Touzi Yiqing

Touzi Yiqing
Religion	Chán/Zen
School	Caodong/Sōtō
Personal
Born	1032 Yanshi, China
Died	1083
Senior posting
Title	Chán master
Predecessor	Dayang Jingxuan
Successor	Furong Daokai
Religious career
Teacher	Fushan Fayuan
Students	Furong Daokai Dahong Baoen Puxian Biao

Touzi Yiqing (Chinese: 投子義青; Japanese: Tōsu Gisei; Korean: T'uja Ŭich'ǒn; Vietnamese: Đầu Tử Nghĩa Thanh), sometimes also Touzi Qing Huayan, was a Zen Buddhist monk during the early Song Dynasty.

Touzi Yiqing was born is a city known at the time as Qingshe, which is near the present-day city of Yanshi in Henan Province. An account of his life from the Wudeng Huiyuan (Compendium of Five Lamps), and early 13th century collection of Buddhist biographies, claims he left his parents at the age of seven to study Buddhism at Miaoxing Temple, which was part of the Consciousness-only Sect. Eventually, however, he is said to have found the density of the teachings unhelpful, and so he left to study in the Huayan school instead.

While studying in that tradition, he supposedly came to the realization that any attempt to teach Buddhism through the study of words could not succeed. He again left, this time settling on the Zen practitioner Fushan Fayuan, also known as Yuanjian, as his teacher. While Touzi's predecessor was said to be the last remaining teacher in the Caodong/Sōtō Zen tradition, the lineage flourished with Touzi's devoted students, recovering much of its former prominence.

Touzi Yiqing is a significant figure in the lineage of Caodong/Sōtō Zen because of the fact that he did not actually study under the man commonly regarded as his predecessor, namely Dayang Jingxuan. This is a unique exception to an otherwise steadfast rule that a lineage must involve direct teacher-to-student dharma transmission in order to be considered valid.

...
Wikipedia