佛祖統紀 29.48

29.48

Vinaya Master Yuanzhao belonged to the Tang clan of Yuhang. At first, he relied on Vinaya Master Jian of Xiangfu. At eighteen, he could recite the Lotus Sūtra thoroughly, passed the examination, and was ordained, dedicating himself to the study of the Vinaya. Later, together with Zanying, he followed Master Shenwu Qian. Shenwu said: 'In recent generations, the study of the Vinaya has fallen into decline; you ought to understand the Lotus in order to propagate it to all quarters.' He further received the bodhisattva precepts from Dharma Master Guangci Cai, whereupon the light of the precepts manifested (see the biography of Dharma Master Cai for details). He then extensively investigated the sudden and gradual Vinaya rules of the Nanshan school. He constantly wore hemp robes and carried his bowl, begging for food in the marketplace. He presided over Lingzhi for thirty years, and his congregation reached three hundred. When Ŭich'ŏn came from afar to seek the Dharma, he presented the essentials to him and conferred the bodhisattva precepts upon him. His assembly reached nearly ten thousand; he added precepts and ordained monks on up to sixty occasions. His distribution of food to avert calamities met with responses like echoes in a valley. Wherever he went among saṃghārāmas, he would establish the boundary (sīmā). He often said: 'In life, I propagate the Vinaya standards; in death, I return to Sukhāvatī. In all my life, what I have attained are only these two Dharma doors.' On the first day of the ninth month in the autumn of the sixth year of Zhenghe, he gathered the assembly to chant the Chapter on the Practices and Vows of Samantabhadra, sat cross-legged, and passed away. The fishermen on the lake all heard heavenly music. He was buried to the northwest of the temple. He was posthumously named Dazhi (Great Wisdom), and his stūpa was named Jiezhuang (Light of Precepts). He often said to his disciples: 'For transforming the present age, nothing compares to lecturing; for bequeathing to the future, nothing compares to writing books.' He thus composed the Zichi ji (explaining the Xingshi chao), Jiyuan ji (explaining the Jiema shu), Xingzong ji (explaining the Jie shu), Zhufa ji (explaining the Yijiao jing shu), and Bao'en ji (explaining the Yulanpen shu); as well as commentaries on the Contemplation Sūtra and the smaller Amitābha Sūtra, and a redaction of the Prātimokṣa for Nuns, totaling over a hundred rolls, along with the miscellaneous collection Zhiyuan ji in twenty rolls.