歷代三寶紀 11.133

11.133

右二十一經合三十五卷。太學博士江泌女。小而出家名僧法。年八九歲有時靜坐閉目誦出前經。揚州道俗咸稱神授。房驗經論斯理皎然。是宿習來非關神授。且據外典夫子有云。生而知者聖。學而知者次。此局談今生昧於過去爾。若不爾者何以得辯外內賢聖淺深過現乎。故高僧傳云。釋曇諦者。俗姓康氏。其先康居人。漢靈帝時移附中國。獻帝末亂移止吳興。諦父肜甞為冀州別駕。母黃氏晝眠。夢見一僧呼黃為母。寄一麈尾并鐵鏤書鎮。黃既眠覺見二物具存。私密異之。因而懷孕生諦。諦年五歲母以麈尾等示之。諦曰。秦王所餉。母曰。汝置何處。答曰。不憶。至年十歲出家。學不從師悟自天發。此即其事。後隨父之樊鄧。遇見關中僧䂮道人。忽然喚䂮曰。童子何以呼宿士名。諦曰。阿上本是諦沙彌。曾為眾僧採菜被野猪傷。不覺失聲。今可忘耶。然僧䂮經為弘覺法師弟子。為僧採菜被野猪所傷。䂮初不憶此。乃詣諦父。具說諦生本末。并示䂮書鎮麈尾等。䂮乃悟而泣曰。即䂮先師弘覺法師也。師經為姚萇講法華。貧道為都講。姚萇餉二物。今遂在此。追計弘覺捨命。正是寄物之日。復憶採菜之事。彌增悲悼。諦後覽內外遇物斯記。晚入吳虎丘山寺講禮易春秋各七遍。法華大品維摩各十五遍。又善屬文。有集六卷盛行世。年六十餘終。宋元嘉末年也。房曰。弘覺法師弟子僧䂮。師徒匠道名重二秦。什物三衣亦復何限唯書鎮麈尾保惜在懷。及移識託生。此之二物遂得同往神外質礙之像尚得相隨。況心內慮知之法而不憶念。所以鏡瑩轉明刃砥彌利。渧聚為海。塵積成山。世世習而踰增。生生學而益廣。近近初始之月。終至十五團圓。捨人還受人。即是次生事。憶而不忘其神功乎。閉目靜思。自是女人情弱暗誦相續。豈非前身時諷。而論神授。何及愚瞽昧智慧之道乎。

The twenty-one sūtras above, comprising thirty-five fascicles in total. The daughter of Jiang Mi, Erudite of the National University, left the household at a young age and took the name Sengfa. At eight or nine years of age, she would sometimes sit in stillness, close her eyes, and recite the aforementioned sūtras from memory. Both clergy and laity in Yangzhou all claimed they were divinely bestowed. When [Fei Zhang]fang examines the sūtras and treatises, the principle is clear: this came from past habituation, and had nothing to do with divine bestowal. Moreover, looking at secular texts, the Master said: "Those who are born knowing are sages; those who know through learning come next." This is merely discussing the present life and is blind to past lives. If this were not so, how could one distinguish the profundity and shallowness, the past and present, of internal and external worthies and sages? Thus, the Gaoseng zhuan states: Shi Tandi's lay surname was Kang; his ancestors were natives of Kangju. During the reign of Emperor Ling of the Han, they migrated and submitted to China. During the chaos at the end of Emperor Xian's reign, they moved to settle in Wuxing. Di's father, Rong, once served as Attendant Officer of Jizhou. His mother, Lady Huang, took a daytime nap and dreamed of a monk calling her mother and leaving with her a chowry and an iron-inlaid paperweight. When Huang awoke from sleep, she saw both items were physically present. She secretly marvelled at it. She then became pregnant and gave birth to Di. When Di was five years old, his mother showed him the chowry and other item. Di said: "These were gifted by the King of Qin." His mother said: "Where did you put them?" He answered: "I do not recall." At the age of ten, he left the household; he did not study under a master, but his awakening arose naturally. This was precisely such a matter. Later, following his father to Fan and Deng, he happened to meet the monk Sengche, a man of the Way from Guanzhong. Suddenly he called out to Che, who asked: "Why does a child call an elder by his name?" Di said: "You, reverend, were originally Di's śrāmaṇera. Once, while gathering vegetables for the saṅgha, you were injured by a wild boar and cried out involuntarily. How could you forget this now?" Indeed, Sengche had been a disciple of Master Hongjue, and while gathering vegetables for the saṅgha had been injured by a wild boar. At first Che did not recall this, so he went to Di's father, who related in full the circumstances of Di's birth and showed Che the paperweight, chowry, and other item. Che then realized and wept, saying: "He was indeed Che's former teacher, Dharma Master Hongjue! The master once lectured on the Lotus Sūtra for Yao Chang, and this poor monk served as the chief respondent. Yao Chang presented those two items as gifts, and now they are here!" Calculating backwards the time when Hongjue gave up his life, it was precisely the day the items were left; and recalling the incident of gathering vegetables, his sorrow and mourning increased all the more. Later, Di read both Buddhist and secular texts, remembering whatever he encountered. In his later years, he entered Huqiu Mountain Monastery in Wu and lectured on the Rites, the Changes, and the Spring and Autumn Annals seven times each, and on the Lotus, the Large Prajñāpāramitā, and the Vimalakīrti fifteen times each. He was also skilled in composition; a collection of his works in six fascicles circulated widely in the world. He died at over sixty years of age, at the end of the Yuanjia reign of the Song. Fang says: Dharma Master Hongjue and his disciple Sengche were renowned as teacher and disciple crafting the Way in both Qin states. Of their personal effects and three robes, what limit was there? Yet only the paperweight and chowry were cherished in his heart. When his consciousness transmigrated and took birth, these two items were able to go with him! If even physical, obstructing forms outside the spirit can thus follow along, how much more so the internal mental dharmas of reflection and knowledge—how could they not be remembered? Therefore, when a mirror is polished it turns brighter, and when a blade is whetted it becomes sharper. Droplets gather to form the ocean, and specks of dust accumulate into a mountain. Practised from life to life, it ever increases; learned from birth to birth, it ever expands. Close by is the moon of the new phase, which eventually reaches the fullness of the fifteenth day. Relinquishing a human body and receiving a human body again is the affair of a single next life; that she remembered without forgetting—is that not the spiritual power of habituation? Sitting in stillness with closed eyes was simply a woman's weak emotional nature continuously reciting in the dark. How could it not be recitation from a previous lifetime? Yet people speak of divine bestowal—how can such blindness and ignorance match the way of wisdom?