Linji Yixuan
?–866 CE · Caozhou (Heze)
d. 866 CE; birth year not securely recorded (active 9th c.)
Linji Yixuan (died 866 CE) was the Tang-dynasty Chan master from whom the Linji school—the dominant later line of Chan, and the Japanese Rinzai school—takes its name. Born in Caozhou (modern Heze, Shandong) and trained under Huangbo, he taught at a small temple in the north known for its forceful, iconoclastic style: sudden shouts, the demand that students rely on no authority outside their own mind, and the 'true person of no rank.' The sayings attributed to him were gathered into the Linji lu ('Record of Linji'), one of the most celebrated texts of Chan, though it reached its classic form well after his death. His birth year is not securely recorded.
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Caozhou (Heze)
What they did here
DOCUMENTED ORIGIN: born into the Xing family in Caozhou; left home young to study Buddhism, later training under the Chan master Huangbo Xiyun.
About Caozhou (Heze)
Caozhou, the area of modern Heze in Shandong province, China, was the birthplace of two major Tang-dynasty Chan masters: Línjì Yìxuán, founder of the Linji (Japanese Rinzai) school, and Zhàozhōu Cóngshěn, the master famed for the 'Mu' (wú) kōan. Both later established their teaching seats elsewhere in northern China.
In Caozhou (Heze) at the same time
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Sages whose lives overlapped with Linji Yixuan’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
In the same tradition
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Linji Yixuan’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
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Works
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