Mumon Ekai
E944102
Mumon Ekai was a 13th-century Chinese Chan (Zen) master best known for compiling and commenting on the influential Zen koan collection known as the Gateless Gate.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Mumon Ekai canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T11673658 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Mumon Ekai Context triple: [Gateless Gate, compiledBy, Mumon Ekai]
-
A.
Zentsuji
Zentsuji is a historic city in Japan known as the birthplace of the Buddhist monk Kūkai and home to the famous Zentsū-ji Temple, one of the 88 temples on the Shikoku Pilgrimage.
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B.
Dōgen
Dōgen was a Japanese Zen Buddhist monk, philosopher, and founder of the Sōtō school of Zen, renowned for his influential writings on meditation and enlightenment.
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C.
Ikkyū Sōjun
Ikkyū Sōjun was a 15th-century Japanese Zen Buddhist monk and poet famed for his iconoclastic behavior, irreverent verse, and influential role in shaping later Zen culture.
-
D.
Gyōki
Gyōki was an influential Japanese Buddhist monk of the Nara period known for his public works, social welfare activities, and role in promoting Buddhism among the common people.
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E.
Heiga Zen
Heiga Zen is a researcher in speech synthesis and machine learning, known for helping develop Google's WaveNet neural network for generating raw audio.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Mumon Ekai Target entity description: Mumon Ekai was a 13th-century Chinese Chan (Zen) master best known for compiling and commenting on the influential Zen koan collection known as the Gateless Gate.
-
A.
Zentsuji
Zentsuji is a historic city in Japan known as the birthplace of the Buddhist monk Kūkai and home to the famous Zentsū-ji Temple, one of the 88 temples on the Shikoku Pilgrimage.
-
B.
Dōgen
Dōgen was a Japanese Zen Buddhist monk, philosopher, and founder of the Sōtō school of Zen, renowned for his influential writings on meditation and enlightenment.
-
C.
Ikkyū Sōjun
Ikkyū Sōjun was a 15th-century Japanese Zen Buddhist monk and poet famed for his iconoclastic behavior, irreverent verse, and influential role in shaping later Zen culture.
-
D.
Gyōki
Gyōki was an influential Japanese Buddhist monk of the Nara period known for his public works, social welfare activities, and role in promoting Buddhism among the common people.
-
E.
Heiga Zen
Heiga Zen is a researcher in speech synthesis and machine learning, known for helping develop Google's WaveNet neural network for generating raw audio.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Chan Buddhist monk
ⓘ
Zen master ⓘ koan commentator ⓘ religious writer ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
Linji school
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Rinzai Zen tradition NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| birthYear | 1183 ⓘ |
| century | 13th century ⓘ |
| commentedOn | The Gateless Gate NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| compiled | The Gateless Gate NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| countryOfCitizenship | China ⓘ |
| deathYear | 1260 ⓘ |
| era | Southern Song dynasty NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| ethnicity | Han Chinese ⓘ |
| genre | koan collection ⓘ |
| hasRole |
Chan patriarch
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
commentator on koans ⓘ compiler of koans ⓘ |
| influenced |
Japanese Zen
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Rinzai koan practice ⓘ modern Zen pedagogy ⓘ |
| knownFor |
editing a collection of 48 Zen koans
ⓘ
writing prose commentaries on koans ⓘ writing verse comments on koans ⓘ |
| languageOfWork | Classical Chinese ⓘ |
| monasticOrder | Chan school NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| name |
Mumon Ekai
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Wu-men Hui-k’ai NERFINISHED ⓘ Wumen Huikai NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| nativeName | 無門慧開 NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| notableWork |
Mumonkan
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
The Gateless Gate NERFINISHED ⓘ Wumen Guan NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| occupation |
Buddhist monk
ⓘ
abbot ⓘ teacher ⓘ |
| placeOfActivity | Song dynasty China NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| religion | Buddhism ⓘ |
| religiousSchool |
Chan Buddhism
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Zen Buddhism NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| spiritualDiscipline | koan introspection ⓘ |
| subjectOf |
Zen Buddhist studies
ⓘ
scholarship on koan literature ⓘ |
| wrote |
epilogues for koans in The Gateless Gate
ⓘ
prefaces to koans in The Gateless Gate ⓘ verses for koans in The Gateless Gate ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Mumon Ekai Description of subject: Mumon Ekai was a 13th-century Chinese Chan (Zen) master best known for compiling and commenting on the influential Zen koan collection known as the Gateless Gate.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.