四明尊者教行錄 7.124

7.124

天南山奇，甚東西北。山其高深幽遠，便釋者栖鍾于台。台連四，去千萬山，復又宏閟窈窕，如非人可以止者。昔我智者坐此山以著書，故得名教。智者沒釋，來習其教得其旨者累累有之。易生于越，聞師之事甚異。師胡氏，家溫求嘉，三世習釋書。母鄭氏，既娠不食肉。生五六歲，與群兒戲于門，會三釋者被遠游具，由是道而遇群兒。一者撫師之頂曰：汝有奇相，當為吾門之達者。既去，三願有羨聲。自後復授釋書，拜釋像，如無為人事者心。年甫十二，投溫之僧子安，為浮屠氏。勤謹明利，得盡弟子禮。安器之授經，所謂法華者，朞月周誦。其起居宴坐也，綽綽有古佛之威儀。十九始去鬚髮，為比丘具矣。乃之越授毘尼於清律師，三載盡極其道。又南之天台，通智者教。師承聳廣二公，一旦手法華本迹不二門，至法性之與無明遍造諸法名之為染，無明之與法性遍應眾緣號之為淨。因頓悟佛心，汗落如雨。不數月登座衍說，坐二師於聽徒中，了無媿色。每入大藏採一經，未嘗別考科疏，隨意而講，渙然水釋。尋有去山意，止者盡台人皆不能，時廣順中也。易忠懿叔父領大元帥開府于浙水，聞之堅止勿他往，授以釋署淨光大師，三讓授受不施，方建法華道場，六時行釋事，晝夜不怠。甲子秋居螺溪講導，事如道場，吾叔大元帥供施日至焉。丁卯下台寓開元東樓，春雨連日。一夕有夢，若告樓垝，及旦遷他所。是夜大山頹擊樓墮，免者將百人。早歲吳越不雨久，而吾叔命使求禱之。師領其徒，詣巨潭覆鉢作檮，而暗有呪語。食久潭中為風所激，怳有物自水中起。迴不半道，大雨連下，周境謝足。又嘗危坐居室，有童子服山人衣，形體瘠陋，持竹器以土養小松，跪於室前。師徐詢之：爾何來也？答曰：華頂遣送松栽。言訖，遺竹器於地，忽爾不見。師潛謂其徒曰：此山神也。吾當別住道場。後剏螺溪教院之前讖也。凡道南險者，首稱天台石橋，下臨萬仞，飛泉四射，危滑欹側，狀如橫虹。師甞夜度，有光前導，如列炬擲火，皆不知其來。又好修壞像，多獲古物，若有符契。因得咸通六年像中書，即當時僧希皎誓文。願復生此以童子出家，傳大法首眾。謂師之前身，如許元度事。師昔在四明止育王寺，夢登上方，有寶幢高座，大署曰文殊臺。而闌楯圍絡，趨不能入。上有菩薩，手自相引，坦然可登，復覺是身與菩薩之體泯合無二。癸未年，上使內侍省官與台守入山，謀建釋舍，堅請師受菩薩戒，自稱弟子。師凡與台人授戒，有捨屠宰而執經論者、有不血食者、有至死不言殺者、有投高死而發願者、有棄妻子而求為浮屠人者、有入山一步一禮血垂于額者、有火一臂一指以供佛者。嗚呼！大音一舉，應者千谷，非發有所躋，其孰能通其大小乎。丁亥冬十有一月四日疾，終右脇而臥，神往形具端而有生。其徒樹龕室于方丈，台人之慟若喪所親。後五年易葬地，身體不壞，芳香蓊然，此非釋中達而異者乎。師名羲寂，字常照，俗壽六十九，僧臘五十。先是太平興國中，詔今左街首座掌西京教門事寧公手傳高僧，狀師之迹。易夙昔好善，常欲筆奇，聞以申誨，始熟師之事。績而又得之門人仲休授書一通，參對辯正，皆符舊文。易無似人耳，三為休之請立師之碑。退以書讓不克，又慮好事因循失於紀述，乃稽首作禮謹著是辭。銘曰：

The mountains in the south of the realm are extraordinarily wondrous, far surpassing those of the east, west, and north. The mountain being lofty, deep, secluded, and remote, it is fitting for Śākyan monks to reside and chime their bells on Mount Tiantai. Tiantai connects with four [neighboring peaks], isolated by thousands of mountains; moreover, it is vast, hidden, and profound, as if no ordinary mortal could abide there. Anciently, our master Zhizhe sat upon this mountain to compose his writings, whereby the renowned teaching was established. After Zhizhe passed away, among the monks who came to study his teachings and attained their core meaning, there were many. I, Qian Yi, was born in Yue and heard that this master's deeds were exceedingly extraordinary. The master was surnamed Hu, his family residing in Wen'an and Yongjia; for three generations they studied Buddhist scriptures. His mother, Lady Zheng, abstained from meat once pregnant. When he was five or six years old, playing with a group of children at the gate, three monks happened by equipped for distant travels, passing along this road and encountering the children. One stroked the master's crown and said: 'You possess wondrous features; you shall be an eminent master of our school.' When they left, all three expressed longing and admiration. From then on he again received Buddhist books and bowed before Buddhist images, without any thought of worldly affairs. At just twelve years of age, he turned to the monk Zi'an in Wen[zhou] and became a Buddhist renunciant. Diligent, prudent, bright, and sharp, he fully observed the courtesies of a disciple. Zi'an regarded him as a vessel and conferred scriptures upon him—namely, the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra—which he recited in its entirety within a month. In his daily activities and tranquil meditation, he had an abundance of the dignified demeanor of ancient Buddhas. At nineteen he first shaved his beard and hair, fully equipped as a bhikṣu. He then went to Yue to receive the Vinaya under Vinaya Master Qing; in three years he completely mastered its principles. Heading