Nánquán Pǔyuàn (Chinese: 南泉普願; Wade-Giles: Nan-ch’üan P’u-yüan; Japanese: Nansen Fugan) (748–835) was a Chán (Zen) Buddhist master in China during the Tang Dynasty. He was the student and Dharma successor of the Master Mǎzŭ Dàoyī (709-788). In the year 795, after his enlightenment experience under Mǎzŭ, he settled in a self-made hut on Mount Nanquan, from which his dharma name is derived, and lived there in eremitic solitude for three decades.[1] In time, monks persuaded him to come down the mountain and found a monastery; from that time forward, he always had hundreds of students.[2] Nánquán appears in 4 koans in The Gateless Gate (#14, #19, #27, #34), 6 koans in the Blue Cliff Record (#28, #31, #40, #63, #64, #69), and 3 koans in The Book of Serenity (#9, #69, #91). Two from the Blue Cliff Record (#28 & #69) depict Nánquán as an advanced student interacting with fellow students of Mǎzŭ, and the others depict him as a teacher in his own right. Nánquán had seventeen Dharma successors, the most famous of whom was Zhàozhōu Cōngshěn (778-897).[3] Case #19 of the Gateless Gate recounts an interaction between Nánquán and Zhàozhōu that led to the latter having a profound realization; some translators/editors, like Paul Reps (in Zen Flesh, Zen Bones), interpret this as Zhàozhōu’s enlightenment moment.[4] Another koan involving Nánquán, not appearing in any of aforementioned collections, is as follows:
Monk: “What way leads to Nansen?”
Nansen: (Raising up his farming tool) “I bought this farming tool for 25 cents.”
Monk: “I’m not asking about the farming tool you bought for 25 cents. What way leads to Nansen?”
Nansen: “It feels good when I use it.”[5]