國清百錄 4.13

4.13

Your servant has heard: In heaven forms are patterned, and the models of constellations and taboos abide there; on earth shapes are brought forth, and the measures of regions and provinces are patterned upon them. The two modes being thus, the three realms of being are luminously distinct. When superior sages inherit the summit of power, enlightened kings thereby disseminate teachings; when the first-awakened bestow the Way, through matching and union one ascends to immortality. For this reason, the chariot was ordered to Kongtong, and light was shed upon Shanjuan; charts and registers spread undertakings, while the Red Pine Master broadened the teaching. Refining their essence among the Nine Palaces and soaring through the emptiness within the six directions—these were all provisional expedients to guide beings and temporarily preserve untrammeled ease; yet in the end they remain obscured by suffering and emptiness, ultimately turning and wandering through birth and death, never having attained that unarising and unceasing, non-going and non-coming, neither real nor unreal, neither identical nor different, constantly blissful, pure and true selfhood, tranquil, peaceful, and inconceivable liberation. Now, our Great Sui Emperor, whose Dharma taboo is Zongchi, has harmoniously combined the sun of the Buddha, with auspicious omens arising in the pure palace, bringing advantageous vision to the Dharma King and answering as sovereign of Jambudvīpa. In fief at Tang, he acceded to inherit the legacy; succeeding Gaoxin, he established sagacity. His virtuous capacity and mandate flourished like Ji Fa's, following what Heaven freely bestowed, embracing great virtue while keeping small things in reverent care; rarely appearing in the world, he answered the appointed time, luminous and cultured within yet gentle and compliant without. Discerning the subtle and the manifest, his mirror exhausted dark contemplation; both martial and cultured, his able undertakings were thus accomplished. Since the loss of the reins in the Yongjia era, the realm within the seas fractured and collapsed; relying on precipitous terrain and asserting dominance by force, each set up their own lords and leaders. Rites and music sank into improper hands, while turtles and jades were ruined in divergent realms; scripts and carriage tracks vied in division for nearly three hundred years, until Heaven was about to regret the calamities, and the ripening of wickedness met its appointed time. The imperial path shed its radiance over Fenyang, and his tracks shone upon the Dai residence; his territory grew exalted while the factions shrank, and spiritual merit was secretly manifest. At that time, Gaozu's spiritual stratagem deeply deliberated universal unification, delegating the punitive expedition and leaning on the battle-axe; the Emperor declared: 'Indeed, it is he! Both as sovereign and as kin, one knows one's minister and knows one's son.' Thereupon, brandishing awe across ten thousand li and executing chastisement through the nine punitive campaigns, with a single move he pacified Jiangzuo, and with a second march he extinguished the remaining embers; from the floating skies tribute was vied for, and overseas regions were brought under order. Although Gao and Xie made up the five ministers and the Duke of Dan in Zhou was among the ten capable officials, the splendid achievements of imperial branches in former days were far inferior; throughout the land, of all profound achievements, none failed to follow this pattern. The three stars aligned with the prime minister, and the nine appointments were proclaimed. He based it upon benevolence and compassion, applied it through voice and instruction, practiced it through the essential Way, and embodied it through non-action. Gushi is vast and distant, yet he still contemplated its profound mysteries; the vast waves are mighty, and he thought of boarding the ferry. Considering that the Capable and Benevolent One, of seed-nature awakening, descended to this Sahā realm; that the entry of Faithful Signs into the Way places pure precepts foremost; that the clear text of the Brahmajāla Sūtra deeply transmits the bodhisattva [path]; and that the National Preceptor and Jewel of the Saṅgha must combine both meditation and wisdom—there was the Great Dhyāna Master of Mount Tiantai in Kuaiji. At his birth, a divine light illuminated the room, and both his eyes had double pupils. The Dhyāna Master's Dharma taboo was Zhiyi. He came from the Chen clan