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. In time, monks persuaded him to come down the mountain and found a monastery; from that time forward, he always had hundreds of students.

Nánquán had seventeen Dharma successors, the most famous of whom was Zhàozhōu Cōngshěn (778-897). 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, for example Paul Reps, interpret this as Zhàozhōu’s enlightenment moment.

Nanquan appears in several koans:

　

◦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 Equanimity (9, 69, 91).

　

Two koans from the Blue Cliff Record (28 & 69) depict Nanquan as an advanced student interacting with fellow students of Mǎzŭ, and the others depict him as a teacher in his own right.

　

A well-known koan is case 14 of the Gateless Gate, "Nansen kills the cat":

　

Once the monks of the eastern and western Zen halls were quarrelling about a cat. Nansen held up the cat and said, "You monks! If one of you can say a word, I will spare the cat. If you can't say anything, I will put it to the sword." No one could answer, so Nansen finally slew it. In the evening, when Joshu returned, Nansen told him what had happened. Joshu, thereupon, took off his sandals, put them on his head and walked off. Nansen said, "If you had been there, I could have spared the cat."