Kuò’ān Shīyuǎn 廓庵師遠 (lifedates unrecorded, active mid-to-late 12th century), Southern-Sòng Línjì 臨濟 Yángqí-branch 楊岐派 Chán master. Hào Kuò’ān 廓庵 (“Spacious Hermitage”). Dharma-heir of Nántáng Yuánjìng 南堂元靜 (DILA A008510). Native of Héchuān 合川 (modern Sìchuān region), lay surname Lǔ 魯. Held the abbacy at Chángdé fǔ Liángshān 常德府梁山 in Dǐngzhōu 鼎州 (modern Húnán) — whence the alternate names Liángshān Shīyuǎn 梁山師遠 and Kuò’ān Yuǎn 廓庵遠.
Kuò’ān Shīyuǎn is known principally through his authorship of the Shí niú tú sòng 十牛圖頌 (KR6q0159, X64 n1269) — the canonical ten-stage ox-herding allegorical-pedagogical cycle, the single most influential Chán pedagogical-visual composition. His preface to the text narrates the genre’s earlier history (Qīngjū 清居’s five-stage version, Zégōng 則公’s ten-stage version) and argues that his own ten-stage sequence — uniquely beginning from “lost” and ending in “entering the marketplace with helping hands” — completes the full spiritual trajectory.
One named dharma-heir: Xìnxiàng Yí chánshī 信相宜禪師 of Chéngdū fǔ.
Works in the Kanripo corpus: KR6q0159 Shí niú tú sòng only.
Per DILA A000918: LínjìYángqí lineage; no lifedates recorded. Sòng dynasty.