Tōngróng 通容
Sobriquet Fèiyǐn 費隱. Late-Míng / early-Qīng Chán master, abbot of Tiāntóngshān 天童山. Dharma heir of Mìyún Yuánwù 密雲圓悟 (1566–1642) in the Línjì 臨濟 — Yángqí 楊岐 line; one of the most aggressive Línjì-orthodox polemicists of his generation. Lifedates 1593–1661.
Compiler of the Wǔdēng yántǒng 五燈嚴統 (KR6q0019) and its table of contents (KR6q0018) in 1653, and author of the self-defence pamphlet Wǔdēng yántǒng jiěhuò biān 五燈嚴統解惑編 (KR6q0020) in 1654. The Yántǒng and the controversies surrounding it are central case material in modern scholarship on seventeenth-century Chán lineage disputes (see Jiang Wu, Enlightenment in Dispute, OUP 2008). Also authored the administrative manual Cónglín liǎng xù xū zhī 叢林兩序須知 (KR6q0142).
Tōngróng’s teacher was Mìyún Yuánwù 密雲圓悟 (1566–1642, DILA A003688), and his principal dharma-heir was Yǐnyuán Lóngqí 隱元隆琦 (1592–1673), who emigrated to Japan in 1654 and founded the Ōbakushū 黃檗宗 — through whom Tōngróng’s regulatory and doctrinal writings became foundational for the third major school of Japanese Zen.
Native of Fúqīng 福清 (Fújiàn), lay surname Hé 何, given-name Màozhè 懋淛. Held successive abbacies at Tángshān 堂山, Fúyán sì 福嚴寺, Jìngshān 徑山 (one of the Southern Sòng “Five Mountains”), and Yáofēng 堯峰. Per DILA A001150: birth Wànlì 21.5.24 (22 June 1593); death Shùnzhì 18.3.29 (27 April 1661).