佛祖統紀 45.56

45.56

六年七月。天竺靈山海月大師慧辯合掌坐亡。遺言。須東坡至方闔龕。四日坡至見趺坐如生。乃作三詩以弔之（欲尋遺迹強霑裳。本自無生可得亡。今夜生公講堂月。滿庭依舊冷如霜。集中但錄其一）初是學士沈遇治杭。以師有重德補為都僧正。通守蘇軾為之序曰。錢唐佛僧之盛。蓋甲天下。道德材智之士。與妄庸巧偽之人雜處其間。號為難齊。故僧正副之外。別補都僧正一員。簿書案牒。奔走將迎之勞專責副正以下。而都師總領要略。實以行解。表眾而已。師既蒞職。凡管內寺院虛席者。涓日會諸剎。及座下英俊。開問義科場。餬名考校。十問五中為中選。不及三者為降等。然後隨院等差（楚宜反不齊也）以次補名。由是諸山仰之咸以為則。

In the seventh month of the sixth year, Master Hǎiyuè Huìbiàn of Tianzhu Ling Shan sat upright with palms joined and passed away. His dying words were: 'Wait until Dōngpō arrives before closing the shrine.' On the fourth day, when Pō arrived, he saw him sitting cross-legged as if alive, whereupon he composed three poems to mourn him. (Note: 'Wishing to seek the traces left behind, I force tears to wet my robe. / Originally there was no birth, so how could there be death? / Tonight, over the lecture hall of Master Sheng, the moon / Fills the courtyard, as cold as frost just as before.' Only one poem is recorded in his collected works.) Earlier, when Academician Shěn Yù governed Hángzhōu, because the Master possessed weighty virtue, he appointed him as Metropolitan Superior of Monks (Dōu Sēngzhèng). The Comptroller Sū Shì wrote a preface for it, stating: 'The flourishing of Buddhist monks in Qiántáng is indeed pre-eminent throughout the world. Men of virtue, talent, and wisdom dwell mingled together with the frivolous, mediocre, deceitful, and false, being known as difficult to bring into order. Therefore, beyond the Superior and Vice-Superior of Monks, an additional post of Metropolitan Superior of Monks was established. The labor of clerical registers, legal files, running about, sending off and welcoming guests is charged exclusively to those below the Vice-Superior; the Metropolitan Master takes general charge of essential matters, merely serving as a model for the community through his practice and understanding.' After the Master assumed office, whenever a vacancy arose among the monasteries under his jurisdiction, he selected a day to assemble the various monasteries and the talented juniors under his seat to open an examination field for interrogating scriptural meaning. The names were pasted over for grading: answering five correctly out of ten was considered passing; fewer than three resulted in demotion. Afterward, according to the ranks of the monasteries, appointments were filled in order. For this reason, the various mountain monasteries looked up to him and all took him as a model.