Of the Shi 施 family of Xiushui in Jiahe (Jiaxing). Born on the eighteenth of the tenth month of 1491. As a layman he was called Jingzhai, married, and had a son and a daughter; kindly by nature, he gave himself to the inner books and longed for the way of the patriarchs, travelling with his friend Jizhou Fazhou for eight years before returning home to press the enquiry alone. When Yeweng Xiao — a fourteenth-generation descendant of Huqiu Shaolong and heir of Baofang Jin — was staying at Dongta monastery, he went to call on him, and every view he presented was swept away, until all he had prided himself on was gone. One day Yeweng said 'I have a word for you', and only laughed when asked; when Rukong at last made the full disciple's obeisance and begged, Yeweng gave it. He died on the sixth of the eighth month of 1580, aged 90.
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