Cheongheo Hyujeong 清虛休靜 (Korean reading; Chinese Qīngxū Xiūjìng; 1520–1604), known universally in Korean tradition as Sŏsan Taesa 西山大師 (“Great Master of the West Mountain”); the single most influential Korean Buddhist figure of the mid-Chosŏn dynasty. Zì Rúxìn 汝信; multiple hào including Qīngxū 清虛 (“Clear-Empty”), Xīshān 西山, Xuányīng 玄應, and Tuìyǐn 退隱 (“Retreated-and-Concealed” — the hào used in the author-line of the Chán jiā guī jiàn KR6q0146). Imperial honours: Guóyī dù dà chánshī 國一都大禪師 (“Great Chán Master of National Uniqueness”) and Fúzōng fǔjiào pǔjì dēngjiē zūnzhě 扶宗拊教普濟登階尊者. Lay surname Cuī 崔, native of Wánshān 完山.
Dharma-heir of Yǐnān Línguān 隱庵靈觀 (DILA A031593) in the Korean Sŏn 朝鮮禪 lineage, which derives historically from the Chinese LínjìYángqí tradition via Koryŏ-period transmissions. Passed the sŭnggwa 僧科 state Sŏn examination and held the supreme ecclesiastical offices of the Chosŏn Buddhist institution.
Hyujeong is the principal Korean Buddhist figure of the Japanese Imjin War period (1592–1598): despite the Chosŏn state’s official anti-Buddhist Neo-Confucian ideology, Hyujeong rallied Buddhist monastic militia (“monk-soldiers” sŭngpyŏng 僧兵) to defend Korea against the Japanese invasion under Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The monastic militia’s military contribution under Hyujeong’s leadership contributed to the eventual Japanese defeat and restored Buddhism to a respected institutional position in late-Chosŏn Korean society.
Hyujeong’s doctrinal project was the synthetic integration of the full classical-Chinese Chán doctrinal inheritance — DàhuìZōnggǎo kànhuà chán, Hóngzhì Zhèngjué / Cáodòng silent-illumination, Yǒngmíng Yánshòu’s Chán-Pure-Land syncretism, Pojo Chinul’s dùnwù jiànxiū — into a unified Korean synthesis that became normative for subsequent Chosŏn Korean Buddhism and continues to shape the living Korean Chogye-order tradition.
Major works:
- Chán jiā guī jiàn 禪家龜鑑 (Korean Sŏn-ga kwi-gam) (KR6q0146, X63 n1255, 1 juan) — the foundational Chosŏn Sŏn doctrinal text; single most influential Korean-authored Buddhist text after Chinul’s KR6q0097 Xiū xīn jué;
- Sŏn-gyo kyŏl 禪教訣 (“Resolution of Sŏn and Jiào Doctrinal Teaching”) — companion text advocating Sŏn-Gyo integration;
- Sŏn-ga kwi-gam yŏk-chu 禪家龜鑑諺註 — vernacular-Korean annotated edition for general readers;
- Numerous yǔlù and occasional writings preserved in his Sŏsan sōn-jip 西山先集.
Principal dharma-heirs include Samyeong Yujeong 四溟惟政 (1544–1610) — himself a celebrated monastic-military leader of the Imjin War — and Pyŏnyang Eongi 鞭羊彥機 (1581–1644), Soyŏ Taenung 逍遙太能 (1562–1649), and Jingmu Ilok 靜默一玉 (1562–1633), through whom Hyujeong’s synthesis defined the four main Sŏn gok 谷 (lineage-streams) of the late Chosŏn.
Died on Wànlì 32 (1604/5, precise date between 31 January 1604 and 17 February 1605), aged 85, chánlà (禪臘) 65.
Works in the Kanripo corpus: KR6q0146 Chán jiā guī jiàn only (his broader Korean-language and Chinese-language corpus is outside the KR6q division).
Per DILA A015785: birth 1520; death Wànlì 32 (1604/5); lay surname Cuī. Chosŏn Sŏn; Chinese-lineage affiliation LínjìYángqí.