A descendant of the Han grand preceptor Qiao Zhou; his family lived below Mt Yang in Yuechi, Anhan. Born 7/10 of 1605 to Sheng Gong and his wife Yang. He recited the Four Books at five, knew the Spring and Autumn at ten, and after borrowing a Heart Sutra from a monk said 'this is the utmost of sages' and set his mind on leaving the world; at thirteen, about to be betrothed, he saw an old monk sitting under a tree looking like an ancient buddha, and left home. He lectured on the Surangama at twenty-five and drew crowds at Niushan and Huanglong. In 1632 he went to Poshan Haiming at Shuanggui and, after twenty-one days of total impasse, broke through at a shout from Zhu Weitai; Poshan made him head of the western hall. He was caught in the massacres of 1644-45; in the spring of 1645, held in a military camp at Liangshan, he announced 'I have never taken food that was not righteous - and shall I take pleasure in this, among spears?', stopped eating, and on the first day of the third month gave a final address, shouted once, sat upright and died, aged 41.
References: DILA Authority A010152 | DILA Authority
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