Shénhuì 神會 (684–758)
Tang Buddhist monk, principal disciple of the sixth Chán patriarch 惠能 Huìnéng and the polemical founder of the Hé-zé 荷澤 (Southern) lineage of Chán. From the year 732 he conducted a sustained campaign at the Huátái 滑臺 monastery in Hénán arguing for the legitimacy of Huìnéng’s “Southern School” as the orthodox transmission of Chán against the rival Shénxiù 神秀 / Northern lineage. His arguments — preserved chiefly in the Dūnhuáng manuscripts of the Putidamo nanzong dingshifei lun 菩提達摩南宗定是非論 and the Tánjīng 壇經 — provided the historical-doctrinal frame within which subsequent Tang Chán self-identified as the Southern School, and shaped the sudden-awakening (頓悟) doctrine that 澄觀 Chéngguān and 宗密 Zōngmì then incorporated into mature Huáyán.