The Venerable Master’s family name was Pyŏn, and his personal name was Kyunyŏ. His father’s name was Hwansŏng; he was a person of high purpose but no renown. His mother’s name was Chŏnmyŏng.
On the night of the seventh day of the fourth month of the fourteenth year of T’ien-yu (917),[38] his mother dreamt that she saw a pair of yellow phoenixes descend from heaven and enter her bosom. In the twentieth year (of T’ien-yu; 923) she found herself pregnant at the age of sixty. After two hundred and ten days, on the eighth day of the eighth month, she gave birth to the Master. This was in her own home [Note: in the village of Tundaeyŏp] at the southern foot of Mount Hyŏng’ak in the northern part of Hwangju (County).[39] The (former) magistrate of Hwangju and (present) Omissioner Yi Chun[40] restored an old site there and renamed it Kyŏngch’ŏnji-sa.[41] This is the place.
At birth the Master’s looks were incomparably ugly. His parents were unhappy at this and put him out into the street, whereupon two crows came, linked wings and covered him. Some passers-by observed this strange phenomenon, went to the house and told the parents all about it. Both father and mother were then filled with remorse, so they took him back in and raised him. But they kept him out of sight, placing him in a wicker basket and keeping him there. It was only after several months that they showed him to the villagers.
Even when still in the carrying-quilt, the Master excelled at reciting verses from the Hua Yen Sūtra[42]; nor did he ever forget anything his father taught him.