Late-Wànlì Buddhist monk-poet, sobriquet Xuělàng 雪浪 (“Snow-Wave”); Kāngfǎ Yìngyǔn 三槐法師 (“Dharma-Master Three-Locust-Trees”) — referring to the three locust trees at his residence at Bǎohuáshān 寶華山. Lay surname Huáng 黃 of Jīnlíng 金陵 (Nánjīng); native of Shàngyuán 上元. Born Jiājìng 24 (24 October 1545); died Wànlì 36 (21 December 1608). DILA A004672.
He took the tonsure as a youth at Jīnlíng under Wújí Zhàn 無極湛, devoted himself to Chan practice, and developed a deep specialisation in the Huáyán 華嚴 yuándùn (perfect-and-sudden) doctrinal system. Resident principally at Bǎohuáshān (Mount Bǎohuá near Nánjīng) and at Xuělàngshān 雪浪山 — hence the appellation Xuělàng — where he taught the dharma for thirty years. In Wànlì 26 (1598) he served as abbot of the famous Bàoēnsì 報恩寺 in Nánjīng, where he led the restoration of the Liúli tǎ 琉璃塔 (Glass Pagoda) — one of the most celebrated Buddhist architectural projects of the late Wànlì.
A poet of the first rank — Wáng Shìzhēn 王世貞 and other late-Míng literary critics ranked him as the Míng-dài dì-yī shī-sēng 明代第一詩僧 (“first poet-monk of the Míng dynasty”). Surviving works: the Léngyán jīng jiě 楞嚴經解 (commentary on the Śūraṅgama) and the Xuělàng jí 雪浪集 (his collected poetic and literary writings). The present Bōrě xīnjīng shuō 般若心經說 (X546 = KR6c0165) is one of his shorter sūtra commentaries.
After his death, his slightly older contemporary 德清 Hānshān Déqīng (1546–1623) composed his biography, and the great late-Míng calligrapher and painter Dǒng Qíchāng 董其昌 (1555–1636) inscribed the stūpa-tablet (塔銘) — testifying to the high regard in which he was held by both Buddhist and literary-artistic elites of the late Wànlì.