佛祖統紀 45.62

45.62

In the third year, in the first month, an imperial edict ordered a vegetarian feast for a thousand monks to be held in the Great Inner Palace, and kāṣāyas and the Vajracchedikā Sūtra were distributed to pursue blessings on behalf of Empress Dowager Cisheng. ○ An imperial edict directed the court officials responsible for fixing official titles to deliberate. Since from the Tang down to the present dynasty, monk officials translating sūtras had all been conferred probationary titles such as Chief Minister of the Court of Imperial Entertainments or Chief Minister of the Court of State Ceremonial, henceforth they were to be bestowed instead the title of 'Tripiṭaka Dharma Master Who Translates Sūtras', while those holding probationary Vice Minister rank were to be bestowed the title of 'Tripiṭaka Dharma Master' (recorded in Hong Mai's Rongzhai sanbi). ○ An imperial edict converted Donglin Vinaya Monastery in Jiangzhou into a Chan seat and appointed Chan Master Changzong to reside there. The residents of the monastery said to one another, 'Master Huiyuan's prophetic record stated: "Seven hundred years after my passing, an incarnate Mahāsattva will transform and occupy this bodhimaṇḍa." Now Master Changzong truly corresponds to it!' When Dongpo visited Donglin, he presented him with a poem, saying: 'The sounds of the valley stream are precisely the broad and long tongue; / How could the mountain colours not be the pure body? / The eighty-four thousand verses of last night— / How can I hold them up to show others today?' ○ Duke Jing, Wang Anshi, asked Zhang Fangping (posthumously titled Wending), 'A hundred years after Confucius passed away, Mencius was born, but after that there was no one, or if there were any, they were not pure Confucians.' Fangping said, 'How could there be no one? There were even those who surpassed Mencius.' Anshi asked, 'Who?' Fangping replied, 'Mazu, Fenyang, Xuefeng, Yantou, Danxia, and Yunmen.' Anshi did not grasp his meaning. Fangping said, 'The Confucian school has grown feeble and cannot gather them in; they have all gone over to the Śākyan lineage.' Anshi gladly sighed in admiration. Later he related this to Zhang Shangying, who stroked the table and praised it, saying, 'How supreme is this discourse!' ○ Duke Qi, Du Yan, considered Zhang Fangping excessively devoted to Buddhism and often ridiculed it as strange. There was a physician named Scholar Zhu who moved between the two dukes. One day, Duke Qi summoned Scholar Zhu to feel his pulse. The scholar said to the messenger, 'Go tell the duke only that I am reading the Śūraṅgama Sūtra and have not yet finished.' When he arrived and bowed before taking a seat, the duke said to him, 'I thought you were open and perceptive; I did not expect that you too have recently become base and vulgar. The profound words of the sages do not go beyond Confucius and Mencius. What kind of talk is this so-called Śūraṅgama?' The scholar said, 'Your Grace has not read this sūtra; how do you know it does not match Confucius and Mencius?' He then pulled the scroll from his sleeve. Duke Qi examined it, and before he realised it, he had read to the end of the scroll. Greatly astonished, he said, 'Andao knew of this yet did not tell me!' He immediately ordered his carriage to go see him (Fangping's courtesy name was Andao). Andao said, 'It is like losing an object and suddenly regaining it; one should simply rejoice in finding it and not regret that it came late.' ○ When Zhang Shangying first entered official service, he entered a Buddhist monastery and saw the Tripitaka in neat and solemn array. He said indignantly, 'Could the teachings of our sage Confucius be inferior to the books of the barbarians?' Sitting late into the night in deep reflection, he leaned over the paper and held his brush aloft. His wife, née Xiang, said, 'Why not go to sleep?' Shangying said, 'I am just now writing a treatise on the non-existence of the Buddha.' Lady Xiang said, 'Since you say there is no Buddha, what is there to treat? You should write a treatise on the existence of the Buddha, and that would be fine.' Shangying fell silent and stopped. Later, when visiting a colleague, he saw the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa Sūtra before a Buddhist shrine. Opening it at random, he read: 'This sickness is not the earth element, nor is it apart from the earth element.' Instantly grasping its meaning, he borrowed it to take home and read carefully. Lady Xiang said, 'Only after reading this sūtra can you write your treatise on the non-existence of the Buddha.' Hearing this, Shangying attained great awakening, and from then on possessed deep faith in this Way. Later, while serving as transport commissioner in Jiangxi, he visited Chan Master Zong of Donglin and received his certification. While inspecting his administrative