佛祖統紀 29.11

29.11

五祖弘忍。蘄州黃梅人。母周氏（栽松道者。託胎周氏女事。已備載通塞志）師為童子。於道上遇四祖。問之曰。子何姓。答曰。姓即有。不是常姓。祖曰。是何姓答曰。是佛姓。祖曰。汝無姓耶。答曰。性空故無。祖默然識之。即詣其母語令出家。既傳法嗣居東山。咸亨中傳衣法與慧能。後四年示寂。塔於東山。代宗朝追諡大滿禪師。

The Fifth Patriarch was Hongren, a native of Huangmei in Qizhou, whose mother was of the Zhou clan. (The matter of the Pine-Planting Daoist being conceived by the Zhou daughter is fully recorded in the Treatise on Prosperity and Decline.) When the Master was a boy, he met the Fourth Patriarch on the road. [The Patriarch] asked him: 'What is your family name?' He replied: 'I indeed have a nature (surname), but it is no ordinary surname.' The Patriarch said: 'What surname is it?' He replied: 'It is the Buddha nature.' The Patriarch said: 'Do you have no surname?' He replied: 'Because nature is empty, there is none.' The Patriarch silently recognized him. He then went to his mother and instructed her to let him renounce household life. Having received the transmission of the Dharma, he succeeded to the seat at the East Mountain. During the Xianheng era, he transmitted the robe and Dharma to Huineng. Four years later, he manifested nirvaṇa. His pagoda was erected on the East Mountain. In the reign of Emperor Daizong, he was posthumously granted the title Zen Master Daman.