Shanduo Zhenzai 山鐸真在

School: Linji | 1621–1672 | Teacher: Jie'an Jin | Students: Tianze Jineng, Huiyue Xu

Of the Li clan of Sangluo in De'hua county, Jiangzhou, born on the nineteenth of the eleventh month, 1621. Orphaned early, open-handed and hot-blooded, he was made a commander of a thousand men in the levies raised against the rebels — and after beheading three officers for breaking the law, something turned in him; he slipped away into the mountains under cover of a sortie. No one at Lushan would shave him; the old monk Zizhen of Donglin finally did. He worked as a cook, took full ordination in 1647, and was stuck for years on the 'dragging a corpse' line in Gaofeng's record until, crossing Ruo ridge in 1651, he stumbled in an ox-track and the thing in his chest broke like ice. He came at last into Jie'an Wujin's room, met him as if they had always known each other, and was given the seal. He died on the fifteenth of the ninth month, 1672, aged fifty-two; his disciples built his stupa at Donglin.

References: DILA Authority A000945

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