of Yingchuan; the way of Taiqiu was distant, and the style of Jibo was prolonged. Amid the decline and disorder of the Jin dynasty, they migrated to Huarong. His father, Qizu, under the Liang was Envoy with Credentials, Sanqi Changshi, and enfeoffed as the Founding Marquis of Yiyang County. The Dhyāna Master had transcendent poise and awakening; from his childhood teeth he was exceedingly rare, and when he passed the age of early studies, he was already reciting the Lotus Sūtra. When his father sought a marriage for him, he used expedients to pray for it to cease. In the gates of Ru and the halls of history, he achieved clear understanding; under the pillar and upon the Hao River, he grasped their meanings even more deeply. When the palace of Zhugong fell, he immediately turned to simple vegetarian fare. Upon reaching the age of twenty, he went forth from home at Guoyuan Monastery in Changsha. He guarded the precepts like bright pearls and settled his mind like still water. He listened to various sūtras and treatises, and upon hearing them just once, he grasped them in his mind and transmitted them with his mouth. Considering the region of Xiangtan to be narrow and confined, unable to arouse his great capacity, he brushed away his tracks from Hengyang and walked peacefully through Fen and Ru, proceeding to Mount Dasu to request instruction from Dhyāna Master Huisi. When the Dhyāna Master saw him, he sighed and said: 'I remember of old at Gṛdhrakūṭa we together listened to the Lotus Sūtra. Let you enter my Samantabhadra bodhimaṇḍa, and I shall explain the four peaceful practices for you.' After staying for two sevens of days reciting the 'Chapter on the Medicine King,' upon reaching the phrase where all the Buddhas praise together, he tranquilly entered samādhi, and luminous wisdom burst forth. Rising, he reported it to his master. His master said: 'Were it not for you, none could have been thus moved; were it not for me, none could have recognized it. What you have entered is the preliminary expedient of the Lotus Samādhi and the dhāraṇī of retaining what is heard. Even if masters of words and letters in their thousands of groups and billions of classes were to seek to exhaust your wisdom and eloquence, they could never do so; among preachers of the Dharma, you are foremost.' He once drew upon the Kāruṇikarāja, the Yingluo, Nāgārjuna, and Aśvaghoṣa to establish the threefold contemplation and fourfold teachings, expounding his master's fundamental lineage as the pivot of the Great Vehicle. From below he guided within, and great scholars propagated it widely. With wisdom he harbored the past, verifying King Aśoka's establishment of the true teaching; with spirit he knew the future, foreseeing the destruction of the great Dharma by Emperor Wu of Zhou. Thereupon, he stepped high out of the territory of Yu and soared to roost upon Tiantai; traveling through famous mountains, he went to Mount Lu. When Prince Xiao of Qin was garrisoning the Huai-Hai region, he sent a messenger to welcome and invite him. The Master said to the messenger: 'Although I wish to meet, I fear in the end conditions will not align.' Thereupon, for several decades of days, great winds and phantom bandits arose together; water and land were both blocked, and he sat peacefully on Mount Kuang. Soon after, the dragon banners extinguished the calamity, and succeeding Prince Xiao, [the Prince of Jin] arrived in this realm. With pure sincerity he invited him, sailing downstream with the wind behind him; within a few days he quickly arrived. When they met, the relationship of master and disciple was settled, like Shanyi gazing up to Sunetra, or Gaozong obtaining Fu Yue; though the Master firmly declined two and three times, he could not refuse. In the eleventh year of Kaihuang, the year of Xinhai, in the month of the Huangzhong pitch, on the twenty-third day, Xinchou, a Great Feast of Unhinderedness was set at Dating Monastery in Yangzhou, and he reverently received the bodhisattva precept method. Descending from the honor of a shepherd of the provinces, he followed the statutes of a spiritual master. Casting off the dragon robes, he donned the garments of patience; relinquishing the imperial jade tablet, he passed on the precept fragrance. Universally bringing forth the initial resolve, he paid homage to all Buddhas. At that time, heaven and earth were in harmonious conjunction, sun and moon doubled their splendor, the courtyard turned with gentle breezes, the sky cleared with auspicious vapors, the