Of the Huang clan of Duchang, Nankang (Jiangxi), born on the first of the 10th month of 1275. At nine he wanted to leave home and his mother refused; he went days without eating until the relatives talked her round, and he was placed with Yushan Zhen at Yunju — his master for life. Tonsured at eleven or twelve and fully ordained, he travelled: two summers at Jiangshan, then Tianxi, where he heard the Lotus expounded and grasped it at once, and the lecturer called him 'a man come back'. In Wu he met Tieshan Qiong and Mengshan Deyi; Mengshan asked where he was from, then 'did you come by boat or by land?' — 'Neither road,' he said. Mengshan spread both hands; he stared straight at him — and they lived together at Xiuxiu hermitage. He later served as prior under Huyan Jingfu at Jingshan, and became abbot of Jiangshan in Nanjing, where the Prince of Liang's dealings with him over the monastery's rebuilding after the fire won him the title Great Chan Master Fohai Puyin Guangci Yuanwu. He died aged 74 (1348), with 56 years in robes; his disciples laid him in the Immovable Stupa at Longpan hermitage, and Jingshan divided the relics to a second stupa below Lingxiao peak.
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