Shībèi 師備
Late-Táng / Five-Dynasties Chán master, hào Zōngyī dàshī 宗一大師 (imperial shìhào); also Bèi tóutuó 備頭陀 (for his strict dhūta practice). 835 – 28 December 908 (lunar 開平 2.11.27), shìshòu 74. Native of Mǐnxiàn 閩縣 (Fúzhōu), lay surname Xiè 謝 (lay name Xiè Sānláng 謝三郎). As a youth a fisherman on the Mǐn river; at the beginning of Xiántōng (860) renounced secular life at the age of thirty and took ordination under Fúróngshān Língxùn 芙蓉山靈訓. Received full precepts and practised strict dhūta; in Xiántōng 7 (866) went to meet Xuěfēng Yìcún 雪峰義存 (822–908) at Tiāntái Xuěfēng, and received dharma-transmission from him. Shítóuzōng 石頭宗.
Principal dharma-heir: Dìzàng Guìchēn 地藏桂琛 (867–928), through whom Shībèi’s line gave rise to the Fǎyǎnzōng 法眼宗 (Guìchēn → Fǎyǎn Wényì 法眼文益 → Tiāntái Désháo 天台德韶 → Yǒngmíng Yánshòu 永明延壽). His own three-juan guǎnglù (KR6q0375; X73 n1445) was compiled by his disciple 智嚴 Zhìyán, went through a complex Sòng-era recension under Sūn Jué 孫覺 (c. 1082) — with a controversial supplementary collation by Qiānguāngwángsì Yìchéng 千光王寺義澄 — and was reprinted in Japan in 1690 by Dokuan Genkō 獨菴玄光, who (following the Sòng-scholar-monk Juéfàn Huìhóng 覺範惠洪’s critique) removed Yìchéng’s interpolation.
Known for the aphorisms “the whole of the great earth is one bright jewel” 盡大地是一顆明珠 and “the whole world in the ten directions is the shining chán pearl” 盡十方世界是箇光明藏, which — reworked by his grand-disciple Fǎyǎn Wényì — gave the Fǎyǎnzōng its characteristic doctrinal signature.