grove was bright with the flowers of the seven limbs of awakening, and the pool was limpid with the waters of the eight purities. His transformation reached within and without, an event equal to the city of Aśoka; his teaching turned the Dharma wheel, its principle matching the cave of Baoming. Civil and military officials alike were sheltered under the cloud of compassion, joyful and numerous, solemn and harmonious. What the sūtras call the precept of embracing moral disciplines, the precept of embracing wholesome dharmas, and the precept of embracing sentient beings—manifesting the three vows and truly fulfilling the ten acceptances, just as all forms entirely enter the realm of space—is it not speaking of this? When the Dharma service was completed, the seven treasures were fully renounced. The Master went out to reside in the grove of dhyāna assemblies outside the city, and the four requisites were offered. Yet the imperial heart still doubted it was not enough, considering that when etiquette toward a master reaches its height, there must be an auspicious name, just as Yi Yin was called Aheng, and Lü Wang was addressed as Shangfu. Checking the Bodhisattvabhūmi Sūtra for the master's title 'Zhizhe' (Wise One), he reverently followed the golden mouth and devoutly expressed the jade grace. Then, choosing an auspicious day, he personally went out and prostrated with head to feet. Though the Lord of Youxiong ascended Mount Juci, or Emperor Wen of Han visited the riverbank, compared to this, it was as nothing. Zhizhe, with inner practice and outer promotion, followed the profound admonitions of the Buddhas; with both real wisdom and expedient means, he combined the mastery of a great being. Since the dānapati of the Indra [realm] embraced faith and understanding, the embrace of the benevolent king could broadly benefit far and wide. Hesitating, he requested leave to return to his old mountain; though the Prince earnestly invited him to stay, he was loath to go against the Master's lofty intent, just as the Four Whiteheads ate atractylodes on the Southern Mountain, or the two Shus dispersed their gold by the Eastern Sea. Shaking his tin staff and leaving the dust of the world, he was truly called world-transcending; when looking back at the Confucian scholars, it was not worthy of honor. I consider that the four-peaked Tiantai, the jade peaks east of Shan, the two ballad cloud cliffs, and the Golden Court south of Yin reach high into heaven, so that looking up one touches the white sun, and coil upon the earth, so that looking down one mirrors the vast sea. Mist, clouds, and morning dew gently brush light lapels; rainbows and phoenixes auspiciously welcome flying slippers. Flowers and fruits burst forth together, forever confusing the four seasons; medicinal herbs are densely arrayed—who can distinguish their hundred million kinds? Daoyou went there and realized the fruit; Xinggong's rhapsody could not express it fully. The monastery's foundation originally belonged to Shifeng, on the peak named Folong. Originally, Dhyāna Master Dingguang, concealing and manifesting transformations, previously resided on this peak. He often told his disciples: 'Before long, there will be a superior good friend who will lead an assembly to gather on this mountain.' Shortly afterwards, Zhizhe crossed the river and sailed the lake, swiftly arriving to gather here. Suddenly, he heard the sound of bells and sounding stones reverberating through the mountain valley, and he asked Master Guang the reason for the sound. He replied: 'This is the sign that the sounding block will assemble monks to dwell here. Do you recall having once raised your hand to guide me?' Zhizhe then realized that when he was fifteen years of age, prostrating to the Buddha in a trance-like dream, he had seen an extremely high mountain overlooking a bend of the vast sea, where there was a monk like Master Guang now, who raised his hand to welcome him up, saying: 'You shall dwell here, and you shall end your days here.' He bowed and spoke in grief and joy, with tears streaming down like rain. Thereupon, to the south of Folong, he searched the monastery grounds and saw five peaks surrounding it like Mount Gṛdhrakūṭa, with two streams flanking and rushing down like the ravines of Jinyun. Clearing the brush and opening paths, they thatched it with cogon grass; the forest of merit was constantly perfumed with campaka flowers, and the walls and courtyards of patience required no bars or bolts. The howling of apes