south again to Tiantai, he penetrated the teachings of Zhizhe. He inherited the transmission from Masters Song and Guang. One day, holding the 'Gate of Non-duality of Origin and Traces' of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra, he came to the line: 'The dharmatā and ignorance universally fabricate all dharmas—this is called defilement; ignorance and the dharmatā universally respond to all conditions—this is called purity.' Thereupon he suddenly awoke to the Buddha's mind, his sweat falling like rain. Within a few months he mounted the high seat to expound and amplify the teachings, seating the two masters among the audience of listeners, completely without a trace of embarrassment. Whenever he entered the Great Canon and selected a scripture, he never separately consulted commentaries or outlines; lecturing as his mind moved, it dissolved smoothly like melting ice. Soon he intended to leave the mountain, and though all the people of Tiantai tried to detain him, none could; this was during the Guangshun era. My uncle, the Prince Zhongyi, led as grand commander and opened his headquarters at the Zhe River; hearing of this, he firmly detained him from departing elsewhere, conferring on him the monastic title Great Master Jingguang ('Pure Radiance'). The master declined three times before receiving it. He then established a Lotus Bodhimaṇḍa, performing Buddhist rituals throughout the six periods of the day, unflagging day and night. In the autumn of the jiazi year he resided at Luoxi to lecture and guide, conducting affairs just as in the bodhimaṇḍa; my uncle the grand commander sent daily offerings and donations there. In the dingmao year he descended Tiantai and lodged at the eastern tower of Kaiyuan Monastery; spring rains lasted for consecutive days. One night he had a dream that seemed to warn him the tower would collapse, and at dawn he moved elsewhere. That night a great mountain crumbled and struck the tower down, yet nearly a hundred people were spared. In an earlier year, Wuyue had suffered a long drought, and my uncle ordered an envoy to entreat him to pray for rain. The master led his disciples to a huge abyss, overturned a bowl to offer prayer, and silently muttered incantations. After the time of a meal, the abyss was agitated by the wind, and something seemed to rise from the water. Before they were halfway back, heavy rain poured down continuously, bringing full relief to the entire region. Once, when he was sitting upright in his chamber, a boy dressed in mountain folk's garments, his physique emaciated and crude, holding a bamboo vessel with earth nurturing a small pine, knelt before the room. The master calmly asked him: 'Where did you come from?' He replied: 'Huading Peak sent me to deliver this pine seedling.' Having spoken, he left the bamboo vessel on the ground and vanished in an instant. The master privately told his disciples: 'This is the mountain spirit. I shall establish a separate bodhimaṇḍa.' This was an omen preceding the later founding of the Luoxi Teaching Cloister. Among the dangerous paths of the south, the first mentioned is the Stone Bridge of Mount Tiantai, overlooking a drop of ten thousand fathoms, with cascading springs splashing in all directions, perilous, slippery, and tilted, shaped like a horizontal rainbow. The master once crossed it at night; a light guided him ahead, like rows of torches or thrown