Qīngliǎo 清了
Southern-Sòng Cáodòng 曹洞 Chán master, hào Zhēnxiē 真歇 (also Jìān 寂庵); posthumous title Wùkōng chánshī 悟空禪師. Dàjiàn-下第 14 世 dharma-heir of 子淳 Dānxiá Zǐchún (1066–1119) — and thus, alongside his dharma-brother Hóngzhì Zhèngjué 宏智正覺 (1091–1157), the twin apex of Southern-Sòng Cáodòng and one of the principal objects of Dàhuì Zōnggǎo 大慧宗杲’s polemic against “silent-illumination Chán” 默照邪禪. Native of Zuǒmián Ānchāng 左綿安昌 (Jiànzhōu, in Shǔ), lay surname Yōng 雍. 1088 – 17 November 1151 (lunar 紹興 21.10.1), shìshòu 64, sēnglà 45.
Entered religion at eleven at Shèngguǒsì 聖果寺 under Qīngjùn 清俊; ordained after a shìjīng 試經 on the Lotus at eighteen. Studied Buddhist scholasticism at Chéngdū Dàcísì 大慈寺. Attained awakening at Dānxiáshān under Zǐchún on the “self before the empty kalpa” 空劫以前自己 huàtóu when Zǐchún struck him once as he tried to answer. At Chánglú 長蘆 (Zhēnzhōu), where Zǔzhào 祖照 禪師 had made him shìzhě 侍者 and then fēnzuò 分座, was formally installed as abbot in the autumn of Xuānhé 4 (1122), where 1700 nàzǐ 衲子 gathered. After the Jìngkāng catastrophe travelled to the Sìmíng coast and Mount Pǔtuó 補陀洛迦山; held successive abbacies at Táizhōu Tiānfēng 天封, Mǐn Xuěfēng 雪峰, Míngzhōu Āyùwáng 育王 (as 14th abbot, from early Shàoxīng), Wēnzhōu Lóngxiáng 龍翔, Hángzhōu Jìngshān 徑山. In Shàoxīng 21 (1151) commanded by the court to inaugurate Chóngxiān Xiǎnxiào chányuàn 崇先顯孝禪院, built for the Cíníng Tàihòu 慈寧太后; died there four months after installation.
Works surviving: his two-juan yǔlù / Jiéwài lù 劫外錄 (KR6q0359; X71 n1426), edited by his attendants 德初 and 義初 (the latter also a named dharma-heir); the Niànfó jìngtǔ lún 念佛淨土論 (X61 n1178), a standard Southern-Sòng witness to the Chán / Pure-Land synthesis on the Cáodòng side. Named dharma-heirs (eleven per the tǎmíng): 義初 Yìchū, Zōngjué 宗玨, Huìwù 慧悟, Xìngyù 興譽, Fǎtōng 法通, and others.
Qīngliǎo is the principal Cáodòng counterweight to Dàhuì’s kànhuà 看話 polemic; the niāngǔ of his Jiéwài lù juan 2 preserves his own argumentative response to Dàhuì. Through his Mount Pǔtuó and Āyùwáng abbacies he was also a foundational figure for the Southern-Sòng development of the guānyīn 觀音 pilgrimage. The later post-Gāo-zōng Cáodòng establishment at Tiāntóng, climaxing in Tiāntóng Rújìng 天童如淨 and hence in Dōgen’s Sōtō, runs in part through Qīngliǎo’s line.