佛祖統紀 11.17

11.17

Dharma Master Huibian, styled Neweng, was of the Fu family of Huating and had the sobriquet Haiyue. He studied under Puzhao. Early on, he went traveling to study at Tianzhu. When he reached Hejian, an old man wearing an official cap and sash crossed over the ridge, bowed in welcome, entered the gate, and vanished. Mingzhi saw him once and regarded him as most extraordinary; thereupon he devoted his whole mind to studying the teachings and contemplation. When Mingzhi was growing old, he ordered him to take the first seat to lecture on his behalf. One night he dreamed that Zhāng'ān struck his mouth with a golden probe, saying, 'If you diligently instruct others, you will attain eloquence and wisdom.' He once suffered from a spleen disease; he dreamed that a heavenly deity held water in a golden dish, made him close his eyes, and drew out his intestines to wash them. Eight years later, Mingzhi had him succeed to the abbot's seat. The Hanlin academician Shen Gou governed Hangzhou with an awesome severity; most who saw him were terrified and lost their composure. The Master was calm and composed as usual. Gou marveled at him and appointed him Metropolitan Controller of Monks (Dūsēngzhèng). Su Zizhan, who was then Vice-Prefect, presented him with a preface saying, 'The flourishing of Buddhist monks in Qiantang is truly the foremost in the empire. Men of moral virtue, talent, and wisdom dwell mingled with the foolish, mediocre, cunning, and hypocritical; it is said to be difficult to bring order to them. Therefore, outside of the Controllers of Monks and Vice-Controllers, an additional post of Metropolitan Controller of Monks was established. The labors of registers, documents, dockets, and rushing about to welcome and see off guests are solely assigned to the Vice-Controllers and below, while the Metropolitan Master directs the essential outlines; in truth, he is only to serve as a model for the multitude through his conduct and understanding.' Once the Master assumed office, whenever a temple vacancy arose within his jurisdiction, he set aside a day to convene the various monasteries and the talents under his seat, opening an examination hall on the doctrine. He set up bramble barricades and sealed the names, examining ten questions. Those who passed five were selected; those who achieved fewer than three were downgraded. Thereafter, candidates filled vacancies in sequence according to the grades of the monasteries. Because of this, all the mountains looked up to him and took him as a model. He lectured for twenty-five years, with students often numbering a thousand. At night a thief entered his room; he took off his robe and gave it to him, telling him to leave by a side path. In his late years he grew weary of social obligations, and taking six items with him, retired to a thatched cottage (the robe, bowl, sitting mat, paper blanket, fly-whisk, and hand-censer made the six). When there was a great drought in Wu and Yue, prayers were offered to the Guanyin image at Tianzhu, but for long there was no response. The Master, being ill at the time, was taking a midday nap and dreamed of an old man in white clothes and a black cap who told him, 'Tomorrow at noon it will surely rain.' It came to pass precisely as scheduled. Near and far were moved by the Master's sincerity. On the seventeenth day of the seventh month of the sixth year of Xining, he arose at dawn, washed, bid farewell to the assembly, joined his palms, sat cross-legged, and passed away. Earlier, the Master's dying instructions were that the shrine-casket should not be closed until Dongpo arrived. On the fourth day Dongpo arrived, and saw him sitting cross-legged as if alive, the crown of his head still warm. Dongpo paid his deepest respects and withdrew.