Zǔxiān 祖先
Southern-Sòng Yángqí-branch Línjì Chán master, hào Pòān 破菴 (“Broken Hermitage”); also Wòlóng xiān 臥龍先 for his most famous abbacy. Surname Wáng 王; native of Xīnmíng 新明 in Guǎngān jūn 廣安軍 (modern Sìchuān). Per DILA A004696 and the xíngzhuàng appended to his yǔlù: 1136 – Jiādìng 4.6.9 (27 July 1211), shì 76, là 49.
Tonsured at Luóhànyuàn under the monk Déxiáng 德祥 after the death of his parents; transferred to Zhāojuésì 昭覺 in Chéngdū under the elder Yuán 緣. After the master’s death he went south, receiving full precepts from Déshān Juān 德山涓, and then travelled the great Chán seats, studying with Wéishān Xíng 溈山行, Hǔqiū Xiātáng Yuǎn 虎丘瞎堂遠, Jìngcí Yuètáng Chāng 淨慈月堂昌, and Shuǐān Yī 水菴一. His final and decisive awakening came at Wūjùshān 烏巨山 under 咸傑 Mìān Xiánjié (1118–1186), who took him on as diǎnkè and five years later sent him back to Shǔ with a verse of formal dharma-transmission. Pòān is thus the senior brother-in-dharma (not heir) of 崇岳 Sōngyuán Chóngyuè — the two senior heirs of Mìān whose branches together account for the bulk of the Yángqí Línjì transmission in the Southern Sòng.
Nine successive abbacies: in Shǔ at Guǒzhōu Qīngjū 清居 and Zǐzhōu Wàngchuān 望川, then (at Yáng Fǔ’s invitation) Kuífǔ Wòlóngshān Xiánpíng 夔府臥龍山咸平; out of the peaks via Chángzhōu Jiànfú 薦福 and Zhēnzhōu Língyán 靈岩, to Píngjiāng Xiùfēng 秀峰, then as kāishān of the Guǎngshòu Huìyún 廣壽慧雲 in Lín’ān (built on land donated by Zhāng Jùn 張俊), then Píngjiāng Qiónglóng Fúzhēn 穹窿福臻, and finally Húzhōu Fèngshān Zīfú 鳳山資福. Recorded sayings survive as Pòān Zǔxiān chánshī yǔlù (KR6q0314).
Principal dharma-heirs: Wújùn Shīfàn 師範 無準師範 (1178–1249), Shítián Fǎxūn 法薰 石田法薰 (1171–1245), Jíān Cíjué 即菴慈覺, and Dúān Dàochóu 獨庵道儔 — the Pòān line (破菴派) in the strict sense. His disciples were the most widely influential Línjì masters of the following generation and in turn produced Xuěyán Zǔqīn 雪巖祖欽, Gāofēng Yuánmiào 高峰原妙, Zhōngfēng Míngběn 中峰明本, and — through Wújùn’s Japanese disciple Enni Ben’en 圓爾辨圓 — the Shōichi-ha 聖一派 of Japanese Tōfukuji Zen.