Sēngcàn 僧璨 (d. 606, birth year unrecorded; also transmitted as 僧粲), the Third Chinese Chán Patriarch (Sānzǔ 三祖) in the canonical Chán lineage — dharma-heir of Huìkě 慧可 (the Second Patriarch) and teacher of Dàoxìn 道信 (the Fourth Patriarch). Posthumous title Jìngzhì chánshī 鏡智禪師; after the Sòng-dynasty avoidance-taboo on the character 鏡 (tabooed for Emperor Hóngzōng Zhào Jìng 趙敬’s name), the title was re-written as Jiànzhì chánshī 鑑智禪師 or Jiànzhì chánshī 鑒智禪師. Stupa title Juéjì tǎ 覺寂塔 at the Shūzhōu Shāngǔ sì 舒州山谷寺.
The canonical narrative records Sēngcàn as having presented himself to Huìkě as a layman (báiyī 白衣) afflicted with a skin disease, asking to be taught the fǎ chánhuǐ 法懺悔 (repentance-practice). Huìkě responded with the classical reply “bring me your sin and I will repent it for you”; Sēngcàn said “I have searched but cannot find my sin”; Huìkě: “I have repented it for you — now take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha”. The exchange mirrors in form the Bodhidharma-Huìkě ānxīn 安心 (“pacifying the mind”) dialogue and is structurally the Second-Patriarch’s own dharma-transmission inheritance.
During the Northern Zhōu Wǔdì 周武帝 Buddhist persecution (574–578) Sēngcàn concealed himself at the Wǎngōng shān 皖公山 in Shūzhōu 舒州; travelled briefly to Luófú shān 羅浮山 in Guǎngdōng; and returned to Shūzhōu where he died on Dàyè 2.10.15 (23 November 606) at the Shāngǔ sì. Traditional tomb-inscription preserved in Quán Táng wén juan 390 (Shūzhōu Shāngǔ sì Juéjì tǎ Suí gù Jìngzhì chánshī bēimíng), attributed variously to Fǎlín 法琳 or to the early-Táng scholar Dú Zhènglún 獨孤正倫.
Works attributed in the Kanripo corpus: KR6q0085 Xìn xīn míng 信心銘 (T48 n2010) — attributed by tradition but almost certainly a late-Táng (8th-century) composition pseudepigraphically assigned to Sēngcàn. No work is securely attested for him in his own lifetime.
Per DILA A001601: death date 606.10.15 = 23 November 606; lineage Chánzōng 禪宗.