佛祖統紀 22.5

22.5

Mahāsattva Fu Xi of Dongyang, courtesy name Xuanfeng, was a native of Yiwu. He was born on the eighth day of the fifth month in the fourth year of the Jianwu era of the Qi. In his youth, when fishing with villagers, he kept the fish in baskets and submerged them in the water, praying, "Those who wish to leave may leave; those who wish to stay may stay." People considered him foolish. At age sixteen, he married Lady Liu and fathered two sons, Pujian and Pucheng. At twenty-four, while fishing at Jiting Pool, the Indian monk Song Dhūta said to him, "Long ago, before Vipaśyin Buddha, I and you made a vow to deliver sentient beings. Now your robes and bowl are present in the Tuṣita Palace; when will you return?" He told him to look into the water, where he saw a halo and a jeweled canopy encircling his body. Thereupon he was enlightened and said, "Around a furnace and bellows there is much blunt iron; before the door of a fine physician there abound sick people. When urgently delivering sentient beings, what leisure is there to think of Tuṣita?" He then built a hut between two pounding trees on Mount Song and called himself the Great Being of Good Wisdom (Shanhui Dashi) for Future Liberation. He planted vegetables and fruits, allowing anyone to take them. Working as a hired laborer for others, he worked by day and returned by night, explaining the Buddhadharma with his wife Miaoguang. After practicing tapas for seven years, while sitting quietly in meditation, he saw the three Buddhas Śākyamuni, Jinsu, and Dīpaṃkara coming from the east, radiating light like the sun. A voice in the sky called out, "On the day you attain the Way, you shall take Śākyamuni's place and sit in the bodhimaṇḍa." Subsequently, the fourfold assembly gathered in swarms to pay homage. The commandery governor, Wang Xiu, considered him a deceiver and imprisoned him. For two full ten-day periods he did not eat; ashamed, Wang released him. Returning to the mountain, he became even more diligent, saying, "I came from Tuṣita Palace to preach unexcelled bodhi. Formerly I concealed this matter, but now I will no longer hide it." In the sixth year of Datong, he dispatched his disciple Fu Wang with a letter to the imperial palace, addressing the Emperor as "Ruler of the Realm, World-Saving Bodhisattva." An imperial decree replied, "If Shanhui wishes to save sentient beings, he may come as he pleases." The Emperor secretly ordered the gates locked to observe his supernatural power. The Mahāsattva drew a wooden mallet from his sleeve, struck it once, and all the gates swung open. He met the Emperor in the Shanyan Hall. The usher called out three salutations, but he did not bow, stepping directly onto the imperial couch to converse, displaying extraordinary demeanor. After the meal was served, he departed to Mount Zhong and sat under the pines of Dinglin, provided for by the district officials. In the first year of Datong, he was invited to lecture on the three types of wisdom and prajñā at Chongyun Hall. The ministers and grandees all assembled. When the Son of Heaven arrived, the entire assembly welcomed him, but the Mahāsattva did not move. An imperial censor asked the reason, and he replied, "If the Dharma-ground moves, all dharmas are unsettled." The Emperor approved. The next day, he was uniquely invited to the Shouguang Hall, leaving only when the night water-clock rose. In the chaos and famine at the end of the Liang, he and his disciples daily gathered acorns and boiled weeds into gruel to sustain the neighborhoods, and bandits could not bear to harm them. He once said, "I am one of the thousand Buddhas of the Fortunate Kalpa." When his disciple Huirong wished to establish a Dragon Flower Assembly, the Mahāsattva said, "The Dragon Flower is my affair; you may establish an assembly for requesting the Buddhas to halt their radiance. If you follow my words, you will certainly see the Dragon Flower." He also said, "I attained enlightenment forty kalpas ago; only then did Śākyamuni first give rise to the aspiration. Because Śākyamuni was able to renounce his body, he became a Buddha before me." In the second year of Tianjia of the Chen, while practicing the Way in the mountains, he often saw the seven Buddhas before him and Vimalakīrti following behind. He said to his disciples, "Among the seven Buddhas, only Śākyamuni speaks with me frequently." In the winter of the second year of Guangda, the Mahāsattva said, "Duke Song has already returned to Tuṣita Heaven; I cannot remain long." He composed twelve stanzas of poems on "Returning to the Source." On the twenty-fourth day of the fourth month of the first year of Dajian, he manifested extinction. Seven days later, the district magistrate Chen Zhongqi came to pay respects; during the passing of incense, he still turned his hand to receive the incense. The assembly was all the more astonished and sighed in admiration. He was buried at the corner of Mount Song. An imperial order was given for the Vice Director of the Left, Xu Ling, to compose his stele inscription.