Wéishān Língyòu 溈山靈祐 (also Guīshān, 771–853), Táng dynasty Chán master and founder, with his disciple Yǎngshān Huìjì 仰山慧寂 (807–883), of the Wéiyǎngzōng 溈仰宗 — canonically the first of the Five Houses (五家) of classical Chán. Shì Dàyuán chánshī 大圓禪師; stupa Qīngjìng 清淨. Native of Chángxī 長谿 in Fúzhōu 福州 (modern Fújiàn), lay surname Zhào 趙.
Língyòu was tonsured at fifteen at the local Jiànshàn sì 建善寺 under the Vinaya master Fǎcháng 法常, completed doctrinal training in the Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna curricula at Hángzhōu Lóngxìng sì 杭州龍興寺, and at twenty-three travelled to Jiāngxī and entered the ménxià 門下 of Bǎizhàng Huáihǎi 百丈懷海 (720–814), becoming quickly the senior disciple. The celebrated ember-in-the-ashes (cuòhuǒ 撮火) exchange with Bǎizhàng is his awakening precedent. On the recommendation of the geomantically-literate itinerant Sīmǎ tóuduó 司馬頭陀 — and after a dramatic test of his rival Huálín Jué 華林覺 — Bǎizhàng sent him to found a new monastery on Dàguī shān 大溈山 in Tánzhōu 潭州 (modern Húnán), the mountain Sīmǎ had identified as “a seat for fifteen-hundred monks”. After years of solitude among tigers and wild fruit, Língyòu was joined by Lǎn’ān 懶安 and a handful of Bǎizhàng’s students; the monastery received the imperial name Tóngqìng sì 同慶寺 through the liánshuài Lǐ Jǐngràng 李景讓; and the Chief Councillor Péi Xiū 裴休 became a major lay patron. Língyòu taught there for over forty years, “assembling for him the Chán students of the realm” per the yǔlù biographical note, before his death on Dàzhōng 7.1.9 (24 February 853), aged 83, sēnglà 僧臘 sixty-four.
Língyòu’s signature teaching modes include the yuán xiāng 圓相 (round-image drawings) as doctrinal shorthand, the dàowù xīn 道悟心 (“mind of the Way”) emphasis on unfabricated sincerity, and the much-cited hòu jǐ bǎi nián 後幾百年 (“after some hundreds of years I will become a water-buffalo on the mountainside, with five characters on its left flank reading ‘Wéishān’s monk so-and-so’ — when that happens, what is the right name to call me?”) self-identification sermon. The dharma-heir Yǎngshān Huìjì 慧寂 (A001983) is the lineage bearer; Wéishān–Yǎngshān-style dialogues became the doctrinal signature of the school. The Wéiyǎng lineage did not long survive institutionally beyond the Táng, but its dialogue materials entered the wider Chán commentarial corpus and are densely preserved in the post-Sòng yǔlù recensions.
Traditionally credited with the Guīshān jǐngcè 溈山警策 (“Admonitions from Guīshān”), a short monastic-regulations document canonical in the Chinese and Japanese Chán / Zen pedagogical curriculum alongside the Bǎizhàng qīngguī 百丈清規.
Works in the Kanripo corpus: KR6q0075 Tánzhōu Wéishān Língyòu chánshī yǔlù 潭州溈山靈祐禪師語錄 (1 juan, T47 n1989) — the Míng Wǔjiā yǔlù 五家語錄 recension compiled by 圓信 Yǔfēng Yuánxìn and 郭凝之 Guō Níngzhī.
Per DILA A001984: birth 771; death Dàzhōng 7.1.9 (24 February 853), per the stupa inscription preserved at Sòng gāosēng zhuàn T50 n2061 p0777c07. Native place Chángxī in Fúzhōu (modern Fúdǐng 福鼎 area).