Shēnyǒu 深有 (Wúniàn Shēnyǒu 無念深有)
Late-Míng Línjì-lineage Chán master, abbot at Huángbòshān 黃蘗山 in Fújiàn (the historic base of the Táng-era founder of the Línjì line, Huángbò Xīyùn 黃蘗希運, d. 850). Hào Wúniàn 無念 (“No-Thought”), Xīyǐng 西影 (“Western Shadow”). Also commonly referred to as Huángbò Wúniàn 黃蘗無念. Lifedates 1544/3/20 – 1627/9/7, age 84.
One of the central late-Míng Chán masters in the Wànlì-era Jiāngnán / Fújiàn intellectual-literary circuit. Close connections with the Gōng-ān-school (公安派) Yuán brothers — Yuán Zōngdào 袁宗道 (1560–1600, hào Wúxiū jūshì 無修居士), Yuán Hóngdào 袁宏道 (1568–1610), and Yuán Zhōngdào 袁中道 (1570–1623) — the leading late-Wànlì literary-intellectual family, all of whom were Chán disciples of Wúniàn and participated in his teaching-community. Also connected with the scholar-official Gù Qǐyuán 顧起元 (1565–1628).
One surviving major work: the Huángbò Wúniàn chánshī fù wèn 黃蘗無念禪師復問 KR6q0186 in six juan, a compilation of Wúniàn’s Chán encounter-responses to interlocutors, with an appended Xǐng hūn lù 醒昏錄 section prefaced by Yuán Zōngdào and a main section prefaced by Gù Qǐyuán in 1612.
Wúniàn’s teaching style — direct, accessible, often in plain and slightly colloquial language — earned him both devoted followers and critics among the contemporary Chán establishment; his sobriquet Xīyǐng (“Western Shadow”) was used both by supporters (as a marker of teaching-clarity) and by critics (as suggesting incomplete awakening). The text’s reception within Yuán Zhōngdào’s and later Gù Qǐyuán’s literary circles reflects both the strength of Wúniàn’s influence and the seriousness of his late-Wànlì engagement with elite lay audiences.