佛祖統紀 36.135

36.135

四年。沙門僧護於剡縣石城山見崖間光如佛焰。乃鐫石為彌勒佛。纔成面像。初是晉世有沙門曇光。至剡山石室宴坐。有雕虎丹蟒造前依足。與授三歸。並即引去。已而山祇盛餙來見。光為說法。神奉山以結伽藍。名曰隱岳。同學於蘭復創寺於旁曰玄化。護既造像。乃即像所建剎名石城。與兩寺鼎足而居。齊末沙門僧淑來繼其功。至梁武帝舉兵東下。用度不足。建安王偉（文帝第八子）取襄陽銅佛。毀以為錢。富僧藏繈（舉兩反。漢志藏繈十萬。注錢貫也）多加毒害。後刺江州感惡疾。有始豐縣令陸咸（今天台縣）夢沙門三人謂曰。建安王染患由於宿障。剡縣僧護造彌勒石像。若能成濟必獲康復。咸還都經年出門遇僧。謂曰。建安王事猶能憶否。忽然不見。咸大感悟。遂以白王。即召定林寺僧祐律師。因舊功鏟入五丈（鏟楚限反。平木鐵器。又去聲）至天監十五年畢功。像身光焰通高十丈。王疾既愈。遂留神釋學益悟佛理。唐道宣律師見天神謂曰。師即僧護僧叔僧祐後身。故世稱為三生石佛云（出南史及劉勰石像碑。天人感通傳欲備見三生事迹。故并錄於此）。

In the fourth year, the śramaṇa Senghu on Mount Shicheng in Shan County saw light among the cliffs like a Buddha's flame. He thereupon chiseled the stone to make a Maitreya Buddha, but only finished the face. Earlier, during the Jin dynasty, there was the śramaṇa Tan’guang, who went to a stone chamber on Mount Shan to sit in meditation; a striped tiger and a red python came before his feet, and he administered the three refuges to them, whereupon they both departed. Soon after, the mountain deity came to see him in grand attire, and Guang expounded the Dharma for him; the deity offered the mountain to establish a saṅghārāma, named Yinyue. His fellow student Yu Lan also founded a monastery beside it called Xuanhua. After Senghu began making the image, he immediately founded a monastery at the site called Shicheng, standing like a tripod with the other two monasteries. At the end of the Qi dynasty, the śramaṇa Sengshu came to continue his work. When Emperor Wu of the Liang raised troops and marched eastward, funds were insufficient, so Prince Wei of Jian'an (the eighth son of Emperor Wen) took the bronze Buddhas of Xiangyang and melted them down for coin, and heavily mistreated wealthy monks who concealed cash-strings (qian guan). Later, while serving as Inspector of Jiangzhou, he contracted a foul disease. Lu Xian, Magistrate of Shifeng County (present-day Tiantai County), dreamt of three śramaṇas who said to him, 'The Prince of Jian'an's affliction is due to past obstacles. Senghu of Shan County began carving a stone image of Maitreya; if he can bring it to completion, he will surely recover.' A year after Xian returned to the capital, he went out the door and met a monk who said to him, 'Do you still remember the affair of the Prince of Jian'an?' and suddenly vanished. Xian was deeply awakened, and reported it to the Prince. The Prince at once summoned Vinaya Master Sengyou of Dinglin Monastery; building upon the earlier work, he chiseled inward by fifty feet. In the fifteenth year of Tianjian, the work was finished. The image, together with its flaming halo, had a total height of one hundred feet. Once the Prince's illness was cured, he applied his mind to Buddhist studies and gained deeper awakening into Buddhist principles. In the Tang, Vinaya Master Daoxuan saw a heavenly deity who said to him, 'The Master is the rebirth of Senghu, Sengshu, and Sengyou.' Thus the world calls it the 'Three-Lives Stone Buddha.' (Derived from the *History of the Southern Dynasties*, Liu Xie's *Stone Image Inscription*, and the *Transmission of Communications between Devas and Humans*. Wishing to record the full deeds of the three lives, they are compiled together here.)