天台四教儀 1.6

1.6

四明草菴法師道因《教苑遺事》云：昔智者禪師剏放生池於海涯，其放之也，必為授歸戒、說大法，然後縱之海中。智者滅後，至唐末，中國天台之道浸息，而海東高麗、新羅諸國盛弘此教。扶宗繼忠法師云：「智者緣在此方，而教敷于海東者，此必放生池中諸魚聞教稟戒報生者爾然。」聞此說者頗譏以為誕殊，不知教理有憑也，流水十千天子即脫魚報，豈外此乎。

The Jiaoyuan yishi by Dharma Master Daoyin of Caocan in Siming states: In antiquity, Dhyāna Master Zhizhe founded a life-release pond on the sea coast. Whenever he released creatures, he would unfailingly confer the refuges and precepts upon them, preach the Great Dharma, and only then release them into the sea. After Zhizhe passed away, up to the end of the Tang, the Way of Tiantai in the central lands gradually diminished, whereas in the kingdoms of Goryeo and Silla across the Eastern Sea, this teaching was vigorously propagated. Dharma Master Jizhong of Fuzong said: "Zhizhe's karmic conditions were in this land, yet the teaching was unfurled across the Eastern Sea; this was surely because the fishes in the life-release pond, having heard the teaching and received the precepts, were reborn there." Those who heard this explanation largely ridiculed it as absurd, not knowing that it has proof in doctrinal principles: when the ten thousand sons of heaven in the Jalavāhana [parable] shed their retribution as fish, could it have been anything other than this?