Zhēnběn 真本 (Xiàng Zhēnběn 項真本)
Late-Míng / early-Qīng lay Chán practitioner and layman-teacher. Lay surname Xiàng 項, lay given name Qiān 謙. Hào Mùdàozhě 牧道者 (“Herdsman Daoist”), Mùgōng 牧公 (“Herdsman Duke”), Cìān 次庵 (“Second Hermitage”), Cíān 茨庵. Birth year 1618/1/17 (Wànlì 45/12/21 noon, per the biographical chapter in his Jiū xīn lù). Death year unrecorded.
Self-described as “a Daoist-monk who is not a [fully ordained] monk, a Daoist who is not a [fully secular] layman” (dào sēng bù sēng, dào sú bù sú 道僧不僧道俗不俗) — the distinctive hybrid lay-monastic position of late-imperial serious lay Chán practitioners. Active at Gǔpíngshān 古瓶山 (“Old-Bottle Mountain”; precise location not yet identified).
One major surviving work: the Gǔpíngshān Mùdàozhě jiū xīn lù 古瓶山牧道者究心錄 KR6q0202 in three juan, his collected sermons and teachings. Also appears as a harmonizing-verse contributor (under the designation Mùgōng dàorén Xiàng Zhēnběn 牧公道人項真本) in the ox-herding compilations KR6q0161, KR6q0163, and KR6q0164, evidencing his integration into the mid-17th-century LínjìYángqí lay-Chán network around Yán Dàcān 嚴大參 and the Pǔmíngsì revival.
Author of the front-preface to KR6q0455 《嘉興退菴斷愚智禪師語錄》, signed Píngshān fǎdì Zhēnběn Xiàng Qiān 瓶山法弟真本項謙 and dated 康熙庚戌仲秋巳亥望旦 = 1670/8/15 Gregorian. The preface refers to the master Yǒngzhèng Yīlǎo héshàng 永正一老和尚 as fǎshū 法叔 — placing Zhēnběn as a fǎzhí 法姪 of YǒngzhèngYī (heir of 普明真用), and fǎdì 法弟 of Tuìān Duànyú Zhì in the Hǔqiū → Jìngshān → Duànqiáo Lún → PǔmíngYòng → YǒngzhèngYī sub-line. The preface establishes Zhēnběn’s formal lineage-affiliation more precisely than the earlier Mùdàozhě materials, which avoided explicit fǎshū / fǎdì designations.