Late-Wànlì-era Buddhist monk-commentator, sobriquets Yúān 愚菴 (“Foolish Cottage”) and Yùān 玉菴 (“Jade Cottage”), with the residential title 慈慧 (“Compassion-Wisdom”) imperially bestowed on his monastery in 1589. Lay surname Liú 劉; native of Lóngjū 龍居 in Ānyuè 安岳, Western Sìchuān (西蜀). Born c. 1558 (twelve in 1569 when he took ordination); death year unknown. DILA A000956.
He took the tonsure together with his father Wúxiá Míngyù 無瑕明玉 (1524–1595) on the fifth day of the fifth month of Lóngqìng 3 (1569), aged 12; father and son then together traveled widely across the famous mountains, consulted with various teachers, and practised austerities. Zhēnguì was an attentive listener at lecture-halls, studying the Avataṃsaka, Lotus, Śūraṅgama, Yuán-jué, and Vijñaptimātratā literature, and developed a reputation as a skilled doctrinal lecturer.
In Wànlì 17 (1589), at the request of an aristocratic patron Wáng Gōng 王公, he founded a monastery in Beijing whose imperial title 慈慧 (“Compassion-Wisdom”) was bestowed by the Empress Dowager (聖母). He served as abbot for the rest of his life.
His attested works are concentrated on the Rénwáng-jīng tradition: Rénwáng jīng kē-shū kē-wén 仁王經科疏科文 (X515 = KR6c0211) — a kēwén structural outline; Rénwáng jīng kē-shū xuán-tán 仁王經科疏懸談 (X516 = KR6c0212) — a xuán-tán introductory discourse; and Rénwáng jīng kē-shū 仁王經科疏 (X517 = KR6c0213) — a five-fascicle Rénwáng-jīng commentary in the standard kē-shū (outline-and-subcommentary) format. He also produced a Léngqié kē-jiě 楞伽科解 on the Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra. His biography is preserved in 德清 Hānshān Déqīng’s Hānshān lǎorén mèngyóu jí 憨山老人夢遊集 j. 29, in the stūpa-tablet for his father Wúxiá Míngyù.
He represents the late-Wànlì Cíhuìsì doctrinal lecturer tradition that developed substantial commentarial output on canonical Mahāyāna sūtras, supported by aristocratic-patronage networks and Empress Dowager imperial sanction.