佛祖統紀 14.26

14.26

法師中立。鄞之陳氏。賜號明智。母夢日輪入懷遂有娠。夜不三浴。則啼號不止。九歲出家於甬東之棲心。受經一誦永憶不忘。治平中試經開封府。中選得度。初依廣智學教觀。及神智斷主南湖復依之。熙寧中神智開幃。設問答者二百人。無出師右。乃舉居座元。久之去謁扶宗於永嘉。將歸。宗曰。子行必紹法智之席。及神智謝事。乃俾師為繼。元祐初。高麗僧統義天遠來問道。甫濟岸遇師升堂。歎曰。果有人焉。遂以師禮見。傾所學折其鋒竟不可得。師令門徒介然。始作十六觀室。以延淨業之士。已而辭去曰。吾年六十。當再來。即退處東湖之隱學。數年郡太守王公。勉主寶雲。一新棟宇。於伽藍神腹得願文云。後百年當有肉身菩薩重興此地。聞者異之。後退隱白雲菴。日宣止觀至不思議境。歎曰。吾道至此極矣。有不思議境則有不思議心。乃作不思議辯正。又指五章裂大綱目。寄果明因以成解行。舉佛攝生全生是佛。作止觀裂網指歸釋疑。文慧正師亡。郡請再主延慶。果符六十再來之言。甞升座說法。慈霔無盡。下座問侍者曰。吾適道何語。侍者答以所聞。師曰。吾覺身心同太虛空。殊不知語之所出也。歲懺行江浙延慶為最盛。擇其徒修法華懺者。七年。行法將圓。禪觀中見一大舟。眾欲乘不可。唯師坐其中以行。自是辯慧泉涌超勝於昔。政和五年四月辛亥。謂門人法維曰。吾聞異香心甚適悅。謂觀堂行人曰。吾當與汝輩長別。即面西坐逝。塔於崇法祖塔之東。講三大部淨名光明數十過。誦法華踰萬部。與人除病却鬼救災旱。不能畢記其驗。孔老之書無不遍讀。其對儒士講說。則反質之曰。此道在孔聖如何。在詩書如何。儒士不知對。則援引委辯之曰。無乃若是乎。聞者心服而退。師在永嘉。扶宗謂曰。吾常見摩利支。韋馱於夢中求護法。他日幸於南湖懺室置其位。及師主席乃立像自師始。陳瑩中嘗讚師曰。嚴奉木叉。堅持靜慮。以身為舌。說百億事（言戒定慧皆備具也）。

Dharma Master Zhongli was surnamed Chen of Yin. He was bestowed the title Mingzhi. His mother dreamed that the sun entered her bosom, whereupon she became pregnant. Unless she bathed three times a night, he would not stop wailing. At nine years old, he left home at Qixin in Yongdong. Having received a scripture, a single recitation ensured he never forgot it. During the Zhiping era, he sat for the scriptural examinations in Kaifeng Prefecture, passed, and was ordained. At first, he relied on Guangzhi to study the doctrines and contemplation. When Shenzhi Duan presided over Nanhu, he relied on him again. During the Xining era, Shenzhi raised the curtains [to teach]; two hundred people engaged in questions and answers, and none surpassed the master. He was thus appointed head seat. After a long while, he went to pay respects to Fuzong in Yongjia. As he was about to return, Zong said, "Your journey will surely lead to succeeding to Fazhi's seat." When Shenzhi retired from his duties, he made the master his successor. In the early Yuanyou era, Supreme Sangha Controller Ŭich'ŏn of Goryeo came from afar to seek the Way. Just as he came ashore, he encountered the master ascending the hall and sighed, "Indeed, there is such a man here!" He then paid respects with the etiquette of a disciple. He emptied out all his learning trying to break the master's sharpness, but ultimately could not. The master ordered his disciple Jieran to build for the first time sixteen contemplation chambers to accommodate practitioners of the pure karma. Soon after, he resigned and said, "When I am sixty years old, I shall come again." He then retired to Yinxue in Donghu. Several years later, Prefect Wang urged him to take charge of Baoyun, completely renewing the buildings. Inside the belly of a guardian deity of the monastery, a vow text was found, stating: "A hundred years later, a flesh-body bodhisattva will revive this place anew." Those who heard this marveled at it. Later, he retired to the Baiyun Hermitage. Daily expounding the *Calming and Contemplation* up to the inconceivable realm, he sighed, "Our Way has reached its ultimate here! When there is the inconceivable realm, there is the inconceivable mind." He thereupon wrote the *Bianyizheng* (Rectification of the Inconceivable). Furthermore, pointing to the five chapters, he tore down the grand outline, relying on the fruit to illuminate the cause so as to accomplish understanding and practice; bringing forth the Buddha to embrace sentient beings, so that all sentient beings are the Buddha, he wrote the *Zhiguan liewang zhigui shiyi* (Resolving Doubts on the Guiding Scope of Tearing the Net in Calming and Contemplation). When Master Wenhui Zheng passed away, the commandery requested that he once again preside over Yanqing, truly fulfilling his words of "returning at sixty." He once ascended the seat to preach the Dharma, his compassion raining boundlessly. Coming down from the seat, he asked his attendant, "What words did I just speak?" The attendant answered with what he had heard. The master said, "I felt my body and mind were identical with empty space; I truly knew not where the words came from." As for the annual repentances performed in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, Yanqing was the most flourishing. He selected disciples to practice the Lotus Repentance for seven years. When the practice was about to be completed, in dhyāna contemplation he saw a great boat; the crowd wished to board it but could not, and only the master sat within it to sail forward. From then on, his eloquence and wisdom surged like a fountain, surpassing that of former days. On the xinhai day of the fourth month in the fifth year of the Zhenghe era, he said to his disciple Fawei, "I smell a wondrous fragrance, and my mind is exceedingly joyful." He said to the practitioners in the contemplation hall, "I shall part from you all forever." He then sat facing west and passed away. His stupa was erected to the east of Patriarch Chongfa's stupa. He lectured on the Three Great Works, the *Vimalakīrti*, and the *Suvarṇaprabhāsa* dozens of times. He recited the *Lotus Sūtra* over ten thousand times. His curing diseases, expelling demons, and relieving calamities and droughts for people had efficacy too numerous to fully record. There were no books of Confucius or Laozi that he had not read thoroughly. When he lectured to Confucian scholars, he would question them in return, saying, "How is this principle in the sage Confucius? How is it in the *Odes* and *Documents*?" When the Confucian scholars did not know how to answer, he would quote passages and expound at length, saying, "Is it not like this?" Those who heard this were convinced in their hearts and withdrew. When the master was in Yongjia, Fuzong said to him, "I often see Mārīcī and Skanda in dreams seeking to protect the Dharma. In the future, please install their seats in the repentance hall at Nanhu." When the master presided over the monastery, the erection of their images began with the master. Chen Yingzhong once praised the master, saying: "Strictly observing the prātimokṣa, firmly maintaining tranquil contemplation; using the body as a tongue, preaching a hundred billion matters" (meaning that discipline, concentration, and wisdom were all fully complete).