Of Bazhou in Shuntian, north China, surname Zhao. Born the eighteenth day of the eighth month of 1579. He went vegetarian at twelve and wanted the robe; refused by his parents, he simply left at fourteen, met the Wutai master Huiren on the road, and when Huiren would not tonsure him he took a knife and cut off his own hair. At eighteen he ran away by night to the Lion's Den on Mt. Wutai to study under Kongyin Zhencheng, mastering the Surangama and Lotus. At twenty-five, walking under the moon holding his huatou, he broke through. He spent nineteen years at Wutai hermitage near Shaoling, where he would sit in the open at night under a great umbrella — whence his name 'the Umbrella Dweller'. He held Yunju, Qingyuan and Qingliang, and in 1644 founded Zizhulin at Shicheng. Died the sixth day of the fifth month, 1646, aged 68.
References: DILA Authority A001993 | DILA Authority A001993 | Link | DILA Authority A001681
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