Lay surname Yan, of Wucheng; styled Yinzhong, sobriquet Songji. At seventeen he was tonsured at Mt Daochang, and then relied on Yuanxiu at Qingshan (Tianyin). He attended him long, and one day, hearing a thrush sing, had a great awakening; he received the dharma and succeeded to the seat at Qingshan. Illness took him to convalesce at Yangshan. One day he rose, bathed, changed his robes, sat cross-legged and wrote: 'In past years, at fifty, I knew my faults; this year, at fifty, I know where to stop. Do not say the sun comes out and affairs arise - trust in the plain, direct pointing.' He threw down the brush and died - then after a long while opened his eyes again and charged the assembly: on every new and full moon, gather and bow to the patriarchs of India and China, and then to the two ancestors of Longchi and Qingshan; do not neglect it. Then he closed his eyes and was gone. 22/8 of 1642, aged 50, with 34 dharma-years. His heir was Shending Yunwai Ze.
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