and the humming of cicadas mingled with the sounds of springs and breezes; flying and crawling creatures heard the Dharma and were tamed before the verandas. To the southwest, the Yongfeng River branch and the Zhe source divide the ridges and meet eastward in the sea; with tides flowing back and forth for several hundred li, the villagers constantly took fishing as their livelihood. Gradually transformed and guided, they burned their nets and abandoned their weirs, clearing fields and planting fruit trees, which unexpectedly made them rich and prosperous. Those of deep faith and understanding mostly became śramaṇas; where his compassionate transformation reached, they were all of this kind. After Master Guang passed away, [Zhizhe] wished to construct on a grand scale. Suddenly, he saw a monk of the same age as Master Guang, who plainly said to Zhizhe: 'If you wish to build a monastery, now is not the time. When the three kingdoms become one, there will be a person of great power who can build the monastery for you. When the monastery is completed, the country will become pure (qing), and it should be called Guoqing Monastery.' These words were vague and distant—who would believe them? How could one have expected that the matching response and dark tally would be here! When our lord had governed the border for many years, his filial nature was pure and extreme; he entered the capital to pay his respects, and returning swiftly to Jiangdu, he at once ordered boats to welcome [Zhizhe] to his garrison. When the messenger arrived there, [Zhizhe] immediately packed his baggage and said to the great assembly: 'The intention of the one above is heavy; I dare not decline. However, going I shall not return; through this we part forever.' He told his disciples: 'You must complete the lower monastery south of the ridge; its halls, pavilions, and foundations must entirely follow my plans.' His attendant replied: 'If the master is not present, how can it be accomplished?' He repeated to him: 'There will be an imperial crown prince who will build it for me. You shall see it, but I will not.' Traveling over a hundred li, he reached Shicheng Monastery east of Shan. In the monastery, there was a hundred-foot gilded stone statue carved and created by King Yuanxiang of Nanping, the Chancellor of the Liang, which possessed spiritual traces. Because of this, he manifested illness and lay on his right side. Suddenly, the wind and clouds changed color, and the pines and laurels stood tall and erect; as if heavenly music were entering the room, he sat up with folded hands, his countenance joyful and serene, and looking at his attendant said: 'Avalokiteśvara has come to welcome me; before long I should depart.' His disciple Zhilang requested: 'The Buddha permits sage and virtuous ones at the verge of death to speak of their attainments in stage and practice; we beg you to deign to instruct us, so that we may ponder and admire.' He replied: 'I am only at the stage of the disciple of the five ranks.' Examining this, the five ranks are the stage of the preliminary expedients of the Lotus Samādhi, exactly coinciding with Master Si's past words. Thereupon, he ordered a brush to compose a verse, and orally dictated his testamentary letter; its phrasing and principle were earnest and consummate, deeply presenting superior conditions, coming invisibly and departing secretly, vowing to shadow and protect. He had composed a commentary on the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa in one part, which was sent along at the same time. Then he asked for his saṅghāṭī robe, put it on with his own hands, turned his body facing west, sat upright, and passed away, at sixty years of age. A feast was established for ten days; sitting cross-legged, he perspired, beads clustering at the hairline and dew glistening upon his chest, intending to show that all dharmas fundamentally do not arise, and now are without cessation. His rope bed was carried back to Folong, floating lightly as if drifting through space. At that time, when the fragrant shrine was opened, it was entirely unchanged from before. When the courier first reported the obituary, it moved the imperial heart; thereupon, he relinquished pure wealth to perform merit accordingly, and with couriers in mutual sight, towers and shrines were newly erected. Although the monastery was on its original site, the old was made new; its jade eaves and dark-blue halls relied on the spiritual power of the state to imitate