flames, yet no one knew whence it came. He also loved restoring damaged statues, often obtaining ancient objects as if by preordained tally. He thus obtained a writing from inside a statue from the sixth year of Xiantong, which was a vowed text written by the monk Xijiao of that time: 'May I be reborn here, leave home as a boy, transmit the Great Dharma, and lead the multitude.' People regarded this as the master's prior life, like the case of Xu Yuandu. In the past, when the master stayed at King Aśoka Monastery in Siming, he dreamed of ascending to the upper chamber, where there was a jeweled banner and a high seat, boldly inscribed 'Mañjuśrī's Terrace.' But it was surrounded by balustrades, and hurrying forward he could not enter. A bodhisattva above extended a hand to lead him up, so that he could ascend smoothly, and he further felt that his body merged without duality into the bodhisattva's body. In the guiwei year, the emperor dispatched officials from the Palace Domestic Service along with the prefect of Taizhou into the mountains to plan the construction of Buddhist lodgings, and they earnestly requested the master to administer the bodhisattva precepts, referring to themselves as his disciples. Whenever the master conferred the precepts on the people of Tiantai, there were those who renounced butchery and took up the scriptures and treatises; those who ceased eating meat; those who pledged never to speak of killing until death; those who threw themselves from heights to their death in making vows; those who abandoned wife and children to seek to become renunciants; those who entered the mountains bowing at every step until blood dripped from their foreheads; and those who burned an arm or a finger as an offering to the Buddha. Alas! When the great tone is sounded, a thousand valleys respond; had his realization not reached such heights, who could penetrate both the great and the small? In the winter of the dinghai year, on the fourth day of the eleventh month, he fell ill. He passed away lying on his right side; his spirit departed while his physical form remained upright as though alive. His disciples erected a niche-chamber in his room; the people of Tiantai mourned as though they had lost a parent. Five years later they moved his burial site; his body was undecayed, emitting a dense fragrance. Is this not an eminent and extraordinary master among the Buddhists? The master's name was Xiji, his courtesy name Changzhao; his secular age was sixty-nine, and his monastic age was fifty. Prior to this, during the Taiping Xingguo era, an imperial decree commanded Master Ning, currently the Senior Monk of the Left Street in charge of doctrinal affairs in the Western Capital, to record eminent monks by hand and describe the master's traces. I, Qian Yi, have long loved goodness and always wished to write down extraordinary deeds; hearing them to extend instruction, I first became familiar with the master's deeds. Subsequently, I obtained a volume of writing conferred by his disciple Zhongxiu; comparing and verifying it, all tallied with the old records. I am an unworthy person, yet having been thrice asked by Xiu to erect a stele for the master, and having failed to decline by letter, and also worrying that through procrastination the virtuous deeds might be lost to record, I now bow my head in reverence and respectfully compose this inscription. The inscription says: