Shitao

Shi Tao (simplified Chinese: 石涛; traditional Chinese: 石濤; pinyin: Shí Tāo; Wade–Giles: Shih T'ao); (1642–1707), born Zhu Ruoji (朱若極) was a Chinese landscape painter and poet during the early Qing Dynasty (1644–1911).
Born in Quanzhou County in Guangxi province, Shi Tao was a member of the Ming royal house. He narrowly avoided catastrophe in 1644 when the Ming Dynasty fell to invading Manchurians and civil rebellion. Having escaped by chance from the fate to which his lineage would have assigned him, Shi Tao assumed the name Yuanji Shi Tao no later than 1651 when he became a Buddhist monk.
He moved from Wuchang, where he began his religious instruction, to Anhui in the 1660s. Throughout the 1680s he lived in Nanjing and Yangzhou, and in 1690 he moved to Beijing to find patronage for his promotion within the monastic system. Frustrated by his failure to find a patron, Shi Tao converted to Daoism in 1693 and returned to Yangzhou where he remained until his death in 1707.
Shi Tao used over two dozen courtesy names during his life.
Among the most commonly used names were Shi Tao (Stone Wave - 石涛), Ku Gua Heshang (Bitter Gourd Monk -苦瓜和尚), Yuan Ji (Origin of Salvation - 原濟), Xia Zun Zhe (Honorable Blind One - 瞎尊者, blind to worldly desires), Da Dizi (The Pure (or cleansed) One - 大滌子).
As a buddhist convert, he was also known with the monastic name Yuan Ji (原濟)[3]
Da Dizi was taken when Shitao renounced his Buddhism and turned to Daoism. It was also the name he used for his home in Yangzhou (Da Di Hall - 大滌堂).(wikipedia, 2013)