the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven, Gṛdhrakūṭa, and the wolf's tracks, using silence to make a bodhimaṇḍa. Master craftsmen like Gongshu Ban and Chui competed in displaying compass and plumb-line; the common people came like children, completing it in no time. Spiritual deities supported it, suddenly appearing as if springing forth. Backing against the high and leaning toward the low, halls were based upon rocky peaks; gazing up dazzled and looking down steep cliffs, it was truly delicate and surpassed painted adornments. Prabhūtaratna shared his seat, both receiving necklace ornaments; the heavenly crown adorned the pinnacle, as if connecting Brahma banners. Golden cases and jade tablets constantly unfolded in the lecture halls; dhyāna recitation and vinaya conduct never deviated from the master's regulations. This may truly be called the ultimate ground of dhūta practice, the pure realm of Amitābha, ever overflowing with Lake Anavatapta, and eternally solid like Mount Sumeru. When the double brightness inherited the calendar and heaven brought forth peace on earth, in the ninth month of the first year of Daye, the imperial carriage toured the Huai-Hai region; gazing across to Jiangnan, he felt nostalgic about Mount Tiantai, and gathering the famous monks of Yangzhou, he asked them all: 'When Zhizhe established the monastery, he provisionally based it on the mountain's name. You should each express your thoughts, and I will examine and select.' For several days none submitted a memorial. It happened that the monastery monk Zhizao came carrying a petition, detailing Master Guang's former designation of 'Guoqing'. The Grand Historian noted: The era of these words was the beginning of Jiande of the Zhou, when the eight directions were not yet united and the three powers stood like a tripod, over forty years ago today. The sagely verification was a hung tally, an omen fulfilled in an enlightened age. An edict entrusted it to the scribes to record in the left archives, and it was further decreed that Zhou-style seal script be used to inscribe the monastery gate. Thereupon, an attendant gentleman was sent to escort Zao along with imperial gifts for the foundation, arriving for the late master's memorial service on the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month. The envoy assembled the monks and knelt to open the stone chamber; they saw only an empty bed and vacant curtain, moss and cobwebs. The Dharma companions wailed aloud, as if he had just passed into extinction; public and private mourners wrung their hands, as if lacking anyone to look to for support. Furthermore, for the thousand monks at the Dharma gathering, there were individual registers; when checking the count for the feast, there was suddenly one person more. When the officials inspected again, it returned to the full thousand; when taking their seats to receive donations, it became a thousand and one once more. The administrators were startled and astounded, unable to discern the appearances and disappearances—how could this not have been the late master's transformation body coming to receive the state offering? When the prince's minister returned with his report, detailing this single matter, facing the screen the emperor's serene countenance deeply perceived the spiritual trace; the hundred officials bowed in congratulation, and fame sped across the four seas. How supreme! The semblance Dharma has not yet sunk, and the Buddha seed is constantly sustained; when the sagely mind is stirred to action, the Great Master responds to transformations, his wondrous power inconceivable! The divine chart is destined to be eternal, and the auspicious foundation blesses the realm; crowded and flourishing, how resplendent is this great prosperity! Formerly, King Suvarṇaprabhāsa praised the Buddha's merit, and Elder Ratnarāśi offered parasols in acclamation; Fan Wuzi's reputation was preserved among the people, and Zang Wenzhong's words were passed down to immortality. How much more so the Bodhi tree, whose excellence originates in the master's gate, and this blessed ground, where a cloud-lofty stele is erected touching the boundary of the adamantine realm, causing the imperial silk decrees to weave and record these words and principles! As for recording words and recording events, these are the completed standards of historians; scattering flowers and stringing flowers, these are the vast expounding of the Dharma treasury. Daring to restate and proclaim them, I now compose the hymn, which says: