Lay surname Zhang, of Xiushui (Jiaxing); styled Wanru. At nineteen he was tonsured by Hanchu at Xingshan temple in his own prefecture. Four years later, moved at Yuanzheng temple in Tiaoshang, he pricked his blood and copied out the Lotus Sutra, then chanted it for three winters and summers without a break. Reading Yunqi Zhuhong's Chan Whip he took up Zhaozhou's 'No', and asked Wengu for guidance. An opening came while reading the Surangama; he crossed the Qiantang into Mt Yunmen and put the 'no-dream, no-thought' question to Zhanran. Then he went to Tiantong (Miyun Yuanwu) at Jinsu, and at thirty-nine he was thoroughly through. Miyun kept him on the mountain at his seventieth-birthday celebration in 1635. In the winter of 1640 he opened the dharma at Ruru cloister, then held Caoshan in Putian, and returned to Longchi when Miyun died. He died at the si hour on 29/10 of 1657, aged 64, with 45 dharma-years; he taught thousands and sealed several dozen heirs.
View interactive profile →