The small amount of reliable information that survives about Saichō’s teacher Hsing-man is found in Saichō’s Kechimyakufu. Hsing-man, a native of Su-chou (in modern Kiangsu), was initiated when he was twenty and ordained as a monk when he was twenty-five. He studied the Ssu fen lü precepts for five years. In 768 he met Chan-jan and attended a number of his lectures on Chih-i’s major works (Tendai sandaibu). At the time of Saichō’s arrival in China, he was the head of the Fo-lung temple on Mount T’ien-t’ai. Hsing-man encouraged Saichō in his studies, giving him eighty-two fascicles of T’ien-t’ai works. He also told Saichō that Chih-i had predicted that a foreign monk would come to China in order to propagate T’ien-t’ai teachings in a country to the east of China. Predictions such as this one probably helped foreign monks such as Saichō and Kūkai gain ready acceptance by Chinese monks. Hsing-man assiduously practiced religious austerities and authored a number of works. He died around the year 823 when he was over eighty years old.