佛祖統紀 12.10

12.10

Dharma Master Fanzhen (originally named Youzhen; Emperor Zhenzong specially changed it) was a native of Qiantang. After receiving full ordination, he went to Siming to inquire about the Way, meeting Fazhi in his very last years. Hearing lectures on the Miaoxuan and Wenju, he was greatly enlightened. Upon returning to his native county, he regretted not receiving the Zhiguan in person, so he burned incense, bowed before an image, and read through it twenty times to manifest his lineage transmission. In the third year of Huangyou, he first resided at Shangzhu. The following year, an imperial decree ordered him to transfer to Jinshan. In the fifth year of Xining, Wu, the Prefect of Hangzhou and Court Reader-in-Waiting, heard of the Master's reputation and invited him to Nanping Xingjiao. Whenever he lectured, he synthesized nominal principles and threaded them through from beginning to end; raising one point of doctrine, all other points fell smoothly into place; exhausting one passage, all other passages harmoniously converged. Those of strong memory at that time accordingly compiled them into categories. The initial compilation of categories arose because Fazhi, in lecturing, cited various passages loosely; the Rector Ren recorded them into five categories. Soon after, Jingjue added two, Master Cong of Kuocang added three, and Master Cai of Fohui reexamined the various texts and condensed them into ten categories; Master Ji of Siming arranged each in orderly sequence according to their works. Seeing this, Guangzhi said: 'The use of compilations by category has equal gains and losses: the gain lies in knowing the essentials, while the loss lies in being blind to their origins and conclusions.' When the Master took the seat at Xingjiao, Taichu of Qunfeng compiled them as 'Gaozuo xuyu', while Huixian of Chaoguo separately established 'Xuanxu xiaowen', expounding the background intention beneath each and every passage and properly explaining mind-contemplation; this was known as the Nanping branch. (Master Shao of Tianzhu said, 'Dismembering the Dharma-body to mislead later students!' Zha'an wrote to Wuxiang Xin, strongly urging him not to transmit it, with the words: 'Clarified butter turns into dregs; the treasury of the Dharma turns into ghost-fire.') Whenever Lord Wu was off duty, he would always go to listen to the Dharma, lowering his sash, holding his tablet straight, and standing outside the threshold; until the Master ascended the seat, he would never enter. Once, when the Master responded to an invitation at night, he saw a woman before him. Asking her, she said, 'I have an earnest plea and invite you, Master, to my home.' The Master followed her to her gate, where he saw several people dragging this woman onto a bed and hacking her into mincemeat with a great knife. After a short while she revived and wept, saying, 'In my previous life, I was skilled at slicing minced meat, and now I suffer this retribution; wishing to seek deliverance, I dared to impose upon you.' The Master conferred the precepts on her, and she was seen no more. Whenever he debated doctrines with Jingjue, he submitted petitions to the authorities, begging to erect a high platform, hoist a red banner, and imitate the holy teachers and non-Buddhists of Western India who contested superior meaning, cutting off the head and tongue of whoever was defeated and hanging them on the banner. Witnessing the sharpness of the Master's Dharma combat, the commandery governor resolved the dispute by declaring: 'In composition and literary production, Zhen does not match Yue; in photographic memory and vast erudition, Yue does not match Zhen.' Though the Master ceased hostilities from then on, all who heard of it shuddered in awe. When Dongpo first came to Hangzhou, he was on closest terms with the Master. Later, when he became prefect, the Master had already passed away; seeing his conduct record, he said, 'Although this writing is skillful, it does not express how far this elder surpassed others. Whenever I spoke with him and forgot something from the classics, histories, or various texts, he would recite it upon the sound of my voice.' During the Chongning era, he was posthumously titled Dharma Master Shixiang.