Of the Chang clan of Puzhou in Hedong, Shanxi; his father styled Lushan, his mother of the Zhang clan. In his own words: at sixteen, looking up at the blue sky one summer evening as the sun set, he thought 'the world is so wide — why be penned in here and spoil my good roots?', and resolved to leave home. At twenty he dreamed of a flood on the Yellow River throwing up a flower ten feet high, and a wandering monk who said 'I have come to take you to my home.' He slipped away from his parents, went to Putuo, and was tonsured under Ruxiu. He served in kitchens and gardens, never sparing himself. At twenty-five he came to Miyun Yuanwu at Jinsu and vowed not to leave the hall until he had awakened; Miyun struck him across the head twice and he got nowhere. Seeing a monk reading the Wanfeng Record, he took up 'the ten thousand dharmas return to one — to what does the one return?', swept everything he had learned into the sea, and at twenty-seven put his question to his own master, then West Hall at Jinsu. He rebuilt the ruined Tang seat of Guishan, holding Miyin monastery on Mount Dawei from 1637, and died there in the spring of 1649, aged 50, passing the succession to his disciple Huishan.
References: DILA Authority A000266
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