樂邦文類 3.50

3.50

On the twelfth day of the first spring month in the fourth year of the Tianxi era of the holy Song dynasty [1020], Master Chang, the Great Master Yuanjing and leader of the White Lotus Society, entered quiescent extinction at the upper thatched hall of his home temple, Zhaoging, at West Lake in Qiantang, at sixty-two years of age and forty-four monastic rains. On the third day of the following second month, his disciples, weeping and sobbing, conveyed his complete body and entombed it to the right behind the stupa of Chan Master Niaoke on Mount Lingyin, erecting a pagoda to mark it as the ritual prescribes. In the winter of that year, the foremost among his disciples, named Xubai, who was able to shoulder the master's Way, personally recorded his deeds and came twice to my dwelling, requesting my words to transmit the master's virtues and carve them on an abundant stele, saying: 'This was the late master's bequeathed intention.' I could not decline his request, so I composed an account and prefaced it. Now, as for the teachings of the Western Sage, they are pure, tranquil, and free of contrived action, benevolent, compassionate, and non-killing. Their profound expressions and subtle discourses, their vast meanings and deep intentions, provide fully for all pupils of the Central Realm who receive their transforming influence. Those who grasp the lesser and nearer aspects turn to the good and keep far from evil; those who attain the greater and farther aspects return to the origin and recover their nature. Ah! Master Yuan of Mount Lu surely grasped the greater and farther aspects! He lived purely in secluded retirement, cultivated words to establish sincerity; his discernment was sufficient to manifest the subtle, and his conduct was sufficient to serve as a model. Therefore, the worthy men of his time looked up to his loftiness and aspired to his clarity, and from this arose the matter of forming a society. People down to the present day praise it, yet none have been able to succeed him. Only the master [Shengchang], being strict and precise in principle and conduct, and pure and plain in cultivating the mind, heard the wind of Mount Lu and took pleasure in it. He said: 'A horse that longs for Ji is also of the Ji lineage. Although I have no likeness [to the worthy], dare I forget the admonition to emulate them?' Thereupon he rectified his body and cleansed his mind, and made a vow to organize a society, saying: 'Guiding others in the Way must rely upon a place; revering the spirit must depend upon an image; practicing the transformation must rely upon words.' Deeming West Lake to be the most superb retreat in the realm, he delighted in its secluded quiet and showed his fine withdrawal. Deeming the Buddha of Immeasurable Life to be the one to whom all living beings look up, he carved sandalwood to fashion his form. Deeming the 'Chapter on Pure Conduct' in the Avataṃsaka Sūtra to be the essential mechanism for attaining sagehood, he pricked his own blood to write out its verses. Once the place was secured, the image completed, and the words set into practice, the worthy gentlemen of the court esteemed his righteousness, and his reputation spread throughout the country. Consequently, prime ministers, renowned officials, regional chiefs, and prefects also heard the master's style and delighted in it: some sought seclusion to inquire about the Way, some beheld the image and recognized the truth, and some examined the sūtras and grasped their meaning. For over thirty years they were friends of absolute harmony; those who joined the companions of the White Lotus numbered one hundred and twenty-three in all. Such was his accomplishment in transforming others! This demonstrates that in succeeding to Mount Lu, the society of West Lake suffered no sense of shame. Let us attempt to consider this: Master Yuan was a sage of the high stages; our master was a worthy of the initial mind. In truth, their levels were different, and their titles and reputations distinct. Yet Yuan emerged during the declining Jin, while our master was born in a sagely dynasty; those whom the former summoned were all recluses and hermits, while those who came to the latter were all prominent and exalted figures. Balancing their long and short points, past and present stand as equals; is this not grand and splendid? The master would often turn to his disciples and say: 'Since the beginning of our dynasty, the sash-wearing literati have honored antiquity in their writing, for the most part imitating Tuizhi's [Han Yu's] character and making it their aim to suppress and banish the Śākya clan. Therefore, I borrowed the traces of Master Yuan and made use of forming a society; many of them have followed my transformative influence. Their numerous steles and clustered eulogies praise and extol the Buddha-Dharma, serving as covenants of refuge, which is precisely enough to clear the brambles from divergent paths and serve as a wall and moat to defend our teaching. The world does not understand me, and some consider me one who devises novelty to court fame; but I am not of that sort.' A superior person said: 'In the past, Yaoshan Weiyan was able to turn the heart of Li Ao, enabling him to understand the Buddha, and the biographies of monks praised him for it. Now these many worthies aspire toward the true mark and venerate the Great Awakened One, returning in homage to the sea of nature and reaching together the sky of ultimate meaning—without the master's strength, who could have done this?' His merit in protecting the Dharma is indeed unexcelled in his age! The master's taboo name was Shengchang, his courtesy name was Zaowei, and his secular surname was Yan; his family had for generations been natives of Qiantang. At the age of seven, he grew weary of the mundane world; at seventeen, he received full ordination. As for the auspicious omens of his conception, the preceptors under whom he studied, the excellence of his lecturing and practicing Chan, and the matters of tempering his name and disciplining his conduct—these are all recorded in the stele prefaces by the guests of the society and various worthies, as well as in the account of conduct compiled by his disciples; they will not be repeated here, and only the Way of his establishing the society has been directly recorded. The inscription reads: