A Xiushui man of Jiaxing, of the Zhang clan; on the night of his birth his mother dreamt of a rooster flying from a bridge into the sky, and he was named 'Bridge.' As a boy he built shrines of tile and stone, set Buddha-images on them, and made the other children bow. HE MARRIED AND HAD A SON — and when the boy was four he was still sighing 'the dust of the world sticks fast; how shall I get out?' His schoolmaster Fang Yanshan pointed him to the sutras and then to the man himself: 'Wuqu, the old man of your own prefecture, is a descendant of Linji, THE DIRECT TRANSMISSION OF CHAN MASTER YEWENG XIAO — a genuine man of the Way. Knock on his door and he will make much of you.' He went; Wuqu said 'I have waited a long time for you.' His mother would not let him leave home, so he practised while feeding her, and only after her death was he tonsured. When he set out to build a hermitage on Jingshan, Wuqu told him: 'YOUR AFFINITY LIES BY THE WATER' — and he settled at Cart Creek (Chexi) for over twenty years. He compiled his master's recorded sayings, and in 1610 was asked to lead the Chan retreat at Jingshan. He died in 1612, aged 72. His heir Nanming Huiguang carried the line on.
References: DILA Authority A007841 | DILA Authority A010707 (Nanming Huiguang)
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