At the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, there lived an eminent monk in Wushi Mountain in Quzhou, Zhejiang, known as "Zen Master Shiyu". He is from Xi'an County, Quzhou. His surname is Yu, and he is known as Mr. Yu. Mr. Yu was born kind and became a m

At the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, there was an eminent monk in Wushi Mountain in Quzhou, Zhejiang, known as "Zen Master Shiyu". He is from Xi'an County, Quzhou. His surname is Yu, and he is known as Mr. Yu.

Mr. Yu was born kind. When he was young, he became a monk in a temple in Lanxi . Later, he received full ordination and was given the title "Shiyu".

After monk Shiyu became a monk, he practiced diligently and chanted sutras tirelessly. He visited many eminent monks and sages, but he never became enlightened and lamented that he had just wasted his years.

During the Yuan Dynasty to Shun period, he visited the eminent monk Zhiyan, told him his troubles, and asked the master to give him guidance.

Master Zhiyan didn’t say anything after hearing this. A few days later, Master Zhiyan gave Monk Shiyu a piece of folded paper and asked him to take it back and study it carefully.

Monk Shiyu returned to the meditation room, opened the piece of paper, and found that there were nine words written on it: "It's not a heart, it's not a Buddha, it's not a thing."

Monk Shiyu looked at these nine words and thought hard for several days, but he still didn't know what Master Zhiyan meant. For this reason, he became even more distressed.

One night a few days later, Monk Shiyu couldn't sleep at night looking at the nine characters. Suddenly he heard the monk in the next door monk's room singing "Song of Enlightenment" by master Yongjia .

There is such a sentence in "Song of Enlightenment": "If you don't get rid of delusions, you won't seek truth." After hearing this, Monk Shiyu suddenly realized and felt relieved, and all the doubts in his heart disappeared at this moment.

Monk Shiyu immediately wrote a gatha. The content of the gatha is as follows:

I never see each other face to face, and my mother's energy is exhausted after eating it.

In the middle of the night, I suddenly forgot about the moon and the sun burst out in red in the sky.

Then he hurried to Master Zhiyan's Zen room to get Master Zhiyan's approval. When Master Zhiyan saw that Monk Shiyu had come so recklessly, he scolded him, "Are you seeing ghosts in such a panic?"

Monk Shiyu replied, "I caught a thief today!" Master Zhiyan asked, "Thief?" Where is it?" Monk Shiyu didn't answer, but shouted: "Hey!"

Master Zhiyan said angrily: "Do you think you will become enlightened if you shout? "Monk Shiyu replied: "It is clear that the world is not hidden." After hearing this, Master Zhiyan picked up a bamboo stick and pointed at Monk Shiyu and said, "This is not right!" As soon as he finished speaking, Shi Monk Yu suddenly overturned Master Zhiyan's meditation bed.

When Master Zhiyan saw this, he angrily shouted: "How dare you act wild here!" He raised a bamboo stick and hit Monk Shiyu four times, and then told him: "Be good at protecting yourself. I will teach people someday and continue the Buddha's wisdom." Destiny!"

In this way, the enlightened monk Shiyu received the permission of Master Zhiyan. From then on, he became famous, recruited many disciples, and became a generation of eminent monks, known as Zen Master Shiyu.

When Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang was in power, the seventy-year-old Zen Master Shiyu fell ill. Knowing that his end was approaching, he wrote four verses to say goodbye to his disciples. Monk Shiyu's verse reads:

The original source of life is not born, and the original source of destruction is not destroyed.

Just let go, the moon will shine brightly every day.

After finishing the verse, Zen Master Shiyu threw away his pen and passed away. The disciples "hid his body in the Ciyun Pagoda Courtyard" and worshiped him devoutly.