Zhēnkě 真可
Mid-Míng (Wàn-lì-era) Chán reformer and scholar-monk, zì Dáguān 達觀, late-life hào Zǐbǎi 紫柏. One of the Wànlì Four Great Masters 萬曆四大師 (alongside 袾宏 Yúnqī Zhūhóng, 德清 Hánshān Déqīng, and Ǒuyì Zhìxù 蕅益智旭). 23 July 1543 – 17 January 1604, shìshòu 61, sēnglà 41. Native of Jùqū 句曲 (Wújiāng, Sūzhōu), lay surname Shěn 沈.
Tonsured at seventeen at Hǔqiūshān under Míngjué 明覺; took the precepts at twenty; spent three years in shut-retreat at Wǔtáng Jǐngdésì 武塘景德寺. Awakened on hearing another monk recite Zhāng Zhuō 張拙’s jiàndào jì at the line “cutting off deluded thoughts only increases the sickness; tending toward thusness is itself wrong” 斷除妄想重增病，趨向真如亦是邪.
Principal public contribution: initiated — at Wǔtáishān in Wànlì 17 (1589), on the basis of collating the Míng-dynasty Běizàng and Nánzàng — the Jiāxīng dàzàng jīng 嘉興大藏經 / Fāngcè dàzàng 方冊大藏經 project: a new canon-printing in portable bound-book format that became the most widely-accessible Chinese Buddhist canon of the late Míng and Qīng. Also associate of Déqīng in a planned Chuándēng lù revision (not completed); personally led the restoration of fifteen derelict temples across Jiāngnán and beyond. Reformist voice on unity of the three teachings 三教合一.
Moved widely in the Wànlì political establishment, which caused his downfall: in the autumn of Wànlì 31 (1603) enemies at court used the so-called yāoshū 妖書 incident to implicate him; imprisoned in the 12th month; died in prison on 17 January 1604 after calling for a bath and reciting a parting jì. His quánshēn 全身 stupa was placed on Wénshūtái 文殊臺 at Jìngshān, next to Déqīng’s.
His 29-juan Zǐbǎi zūnzhě quánjí 紫柏尊者全集 (KR6q0382; X73 n1452) was reviewed/edited (yuè 閱) by Déqīng after Zhēnkě’s death, with a substantial Déqīng preface as front-matter.