佛祖統紀 29.32

29.32

Dharma Master Kuiji was a native of Dai Commandery, the son of the General of the Jinwu Guards, Yuchi Jingzong. His mother, Lady Pei, swallowed the moon in a dream and became pregnant. At age six, he surpassed ordinary men in intelligence; on the nape of his neck was a jade pillow-bone, and his fingerprints were like seals. Before he was even a youth, he was already able to compose writings. Earlier, Tripiṭaka Master Xuanzang had acquired a young boy in the Western Regions who was singularly intelligent and alert; he once brought him to visit Jingzong. Jingzong summoned Kuiji to come out and pay respects to Xuanzang, and bade him recite several thousand words of a military treatise he had composed. Xuanzang repeatedly signaled the boy with his eyes. When Kuiji finished reciting, Xuanzang said, 'This is an ancient text,' and ordered the boy to repeat it; he did not err by a single character. Jingzong was furious, thinking Kuiji had deceived him, and was about to execute him. Xuanzang thereupon begged that he be allowed to leave household life, recalling that formerly when he was in India and thought of returning home, a diviner had told him: 'Master, you may return east; your disciple is already born.' Since the prophecy mysteriously matched, he related it all to Jingzong. Jingzong said, 'This child is fierce and violent; how could he endure instruction?' Xuanzang said, 'The young master's capacity could not have been born of anyone but the general, nor recognized by anyone but this poor monk.' In the end, Jingzong consented. Kuiji angrily said, 'Only if I am allowed not to sever desires, to eat meat and blood, and to eat past midday—only if these three matters are granted—will it be permissible.' Xuanzang reflected that one must first draw people in with desires, and so feigned assent. In the twenty-first year of Zhenguan, Kuiji had his head shorn by imperial decree at the age of seventeen, residing at the Guangfu Monastery. He received from Master Xuanzang the essential tenets of the Yogācārabhūmi and Vijñaptimātra, and composed commentaries and sub-commentaries numbering up to a hundred works; at the time he was called the 'Master of a Hundred Treatises'. Traveling east to Boling, someone invited him to lecture on the Lotus Sūtra, and he composed the Xuanzan da shu (Great Commentary of the Profound Praise) in ten fascicles. In the eleventh month of the first year of Yongchun, he manifested nirvāṇa at the Translation Court of the Cien Monastery. The Emperor personally composed an eulogy for his portrait and decreed that monasteries paint his likeness for worship. He was buried adjacent to Master Xuanzang's tomb.