Of the Xu clan of Yinxian, Mingzhou; born 1226. At thirteen he was tonsured and took the precepts under Beijian Jujian; at fourteen he climbed Jingshan and saw WUZHUN SHIFAN. At seventeen he took up the dog-and-buddha-nature word and did not leave the monks' hall for five years, until one night the sounding-board rang outside the head-seat's quarters and he saw his own matter. He afterwards went round Shixi Yue, Yanxi Wen, Xutang Zhiyu and Wuchu Daguan. In 1269 he opened the dharma at Zhenru monastery in Taizhou. In 1279, as the Mongols overran the south, the Japanese regent Hojo Tokimune invited him to head Kencho-ji in Kamakura; he went, and in 1282 founded Engaku-ji. He was Tokimune's spiritual adviser through the Mongol invasions. He died in Japan on the 3rd of the 9th month of 1286, aged 61, with 49 years in robes, and was posthumously titled National Teacher Bukko.
References: DILA Authority A000077
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