佛祖統紀 12.10

12.10

法師梵臻（初名有臻真宗特改）錢唐人。具戒之後。即問道四明。見法智最為晚暮。聞講妙玄文句大有啟發。及還鄉邑。以不親授止觀為之恨。乃焚香禮像。閱讀二十過。以表師承。皇祐三年初居上竺。明年有旨遷金山。熙寧五年。杭守吳侍讀聞師名以南屏興教延之。每當講次。綜括名理貫穿始終。舉一義則眾義洽然。窮一文則諸文允會。當時強記者。因集以成類。初集類之作。由法智講授散引諸文。有仁首座者。錄為五類。既而淨覺增其二。括蒼聰師加其三。佛慧才師重檢諸文節為十類。四明吉師隨諸部帙各為詮次。廣智見之曰。類集之行得失相半。得在知其綱要。失在昧其起盡。暨師興教之席。群峯泰初。詮為高座緒餘。超果會賢。別立懸敘消文。一一文下開示來意正釋觀心。號為南屏一家（天竺韶師曰。碎割法身訛誤後學去也。樝菴書與無相昕。力勉勿傳。有醍醐化糟粕法藏變鬼火之語）吳公當休沐必往聽法垂紳正笏立於閫外。師未登座終不入。師夜赴請。見婦人在前。問之則曰。妾有哀懇請師到家。師從之至其門。見數人拽此婦置床上。舉大刀斫之如泥沙。少時復活。泣曰。妾生前善切膾。今受此報。欲求濟度故敢仰屈。師為授戒遂不復見。每與淨覺辨論教門。陳辭有司。乞築高臺竪赤幡。放西竺聖師與外道捔勝義墮者斷首截舌懸之幡上。郡侯覩師法戰之銳。就辭解之曰。行文製作臻不及岳。強記博聞岳不及臻。師雖自此弭兵。聞者莫不凜凜。東坡初來杭與師最厚。後為郡而師已逝。見其行狀曰。此文雖工。未道此老大過人處。吾嘗與語。凡經史群籍有遺忘。即應聲誦之。崇寧中。諡實相法師。

Dharma Master Fanzhen (originally named Youzhen; Emperor Zhenzong specially changed it) was a native of Qiantang. After receiving full ordination, he went to Siming to inquire about the Way, meeting Fazhi in his very last years. Hearing lectures on the Miaoxuan and Wenju, he was greatly enlightened. Upon returning to his native county, he regretted not receiving the Zhiguan in person, so he burned incense, bowed before an image, and read through it twenty times to manifest his lineage transmission. In the third year of Huangyou, he first resided at Shangzhu. The following year, an imperial decree ordered him to transfer to Jinshan. In the fifth year of Xining, Wu, the Prefect of Hangzhou and Court Reader-in-Waiting, heard of the Master's reputation and invited him to Nanping Xingjiao. Whenever he lectured, he synthesized nominal principles and threaded them through from beginning to end; raising one point of doctrine, all other points fell smoothly into place; exhausting one passage, all other passages harmoniously converged. Those of strong memory at that time accordingly compiled them into categories. The initial compilation of categories arose because Fazhi, in lecturing, cited various passages loosely; the Rector Ren recorded them into five categories. Soon after, Jingjue added two, Master Cong of Kuocang added three, and Master Cai of Fohui reexamined the various texts and condensed them into ten categories; Master Ji of Siming arranged each in orderly sequence according to their works. Seeing this, Guangzhi said: 'The use of compilations by category has equal gains and losses: the gain lies in knowing the essentials, while the loss lies in being blind to their origins and conclusions.' When the Master took the seat at Xingjiao, Taichu of Qunfeng compiled them as 'Gaozuo xuyu', while Huixian of Chaoguo separately established 'Xuanxu xiaowen', expounding the background intention beneath each and every passage and properly explaining mind-contemplation; this was known as the Nanping branch. (Master Shao of Tianzhu said, 'Dismembering the Dharma-body to mislead later students!' Zha'an wrote to Wuxiang Xin, strongly urging him not to transmit it, with the words: 'Clarified butter turns into dregs; the treasury of the Dharma turns into ghost-fire.') Whenever Lord Wu was off duty, he would always go to listen to the Dharma, lowering his sash, holding his tablet straight, and standing outside the threshold; until the Master ascended the seat, he would never enter. Once, when the Master responded to an invitation at night, he saw a woman before him. Asking her, she said, 'I have an earnest plea and invite you, Master, to my home.' The Master followed her to her gate, where he saw several people dragging this woman onto a bed and hacking her into mincemeat with a great knife. After a short while she revived and wept, saying, 'In my previous life, I was skilled at slicing minced meat, and now I suffer this retribution; wishing to seek deliverance, I dared to impose upon you.' The Master conferred the precepts on her, and she was seen no more. Whenever he debated doctrines with Jingjue, he submitted petitions to the authorities, begging to erect a high platform, hoist a red banner, and imitate the holy teachers and non-Buddhists of Western India who contested superior meaning, cutting off the head and tongue of whoever was defeated and hanging them on the banner. Witnessing the sharpness of the Master's Dharma combat, the commandery governor resolved the dispute by declaring: 'In composition and literary production, Zhen does not match Yue; in photographic memory and vast erudition, Yue does not match Zhen.' Though the Master ceased hostilities from then on, all who heard of it shuddered in awe. When Dongpo first came to Hangzhou, he was on closest terms with the Master. Later, when he became prefect, the Master had already passed away; seeing his conduct record, he said, 'Although this writing is skillful, it does not express how far this elder surpassed others. Whenever I spoke with him and forgot something from the classics, histories, or various texts, he would recite it upon the sound of my voice.' During the Chongning era, he was posthumously titled Dharma Master Shixiang.