Of the Zhou (周) family of Longxi in Fujian; his mother was a Weng. He would not eat meat as a child. A monk brought a copy of Feiyin Tongrong's recorded sayings to his study and he read it as if it were treasure. He was tonsured by the aged Huitan of Jiuyun monastery at Jinpu, who set out to walk him to the mainland masters and died at an inn on the road; Xingguan wept and carried the body to its stupa. He then met Miyun Yuanwu at Tiantong, who drove a staff into his chest and called him a dead man, and took his full precepts that winter. In 1634 he followed Feiyin Tongrong to Jinsu, sat night after night on the dharma-hall steps, and one night in a thunderstorm the word 'no' fell away and mountains, rivers and earth froze into one piece. Feiyin later approved him, made him head monk, told him 'your verses on the old cases are much like Baiyun Duan's — you are a phoenix feather of the Jinsu gate', and sent him to the old temple site below Mt. Xiangfeng. He founded Xiangfeng (Zifu) there in 1644 out of nothing, and later held Fuyan. He refused to let his words be published — the sayings that survive were gathered by his students after his death. He died on 8 November 1681, aged 66, with 49 years in robes.
View interactive profile →