Of the Zhao (趙) family of Wujiang in Suzhou prefecture; his given name was originally Yu (庾). His forebears held office; his father died when he was a child and his uncle, a censor, raised him — and, being drawn to Buddhism himself, passed on to the boy whatever he found in the old lamp records. Xingtao passed the provincial examination young and took the jinshi in his prime, the leading man of his district. He served as magistrate of Ouning in Fujian and was being promoted when the dynasty fell; he shaved his head and hid at Wuyi. He went to Guoqing to find TUIWENG HONGCHU (called 大山儲 in the inscription) and missed him twice. He then took the robe from Baoen Xian (浮石通賢) at Wujiang, trained under him for two years without opening, and broke through at a winter retreat at Haimen; Xian approved him and he took the full precepts. When Hongchu returned to Lingyan, Xingtao carried incense to him and questioned him closely; under Hongchu's answers on Linji's three kinds of student he saw clear through, offered a verse, and HONGCHU SEALED HIM WITH A VERSE OF HIS OWN. Hongchu then said: 'You are a man of Wu; you came to the way by way of office. Guoqing is my old house — Hanshan, Shide and Fenggan left their traces there. I hand it to you.' He entered Guoqing in the autumn of 1650. He died on the twenty-fifth of the seventh month of 1652.
View interactive profile →