Of Liutang in Songling (Gusu); a child of remarkable memory who is said to have recited a thousand words a day. Because his mother kept the pure precepts he came out of the womb, it was said, knowing nothing of blood and flesh. He went to Rizhu temple in Yuezhou at thirteen and was fully ordained at fifteen. He called on Shiwu Qinggong, then Lanmu at Sanqu, from whom he got the working of samadhi, and then Gumei at Gaoyang; returning home he set himself a limit and did wall-gazing for nine years, burning off a finger every three years - three fingers in all. One day it suddenly flashed clear. He went to Fulin, matched him in dharma combat, and was kept as head of the assembly, aged twenty-eight. Under the Hongwu emperor he was ordered to tonsure a thousand monks; at Fanchang the assembly asked him to open the hall on Mt Donglu. In 1407 the Yongle emperor again ordered him to Tianjie. He died having written 'Blank and abrupt, drifting and soaring - let it all be smashed to pieces, through every land and every mote', throwing down the brush and closing his eyes. His whole body was interred in a stupa on Mt Bafeng. His heirs include Wuji Mingwu.
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