Does Jigong really exist?

Jigong (1 130 or 1 148- 1209) was born in Yongning Village, Tiantai County, Taizhou (now Tiantai County, Zhejiang Province). A monk in the Southern Song Dynasty, later generations revered him as "the Living Buddha of Jigong".

The life of the character

Jigong, whose common name is Li Xiuyuan, was born in 1 130 (four years after the proposal was made) or1/48 (eighteen years after Shaoxing) and died in Jiading for two years (1209). He was born in Taizhou, Zhejiang.

His ancestor Li Zunxu was our military envoy in Song Taizong. The Li family has believed in Buddhism for generations. His father Li Maochun and his mother Wang live in Yongning village outside the north gate of Tiantai. Li Maochun is nearly forty years old and has no children under his knees. He worshiped the Buddha devoutly and finally got this son. After Jigong was born, the abbot of Xiaoguo Temple decided his fate by his common name, and since then, he has forged an indissoluble bond with Buddhism.

Although he is the great-grandson of Li Wenhe, the captain of Linhai, he didn't get the bad habit of being a dude. When I was a teenager, I studied in Ruixia Cave in Chicheng Mountain in the north of the village, influenced by Buddhism and Taoism. After his parents died, he first went to Xiaoguo Temple to learn from Fakong. Under Hui Yuan's door, there is a monk's blind hall. He is the abbot of kokuseiji. He was named Daoji and inherited his vestments. Then he visited the Daoqing Temple in Tanyuan and the Daojing in Kannonji, and finally went to Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou.