Zuyuan was born in Ningbo in 1226. In 1238, his father died and in mourning he took tonsure under Beijian Jujian 北磵居簡 (1146–1246). The next year he traveled to Jingshan 徑山 where the abbot was Wuzhun Shifan 無準師範 (1178–1249). It is said in 1242 he had an initial awakening, and in 1247 a profound awakening, the expression of which was approved by Shifan. For the next years, Zuyuan wandered among monasteries of Jiangnan, serving as a monastic officer in various large temples. In 1269 he was invited to serve as abbot of the Zhenrusi 眞如寺 in Taizhou 台州, where he remained until in 1275 he needed to flee the Song-Mongol war. Records from this abbotship are included in his recorded sayings. Famously, the next year, when invading troops put a blade to his neck and threatened him with death, he responded by speaking in a regulated poem 〔 T 2549.80.242a16〕 :

No ground in the universe to plant my bamboo cane,

I delight in the emptiness of man, the dharma empty too.

How precious the three-foot swords of the Great Yuan,

In the moment of a shadow of lightning, have cleaved nothing but spring wind.

(乾坤無地卓孤笻 ，喜得人空法亦空，珍重大元三尺劍，電光影裏斬春風。)

The troops were startled and left without harming Zuyuan. The following year he returned to Ningbo, where he served as head seat 首座 in Tiantongsi 天童寺. Following the death of Lanxi Daolong 蘭溪道隆 (1213–1278; Jap. Rankei Dōryū), the Regent Hōjō Tokimune 北條時宗 (1251–1284) invited Zuyuan to become abbot of Kenchōji 建長寺 in Kamakura. In 1279 Zuyuan emigrated to Japan. Zuyuan could not teach in Japanese, delivered his sermons in Chinese, and often used bilingual interpreters (see Tachi Ryūshi). In 1281, he met with his future heir Kōhō Kennichi 高峰顯日 (1241–1316) and engaged directly in “brush talk” 筆談. In 1282, he became the founding abbot of the Engakuji 圓覺寺 in Kamakura. According to records, one evening he changed his clothes, composed a final death poem, and died in seated meditation.

The above account is derived from materials in the recorded sayings, including a biographic sketch 行狀, pagoda inscription 塔銘, and annalistic biography 年譜, as well as on fascicle 8 of Genkō shakusho 元亨繹書 by Kokan Shiren 虎關師鍊 (1278–1346). Additional records are documented in Enomoto Wataru (2013).

References:

Collcutt, Martin. 1981. Five Mountains: The Rinzai Zen Monastic Institution in Medieval Japan. Cambridge MA:  Harvard UP.

Enomoto Wataru 榎本涉. 2013. Nansō gendai nitchū tokōsō denki shūsei 南宋元代日中渡航僧傳記集成 . Tōkyō:  Bensei Shuppan.

Kageki Hideo 蔭木英雄. 1977. Gozan shishi no kenkyū 五山詩史の硏究 . Tōkyō:  Kasama shoin.

Tachi Ryūshi 舘隆志. 2014. “Kamakura-ki no Zenrin ni okeru Chūgokugo to Nihongo 鎌倉期の禪林における中國語と日本語 .” Komazawa daigaku bukkyo gaku bu ronshu 45 : 259–286.

Yu Iji. 2004. Gozan bungaku no kenkyū 五山文學の硏究 . Tōkyō:  Kyūko shoin.