佛祖統紀 6.19.3

6.19.3

少有能降天子魔者）明星出時見一神僧。 謂之曰。 制敵勝怨乃可為勇（此二句出淨名經）復為說法。 師問曰。 大聖所說是何法門。 當云何學。 云何弘宣。 答曰。 此名一實諦。 學之以般若。 宣之以大悲。 從今以後自行兼人吾皆影響。 八年師安居佛隴。 歲偶失稔。 眾皆隨意去住。 師與慧綽種苣拾象（苣者巨勝胡麻也。 象即橡斗子。 檡樹子也）安貧無戚。 九年二月帝下詔曰。 禪師佛法雄傑。 時匠所宗。 訓兼道俗。 國之望也。 宜割始豐縣調（天台在六朝時。 名始豊。 朝徒弔反。 稅賦也）以充眾費。 蠲兩戶民用給薪水。 於是眾復來集。 十年五月。 左僕射徐陵。 以禪師創寺啟於朝。 賜號修禪（尚書毛喜題篆今名大慈）陳郡袁子雄。 新野庾崇。 二人登山。 值講淨名。 即專心齋戒連辰聽法。 雄見堂前有山琉璃映徹。 山陰曲㵎跨以虹橋。 梵僧數十皆手擎香鑪登橋入堂。 雄以告崇。 崇稱不見。 雄因發心改造講堂。 天台瀕海民業漁捕。 師以身衣勸人贖[竺-二+(一/(尸@邑))]一所為放生之池。 時臨海內史計詡。 請講光明經。 漁者聞法皆好生去殺。 舍江溪[竺-二+(一/(尸@邑))]梁。 六十三所。 三百餘里俱成法池。 詡後還都坐事被繫。 臨當伏法。 遙想禪師冀垂一救。 夜夢群魚巨億吐沫相濡。 明旦有詔特原詡罪（百錄放生碑。 作計尚兒。 恐是字）師講經竟。 乘舟出海口。 望芙蓉山。 眾峯峭聳。 橫石孤垂。 師曰。 昔夢遊海上正似於此。 一日見瑞雲五采。 狀如月暈。 遙蓋寺上。 群雀嘈囋飛集櫩宇。 師曰。 江魚化為黃雀來謝恩耳。 至德元年（陳少主）勅國子祭酒徐孝克樹碑。 為銘以贊功德（文載百錄）二年永陽王（伯智少主從弟）出鎮東陽（別傳作甌越者。 一路之總稱耳）致書三請師遂往赴。 躬行方等晝講夜禪。 王與子諶家人咸稟淨戒。 少主問群臣曰。 今之釋門誰為名勝。 徐陵對曰。 瓦官禪師禪德高邁。 永陽王親承北面。 願陛下詔還京都宣弘大法。 三年正月。 前後三遣勅使並辭以疾（三勅具在百錄）三月更勅州郡為之勸請（百錄有勅東陽文。 時大師尚留東陽）王勸師曰。 主上虛己思敬。 願師時往。 若一言有益。 則四生永賴。 師不得已遂行。 既屆金陵暫安靈曜。 四月詔赴太極殿。 開大智度論題。 及仁王般若經題還寺就講。 時百座居左（諸高座法師也）五等在右（五爵公侯伯子男也）慧暅（音亘）慧曠。 慧辯。 皆奉勅難問。 天子臨筵聽法。 百僚莫不盡敬。 時僧尼類多無業。 朝議欲令策經不通者皆休道。 師諫之曰。 調達日誦萬言未免淪墜（智論調達誦得六萬法聚。 與闍王共造五逆生入地獄。 此大權設化。 而大師援此者。 蓋方便護法之意也）槃特唯憶一偈乃獲四果（法句喻經。 槃特暗塞佛授一偈。 守口攝意身莫犯。 如是行者得度世。 豁然心開得阿羅漢）篤論為道豈關多誦。 少主大說即停搜簡。 師以靈曜偏隘。 欲更求間靜。 忽夢一人翌從嚴整。 自稱冠達請住三橋。 師曰。 冠達乃梁武法名。 三橋即光宅所在。 少主聞之。 即迎師居之。 復下詔曰。 國家舊講仁王。 一年兩集。 仰屈於太極殿再演此經。 是月帝幸光宅寺舍身大施。 聽講仁王躬禮三拜。 皇后沈氏請立法名。 師答以海慧。 四年正月。 皇太子請授菩薩戒。 自太子已下咸奉戒法（南史名深。 百錄請戒文。 名淵恐因受戒。 遂改此名）禎明元年。 於光宅講法華經。 時章安預聽次（文句題注。 二十七歲。 聽受金陵。 六十九於丹丘添削）二年正月。 隋伐陳國破江南皆歸於隋。 師以時方喪亂。 遂杖策荊湘（杖上聲扶也。 去聲者所扶之杖。 今扶義。 策者竹杖也。 漢鄧禹杖策追光武。 荊州為湖北。

"[...] few are able to vanquish the māra of the Son of Heaven." When the morning star appeared, he saw a divine monk who said to him: "Subduing the foe and overcoming resentment may truly be counted as valor." (These two sentences come from the Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa-sūtra.) He then expounded the Dharma for him. The Master asked: "What Dharma-door is it that the Great Sage has spoken? How should it be studied, and how should it be propagated?" He answered: "This is called the truth of the One Reality (eka-satya). Study it through prajñā, and propagate it through great compassion. From this day forward, in your own practice and in helping others, I shall accompany you like shadow and echo." In the eighth year, the Master stayed for the summer retreat at Folong. That year chanced to have a crop failure, and the community all came and went as they pleased. The Master, together with Huichuo, planted sesame and gathered acorns (jù is large sesame seeds; xiàng are acorn cups, the nuts of the ze tree), being content in poverty without grief. In the second month of the ninth year, the emperor issued an edict stating: "The Chan Master is a preeminent hero of the Buddha-dharma, venerated by the masters of our time. His instructions embrace both monks and laypeople; he is the hope of the state. It is fitting to allocate the tax revenues of Shifeng County (Tiantai was named Shifeng during the Six Dynasties period; tiáo is levied taxation) to supply the expenses of the community, and to exempt two households of commoners to provide firewood and water." Thereupon the community gathered once again. In the fifth month of the tenth year, Xu Ling, Left Vice Director of the Department of State Affairs, memorialized the court concerning the Master's founding of a monastery, and the name Xiuchan was bestowed upon it (Mao Xi, Minister of Personnel, wrote the seal script title; it is now called Daci). Yuan Zixiong of Chen Commandery and Yu Chong of Xinye went up the mountain, arriving just as he was lecturing on the Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa. They concentrated their minds, observed the fast, and listened to the Dharma for