Yìnzōng 印宗, Nányuè Wújìn 南岳無盡, Lúshān Dàān 廬山大菴, Jìmén Biànróng 薊門遍融, Yuèxīn Xìngtiān 月心性天. Ultimately received dharma-transmission from Tiānmù Lánfēng 天目蘭風 after their famous “seeing the Buddha — ending birth-death” encounter-dialogue.
Principal institutional-architectural achievement: the restoration of Fúshān Huáyánsì 浮山華嚴寺 in Ānhuī — the Sòng-era Chán monastery of Yuánjiàn Fǎyuǎn 圓鑑法遠 (famous for the Ōuyáng Xiū game-of-chess dharma-teaching encounter), which had lain dormant for a century since Gǔtíng Shànzūn 古庭善堅’s departure in the mid-15th century. Běnzhì’s arrival marked its zhōng xīng 中興 (“middle-revival”).
Known dharma-heirs include Chèyōng Zhōulǐ 徹庸周理 (1591–1647), the Yúnnán Chán master who would later return to Jīzúshān and edit Běnzhì’s Fúshān fǎ jù 浮山法句 KR6q0197 into the received canonical form (1636).
Sources: Fúshān fǎ jù juan 7 tomb-inscription by Wú Yīngbīn 吳應賓; Jīzúshān zhì 鷄足山志; Jìng shí dī rǔ jí 徑石滴乳集.