Xìngchōng 性沖 (28 December 1540 – 6 January 1612 = Jiājìng 19.11.21 – Wànlì 39.12.4), styled Wúhuàn 無幻 (“Without Illusion”) and Gǔzhàn 古湛 (“Ancient Deep Stillness”); fuller forms Wúhuàn Gǔzhàn Xìngchōng 無幻古湛性沖 / Chēxī Xìngchōng 車溪性沖 / Jìngshān Xìngchōng 徑山性沖 / Sūzhōu Chēxī Wúhuàn Xìngchōng 蘇州車溪無幻性冲 from his principal residences. A significant late-Míng Chán master of the Línjì Yángqí 臨濟楊岐 lineage. Direct dharma-heir of Wúqù Rúkōng 無趣如空 (1491–1580) at Jìngwèiān 敬畏庵; received transmission in the mid-winter of Wànlì 7 (1579), at which point Rúkōng foretold his own death the following autumn and instructed Xìngchōng to come to him at the appointed hour — Xìngchōng duly arrived on Wànlì 8.8.6 (24 September 1580) and witnessed his master’s death.
Native of Hé-jùn Xiù-shuǐ 禾郡秀水 (= Jiā-xìng Xiù-shuǐ, Zhè-jiāng; DILA place), lay surname Zhāng 張. Lay given-name Qiáo 橋, chosen from his mother’s dream, on the eve of his birth, of a rooster flying upward from a bridge. As a small boy he played at stacking tile-and-stone temples and leading the other children in worship before clay Buddha-images. He married early and had a son; by age four he was already lamenting “the bonds of dust — when will they be left behind?” His early Buddhist formation came under the layman Fāng Yàn-shān 方硯山, who directed him to the scriptures. On concluding that “the Tripiṭaka and twelve-fold corpus are but fish-traps and rabbit-snares,” Fāng redirected him to Wú-qù Rú-kōng 無趣如空 (1491–1580) as “a genuine Línjì figure” (běn-sè dào-liú 本色道流). Rú-kōng’s first reception rebuffed his book-learning: “remembering this tangle fouls a single pure-white inch of you” (jì cǐ yī luò-suǒ wū rǔ yī piàn qīng-bái dì 記此一絡索汙汝一片清白地).
Because his mother was still living, Xìngchōng could not immediately take the tonsure; he served her while studying at Yuánmíngsì 圓明寺 where he trained young students. Only after her death did he shave and receive transmission. Rúkōng transmitted robe-dharma in the mid-winter of Wànlì 7 (1579) — in connection with the famous anecdote in which Xìngchōng rescued Rúkōng’s verses from being burnt, anthologised them, and returned them as a “gift of farmland with its title-deed,” the editorial germ of what would become KR6q0394. Rúkōng’s transmission verse ran: Shī chuán niānhuā zōng, shì wǒ wēixiào fǎ, qīn shǒu zhǎn fù rǔ, chífèng biàn chénshā 師傳拈花宗／示我微笑法／親手展付汝／持奉遍塵剎. On Xìngchōng’s announced intention to go to Jìngshān, Rúkōng issued the cryptic “your karmic connection lies at the water’s edge” (zǐ yuán zài shuǐ biān 子緣在水邊). Rúkōng then foretold his own death for the following autumn and instructed Xìngchōng to come to him at the appointed hour — Xìngchōng duly arrived on Wànlì 8.8.6 (24 September 1580) and witnessed his master’s death.
Xìngchōng then stayed three years at Jìngshān, then three years in sealed-door meditation at Yuánmíngsì. On opening the gate he accepted the invitation of the monk Zhèngchuān 證川 of Chēxīān 車溪庵 and made Chēxī his principal residence for more than twenty years (ca. 1589–1611), fulfilling Rúkōng’s “water’s edge” prediction. Renowned for strict jiélǜ 戒律 (“discipline cold as frost”) combined with warm demeanour, and for his generosity with his own bowl-resources toward any charitable cause — “frugal in self, abundant to others” (jiǎn yǐ zìchǔ huì yǐ jí rén 儉以自處惠以及人). He explicitly lacked a “coming-out-into-the-world mind” (wú chūshì xīn 無出世心). In spring Wànlì 38 gēngxū (1610) Jìngshān 徑山 — the great Yángqí Chán monastery near Hángzhōu, historic seat of Dàhuì Zōnggǎo 大慧宗杲, Wúzhǔn Shīfàn 無準師範, and their heirs — established a chán-period retreat and invited him to lead; he declined. In spring 1611 they asked again; he reluctantly accepted, served half a year, fell ill with a spleen disorder (píjí 脾疾), and returned to Chēxī. On Wànlì 39.12.4 (= 6 January 1612) he arranged final matters, sat upright, and died, nominally aged 72 with 30 là (ordained years). His relic-bones (línggǔ 靈骨) were enshrined in a stūpa at Jìngshān. As a layman he had been called Wúhuàn 無幻, and the name was so attached to him that he kept it after ordination — “all called him Wúhuàn.”
Dharma-heir: Nánmíng Huìguǎng 南明慧廣 (1576–1620, DILA A010707), who served him for eight years at Chēxī / Jìngshān, compiled his yǔlù, and inherited the robe despite Xìngchōng’s brief abbacy at Jìngshān.
Xìng-chōng’s preface to Rú-kōng’s yǔlù (the second of two prefaces at the head of KR6q0394) is a rare first-hand statement of the Míng-era Tiān-mù-shān Línjì sub-lineage: Mahā-kāśyapa → Bodhidharma → the Six → Nán-yuè Huái-ràng 南嶽懷讓 → Línjì Yì-xuán 臨濟義玄 → Yáng-qí Fāng-huì 楊岐方會 → Bái-yún Shǒu-duān 白雲守端 → (nine generations) → Wú-zhǔn Shī-fàn 無準師範 → Duàn-qiáo Miào-lún 斷橋妙倫 → (through 寶 → 寶 → 度 → 睹 → 儘, four generations) → Bǎo-fāng Jìn 寶芳進 at Tiān-mù-shān → Yě-wēng Xiǎo 野翁曉 → Rú-kōng → Xìng-chōng.
Works in the Kanripo corpus: KR6q0394 Wúqù lǎorén yǔlù 無趣老人語錄 (1 juan, JB155) — biān (compiler of his master’s sayings, with his own framing preface); KR6q0395 Wúhuàn chánshī yǔlù 無幻禪師語錄 (2 juan, JB156) — shuō (his own recorded sayings, compiled by Huìguǎng).
Sources: 《無幻禪師語錄》卷2〈無幻禪師行狀〉 (= KR6q0395 juan 2 end, signed ménrén Huìguǎng děng 門人慧廣等); 《徑石滴乳集》; 《續燈正統目錄》; DILA A007841.