A Chinese Ch'an monk of the T'ang dynasty who studied with Ma-tsu Tao-i (709-88), and was the master of another well-known figure, Chao-chou Ts'ung-shen (778-897). He was in most respects a very conventional monk: he had mastered the regulations of the monastic Vinaya with teachers of the Lü-tsung after ordination, studied various sūtras and the literature of the San-lun school, and had an awakening (satori) while staying with Ma-tsu. However, he is best known for one strange incident memorialized in the Transmission of the Lamp of the Ching-te [reign-period] and as case number 14 in the collection of kōans known as the Gateless Gate. It is recorded that one day he heard the monks of the eastern and western halls arguing over a cat, whereupon he took up the cat and a knife and challenged the monks to say a single true word about it. If they could not, he would cut the cat in two. The monks were speechless, and Nan-ch'uan killed the cat. Later, he related the incident to his student Chao-chou, who said nothing, but put his sandals on his head and left the room, which caused Nan-ch'uan to say, ‘If you had only been there, you could have saved the cat!’

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