Of the Mao clan of Jiangjin, Chongqing; his mother was a Tao, who conceived after dreaming a monk gave her a peach to eat, and they called him Yingseng ('answering the monk'). Born at the hour of wei on the 20th of the 7th month of 1614. At sixteen the Diamond Sutra raised his doubt; he went with his mother to Baoding and a monk told him he was too young — go recite the Buddha's name. He read on, dreamed strangely, and the doubt ate into him: 'Far from all inverted dream-thinking — then where does THIS dream come from?' He was tonsured after an illness, went to Poxue at Chongqing, then to Guiyuan, who set him on 'the ten thousand dharmas return to one — where does the one return to?' Three years he was wood and stone, walking without knowing he walked. At the fourth watch one night mind and object both fell away. He came to Zhangxue Tongzui in the winter of 1649 and was sealed. In 1653 he opened Shibao cloister in Yunnan, and later Jingyin, Nanming, Longquan and Yuquan in Guizhou. The Yongli emperor of the Southern Ming sought his teaching, asked him for a verse, gave him the dharma name Zhenfo ('True Buddha') and a robe. He died on the 22nd of the last month of winter, 1666/7, aged 53, with 37 years in robes.
References: DILA Authority A016401
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