佛祖統紀 14.26

14.26

Dharma Master Zhongli was surnamed Chen of Yin. He was bestowed the title Mingzhi. His mother dreamed that the sun entered her bosom, whereupon she became pregnant. Unless she bathed three times a night, he would not stop wailing. At nine years old, he left home at Qixin in Yongdong. Having received a scripture, a single recitation ensured he never forgot it. During the Zhiping era, he sat for the scriptural examinations in Kaifeng Prefecture, passed, and was ordained. At first, he relied on Guangzhi to study the doctrines and contemplation. When Shenzhi Duan presided over Nanhu, he relied on him again. During the Xining era, Shenzhi raised the curtains [to teach]; two hundred people engaged in questions and answers, and none surpassed the master. He was thus appointed head seat. After a long while, he went to pay respects to Fuzong in Yongjia. As he was about to return, Zong said, "Your journey will surely lead to succeeding to Fazhi's seat." When Shenzhi retired from his duties, he made the master his successor. In the early Yuanyou era, Supreme Sangha Controller Ŭich'ŏn of Goryeo came from afar to seek the Way. Just as he came ashore, he encountered the master ascending the hall and sighed, "Indeed, there is such a man here!" He then paid respects with the etiquette of a disciple. He emptied out all his learning trying to break the master's sharpness, but ultimately could not. The master ordered his disciple Jieran to build for the first time sixteen contemplation chambers to accommodate practitioners of the pure karma. Soon after, he resigned and said, "When I am sixty years old, I shall come again." He then retired to Yinxue in Donghu. Several years later, Prefect Wang urged him to take charge of Baoyun, completely renewing the buildings. Inside the belly of a guardian deity of the monastery, a vow text was found, stating: "A hundred years later, a flesh-body bodhisattva will revive this place anew." Those who heard this marveled at it. Later, he retired to the Baiyun Hermitage. Daily expounding the *Calming and Contemplation* up to the inconceivable realm, he sighed, "Our Way has reached its ultimate here! When there is the inconceivable realm, there is the inconceivable mind." He thereupon wrote the *Bianyizheng* (Rectification of the Inconceivable). Furthermore, pointing to the five chapters, he tore down the grand outline, relying on the fruit to illuminate the cause so as to accomplish understanding and practice; bringing forth the Buddha to embrace sentient beings, so that all sentient beings are the Buddha, he wrote the *Zhiguan liewang zhigui shiyi* (Resolving Doubts on the Guiding Scope of Tearing the Net in Calming and Contemplation). When Master Wenhui Zheng passed away, the commandery requested that he once again preside over Yanqing, truly fulfilling his words of "returning at sixty." He once ascended the seat to preach the Dharma, his compassion raining boundlessly. Coming down from the seat, he asked his attendant, "What words did I just speak?" The attendant answered with what he had heard. The master said, "I felt my body and mind were identical with empty space; I truly knew not where the words came from." As for the annual repentances performed in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, Yanqing was the most flourishing. He selected disciples to practice the Lotus Repentance for seven years. When the practice was about to be completed, in dhyāna contemplation he saw a great boat; the crowd wished to board it but could not, and only the master sat within it to sail forward. From then on, his eloquence and wisdom surged like a fountain, surpassing that of former days. On the xinhai day of the fourth month in the fifth year of the Zhenghe era, he said to his disciple Fawei, "I smell a wondrous fragrance, and my mind is exceedingly joyful." He said to the practitioners in the contemplation hall, "I shall part from you all forever." He then sat facing west and passed away. His stupa was erected to the east of Patriarch Chongfa's stupa. He lectured on the Three Great Works, the *Vimalakīrti*, and the *Suvarṇaprabhāsa* dozens of times. He recited the *Lotus Sūtra* over ten thousand times. His curing diseases, expelling demons, and relieving calamities and droughts for people had efficacy too numerous to fully record. There were no books of Confucius or Laozi that he had not read thoroughly. When he lectured to Confucian scholars, he would question them in return, saying, "How is this principle in the sage Confucius? How is it in the *Odes* and *Documents*?" When the Confucian scholars did not know how to answer, he would quote passages and expound at length, saying, "Is it not like this?" Those who heard this were convinced in their hearts and withdrew. When the master was in Yongjia, Fuzong said to him, "I often see Mārīcī and Skanda in dreams seeking to protect the Dharma. In the future, please install their seats in the repentance hall at Nanhu." When the master presided over the monastery, the erection of their images began with the master. Chen Yingzhong once praised the master, saying: "Strictly observing the prātimokṣa, firmly maintaining tranquil contemplation; using the body as a tongue, preaching a hundred billion matters" (meaning that discipline, concentration, and wisdom were all fully complete).