consecutive days. Xiong saw that in front of the hall there was a lapis-lazuli mountain shining transparently; across the secluded stream on the northern side of the mountain stretched a rainbow bridge, and several tens of Indian monks, all holding incense burners in their hands, ascended the bridge and entered the hall. Xiong told this to Chong, but Chong said he did not see it. Xiong consequently resolved to rebuild the lecture hall. Tiantai bordered the sea, and the livelihood of the people was fishing. The Master used his own robes to exhort the people to ransom a weir to make it a pond for releasing living beings. At that time Ji Xu, Administrator of Linhai, invited him to lecture on the Suvarṇaprabhāsa-sūtra. When the fishermen heard the Dharma, they all came to love life and renounce killing. They gave up sixty-three fish weirs and dams along the rivers and streams, so that more than three hundred li all became Dharma ponds. Later, Xu returned to the capital, was implicated in an affair, and was imprisoned. As he was about to face execution, he thought of the Chan Master from afar, hoping he would extend salvation. That night, he dreamed of tens of millions of fish spitting bubbles to moisten one another. The next morning, an edict was issued pardoning Xu's offense (the release pond stele in the Bailu gives his name as Jishang'er, which is probably his style). When the Master finished lecturing on the sūtra, he took a boat out of the river mouth. Looking toward Mount Furong, with its peaks towering steeply and a solitary rock overhanging, the Master said: "Long ago I dreamed of journeying on the sea, and it was just like this." One day, auspicious clouds of five colors appeared, resembling a lunar halo, shading over the monastery from afar. A flock of sparrows chattered noisily and gathered flying under the eaves. The Master said: "The fish of the river have transformed into yellow sparrows and come to show their gratitude." In the first year of Zhide (under the Last Ruler of the Chen), the emperor ordered Xu Xiaoke, Libationer of the National University, to erect a stele and compose an inscription praising his merit and virtue (the text is recorded in the Bailu). In the second year, the Prince of Yongyang (Bozhi, the younger first cousin of the Last Ruler) was stationed at Dongyang (the Biezhuan says Ouyue, which is merely a general name for the whole circuit); he sent letters three times inviting the Master, who thereupon went. He personally performed the Fangdeng repentance, lecturing by day and meditating by night. The prince, his son Chen, and his family members all received the pure precepts. The Last Ruler asked his ministers: "Among the Buddhists of today, who is the most eminent?" Xu Ling replied: "The Chan virtue of the Chan Master of Waguan is lofty and surpassing; the Prince of Yongyang personally sits at his feet facing north. We pray that Your Majesty summon him back to the capital to broadly propagate the Great Dharma." In the first month of the third year, imperial envoys were sent three times consecutively, but the Master declined each time on grounds of illness (the three edicts are all preserved in the Bailu). In the third month, the emperor further decreed that the prefecture and commandery urge and invite him (the Bailu contains the edict to Dongyang; at that time the Great Master was still staying in Dongyang). The prince urged the Master, saying: "The sovereign has humbled himself in reverence; I pray that you visit him now. If a single word proves beneficial, the four classes of living beings will rely on it forever." The Master, having no choice, went. Arriving in Jinling, he temporarily stayed at Lingyao. In the fourth