Fúróng Dàokǎi 芙蓉道楷 (1043–1118), Northern Sòng Cáodòng 曹洞宗 master and the principal figure of the late-11th-century Cáodòng revival. Native of Yíshuǐ 沂水 (modern Shāndōng), lay surname Cuī 崔. Posthumous title Dìngzhào chánshī 定照禪師 (which Dàokǎi famously refused during his lifetime).
Austere and single-minded from youth, Dàokǎi practised bì gǔ 辟穀 (Daoist grain-abstention) and Daoist internal alchemy as a lay youth; subsequently converted to Buddhism, was ordained at the Shùtái sì 術臺寺 in the capital, and received full precepts. Studied under Qīng Huáyán 青華嚴 (i.e., Tóuzǐ Yìqīng 投子義青, DILA A001466) at the Huáishān Hǎihuì 淮山海會, attaining realisation there. In Yuánfēng 5 (1082) returned to the Yíshuǐ region and resided at Mǎ’ān shān 馬鞍山. Subsequently held abbacies at Yízhōu Sīxiān dòng 沂州仙洞, Xīluò Zhāotí Lóngmén 西洛招提龍門, Yǐngzhōu Dàyáng 郢州大陽, Suízhōu Dàhóng 隋州大洪, Dōngjīng Shífāng Jìngyīn chányuàn 東京十方淨因禪院 (from Chóngníng 3 = 1104), and finally the Tiānníng 天寧 monastery (from Dàguān 1 = 1107).
Dàokǎi is most famously associated with his 1107 refusal of the imperial purple robe and the posthumous title Dìngzhào chánshī offered by the emperor Huīzōng — an act of monastic-state independence that led to his being punished with internal exile to Zīzhōu 緇州 wearing lay dress. Released in the following year (1108) and granted the Fúróng Lake 芙蓉湖 area as a private hermitage; the hermitage was later granted the name Huāyán chánsì 華嚴禪寺 by imperial decree in Zhènghé 7 (1117). Died on Zhènghé 8.5.14 (11 June 1118), aged 76.
Dàokǎi’s principal dharma-heir was Dānxiá Zǐchún 丹霞子淳 (1066–1119), the teacher of Hóngzhì Zhèngjué (1091–1157). The lineage Dàokǎi → Zǐchún → Hóngzhì → (intervening generations) → Tiāntóng Rújìng (1163–1228) → Dōgen is the principal Cáodòng / Sōtō lineage-history reaching Japanese Zen. Dàokǎi is thus the stem figure of the Japanese Sōtō school’s ancestor-lineage.
Works in the Kanripo corpus: KR6q0125 Qíyuán zhèngyí 祇園正儀 (1 juan, X63 n1233) — his programmatic regulatory manifesto. He was also the editor of the short one-juan recension of his master 義青’s yǔlù (KR6q0357, Shūzhōu Tóuzǐshān Miàoxù dàshī yǔlù 舒州投子山妙續大師語錄, compiled in his capacity as “zhù Fúróngshān sìfǎ xiǎoshī 住芙蓉山嗣法小師”); his student 自覺 Lùmén Zìjué later produced the longer two-juan chóngbiān recension (KR6q0356).
Per DILA A001539: birth 1043 (sui reckoning from 76-year lifespan ending in 1118); death Zhènghé 8.5.14 = 11 June 1118; lay surname Cuī. Cáodòng lineage.