Zhēnzhé 真哲 (Gǔxuě Zhēnzhé 古雪真哲)
Mid-seventeenth-century LínjìYángqí Chán master, youngest direct dharma-heir of Mìyún Yuánwù 密雲圓悟 (1566/7–1642) and the restorer of Hóngdū Cuìyán Chánsì 洪都翠巖禪寺 in Jiāngxī. Fǎhuì 法諱 Zhēnzhé 真哲, zì Ruòlǔ 若魯 (original, from age-16 tonsure), hào Gǔxuě 古雪 (“Ancient-Snow”). Lay name Chén Guóbīn 陳國賓, zì Bīnwáng 賓王. Lay surname Chén 陳, father Chén Zhīqí 陳之奇 (yìxiángshēng 邑庠生), mother Yúshì 余氏. Native of Jiànníngfǔ Ōuníngxiàn Gāoyángxiāng 建寧府甌寧縣高陽鄉 (Fújiàn). Born 萬曆 42 甲寅 10.4 亥時 = 4 November 1614 Western (self-reported in KR6q0426 juan 11 xíngshí, delivered 辛卯臘 = January 1652 at age 38 suì). Death-date not preserved in the accessible record; likely c. 1675 per the Shì shì yí nián lù.
Training. Tonsured 1629 at Huángyán 黃巖 (Fújiàn) under Tǐkōng 體空 at age 16. First opening on the Zhōngfēng jǐngcè gē 中峰警策歌 “yīniàn bùshēng dū jiětuō 一念不生都解脫”. Xīnwèi winter 辛未冬 (1631): left Fújiàn on pilgrimage. Met Juélàng Dàoshèng 覺浪道盛 at Mèngbǐ. After three years of itinerant training through Wú, Chǔ, and the Central Plains, arrived at Tiāntóngsì 甲戌冬 (1634 winter) to meet Mìyún Yuánwù. Eight-year extended training 1634–42 as one of Mìyún’s close attendants. Interim travels (1637) included meetings with Xuějiào Yuánxìn, Yǒngjué Yuánxián at Píngyáo, Xuěguān Zhìyín at Jìngshān, and a decisive awakening winter of 1637 at Yúnmén under Ěrmì héshàng 爾密和尚 on the Kāishàn Dàoqiān 開善謙 chíshū gōngàn.
Post-Mìyún career (1641–1649). 辛巳冬 (1641 winter): served Mìyún at Qí Biāojiā’s Mìyuán 祁彪佳密園 garden in Shàoxīng; took formal leave. Settled at Xījiāng Nánān Wòyúnān 西江南安臥雲菴 in Jiāngxī. On news of Mìyún’s 1642 death: traveled to Hóngzhōu; co-disciple Jiàntáng Yìgōng 健堂義公 persuaded him to stay at Xīshān Báifǎān 西山白法菴 as a 9-year hermit (1643–51). 己丑 (1649) accepted the Hóngdū Cuìyánsì 翠巖寺 abbacy after repeated petitioning by the Jiāngxī lay-literary circle (Chén Hóngxù 陳弘緒 and Xióng Wénjǔ 熊文舉). Cuìyán was the central abbacy of his career — the text’s 20 juan focus almost entirely on this single seat.
Work: KR6q0426 《古雪哲禪師語錄》 (20 juan, Jiāxīng Canon J28 B208, compiled by dharma-heir 傳我 Chuánwǒ at Wànān Lóngdéyuàn). Cut c. 1655 with front-prefaces by Chén Hóngxù (undated) and Mùchén Dàomǐn (from Qīngzhōu Dàjuésì, c. 1653–55). The xíngshí in juan 11 is dated 辛卯臘 = 1651 lunar 12 = January 1652.
Documentary significance. Zhēnzhé’s 1651 xíngshí is the single longest and most detailed autobiography among the J26–J28 Mìyún-line masters — a dense first-person documentary source for Mìyún’s late-life training-methodology at Tiāntóng (1634–42). For any historian of seventeenth-century Línjì Chán pedagogy, this is an indispensable primary source.
Sources: KR6q0426 juan 1 prefaces (Chén Hóngxù, Mùchén Dàomǐn); juan 11 xíngshí (1651-12); Chén Yuán 陳垣, 《釋氏疑年錄》; Wǔdēng quánshū 五燈全書 juan 65.