month, he was summoned to the Taiji Hall to open the title of the Da zhidu lun and the title of the Renwang bore jing, after which he returned to the monastery to proceed with the lectures. At that time, the hundred seats were on the left (the Dharma masters of the high seats) and the five noble ranks on the right (the five orders of nobility: duke, marquis, earl, viscount, and baron). Huixuan, Huikuang, and Huibian were all commissioned by edict to raise difficult questions. The Son of Heaven attended the assembly to hear the Dharma, and all the civil and military officials showed the utmost reverence. At that time, many monks and nuns were idle without vocation, and it was debated at court that all those who failed the examination on the scriptures should be made to return to lay life. The Master admonished them, saying: "Devadatta recited ten thousand words a day, yet could not avoid falling into the deep; (the Zhidu lun states that Devadatta recited sixty thousand clusters of Dharma, yet together with King Ajātaśatru committed the five inexpiable offenses and fell alive into hell. This was a manifestation of great expedient means, but the Great Master cited this out of an intention to protect the Dharma through expedients;) Panthaka remembered only a single gāthā, yet attained the four fruits. (The Dharmapada Avadāna says that Panthaka was dim and obstructed, so the Buddha gave him a single gāthā: 'Guard the mouth, restrain the mind, let the body do no wrong; a practitioner like this will cross over the world.' Suddenly his mind opened and he became an arhat.) In serious discourse, how could cultivating the Way depend on extensive recitation?" The Last Ruler was greatly pleased and immediately stopped the scrutiny and dismissals. Because Lingyao was cramped, the Master wished to seek another quiet retreat. Suddenly he dreamed of a man whose entourage was solemn and dignified, who called himself Guanda and invited him to dwell at Sanqiao. The Master said: "Guanda was the Dharma name of Emperor Wu of the Liang; Sanqiao is the site of Guangzhai." When the Last Ruler heard this, he welcomed the Master to reside there. He also issued an edict saying: "Our state has traditionally held lectures on the Renwang jing twice a year. We look up to and entreat you to expound this sūtra once more in the Taiji Hall." That month, the emperor visited Guangzhai Monastery to give up his body in great donation, listened to the lecture on the Renwang jing, and personally made three prostrations. Empress Shen requested a Dharma name, and the Master answered with Haihui (Ocean of Wisdom). In the first month of the fourth year, the Crown Prince requested the Bodhisattva precepts; from the Crown Prince down, all received the precept rules (in the Nan shi his name is Shen; in the text requesting precepts in the Bailu, his name is Yuan; it is likely that on receiving the precepts, he changed to this name). In the first year of Zhemning, the Master lectured on the Lotus Sūtra at Guangzhai. At that time, Zhang'an attended the lectures (the title note of the Wenju states: 'At twenty-seven years of age, he heard and received it at Jinling; at sixty-nine, he added to and edited it at Danqiu'). In the first month of the second year, the Sui attacked the Chen, conquering the state, and all Jiangnan submitted to the Sui. Because of the warfare and chaos of the times, the Master took up his staff and went to Jing and Xiang (zhàng in the falling tone means to lean on; in the departing tone, it means the staff one leans on; here it has the sense of supporting oneself. Cè means a bamboo staff; in the Han dynasty Deng Yu leaned on his staff to follow Emperor Guangwu. Jingzhou is Hubei).