Fuyan Liangya was a Northern Song master of the Yunmen school, a dharma-heir of Dongshan Shouchu under whom he served as head monk at Dongshan. He is the witness to the birth of the 'three pounds of flax' koan: when a monk asked Shouchu 'What is Buddha?' and got that answer, Shouchu afterwards came to Liangya's room asking whether the reply had been any good — and Liangya deadpanned, 'You just happened to catch me shaving my head.' He later taught at Fuyan on Mt. Nanyue, where the statesman Wang Sui consulted him on the 'Qiannü's departed soul' story.
References: DILA Authority
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