district, he passed through Fenning, and various Chan masters came out to welcome him. The last he met was Venerable Yue of Doushuai. Shangying, seeing that he was short of stature, treated him lightly and blurted out, 'I hear that the Venerable is clever and skilled at literary composition.' Yue laughed heartily and said, 'How could the Transport Commissioner commit such a slip of the tongue? Congyue is a ninth-generation descendant of Linji; for me to discuss literary composition with the Transport Commissioner is just like the Transport Commissioner discussing Chan with Congyue!' Shangying felt ashamed within, and feigning indifference, said, 'Is the Master really of the ninth generation of Linji?' That night he lodged at Doushuai, and their conversation turned to matters of the school. Late in the night, Yue burned incense and invited the Buddhas of the ten directions to bear witness. He said to Shangying, 'Since Donglin has already certified you, sir, do you have any slight doubts regarding the spoken teachings of the Buddhas and patriarchs?' Shangying said, 'Regarding Xianglin's "One-Legged Verse" and Deshan carrying his bowl, I am not yet able to be free of doubts.' Yue said, 'Take simply the "final phrase": does it exist or not?' Shangying said, 'How could it not exist?' Yue laughed heartily, returned to his abbot's quarters, shut the door, and went to sleep. Shangying tossed and turned, unable to sleep. In the fifth watch, stepping down from the couch, he kicked over the footstool and suddenly attained awakening. He composed a verse on this: 'The drum has fallen quiet and the bell is silent as he returns with his bowl; / Yantou's single thrust was like a clap of thunder. / Indeed he was only able to live three years— / Could it be that he met with a bestowal of prophecy from him?' He then knocked on the door and said, 'Shangying has caught the thief!' Yue said, 'Where is the stolen loot?' Shangying had no words. The next day, he brought up the verse again. Yue said, 'In studying Chan, it is only because the root of life is not severed that one generates understanding based on words. Regarding explanations like this, you have already deeply awakened; yet when it comes to the extremely subtle places, it causes people unconsciously and unwittingly to fall into boundaries.' Yue later composed a verse to verify it: 'Walking unhurriedly, every step is suchness; / Though dwelling in sound and form, how could one stagnate in existence or non-existence? / The one mind has no divergence; the ten thousand phenomena are not different. / Cease distinguishing essence and function; do not select between fine and coarse. / Responding to circumstances without hindrance; adapting to things without constraint. / When sentiments of right and wrong are exhausted, ordinary and holy are both eliminated. / Who gains, who loses? What is intimate, what is distant? / Picking up the head and making it the tail; pointing to the real as empty. / Turning one's body in the realm of Māra; turning one's steps on the heterodox path. / Completely free of contrary or compliant, not expending any effort.' Shangying invited him to Jianchang; along the way, he observed him in every detail and composed ten verses describing these events. Yue also responded with ten verses. The Dharma gates transmitted and held these up as a celebrated event (the above three matters appear in the Zongmen wuku). Once Shangying had thoroughly penetrated the Chan way, he used to tell people, 'Only after studying Buddhism did I come to understand Confucianism.' ○ In Hangzhou, Chan Master Zongben of Jingci arose from samādhi during the summer retreat. A Daoist clad in garments of leaves arrived in the hall. Ben looked at him and said, 'Why not bring up the old story of Huanglong?' The man laughed and said, 'Elder Brother Qian, what use is there in flapping your tongue?' and immediately rode the wind swiftly away. The one clad in leaves was Lü Dongbin, and Elder Brother Qian was Ben's previous life (recorded in the Pudeng lu). ○ In the eighth month, the auxiliary academician Wen Tong (courtesy name Yuke) bathed, donned his cap and sash, sat upright, and passed away. Cui Gongdu of the same institute heard of it and said in astonishment to others, 'Yesterday I parted from Yuke south of the prefecture and asked, "Will you come again tomorrow?" When I went back, Yuke said slowly, "The sūtras say that for one who does not speak falsely, his tongue covers his face." Thereupon he stuck out his tongue and drew it up past his eyebrows, folding it three times like a flat cake. I was terrified. Now hearing of his demise, it is all the more wondrous; he was truly a man who had attained the Way!' Yuke was a native of Zitong; his writing and conduct were noble and pure, and his bamboo paintings captured a wondrous spirit (recorded in the Dongdu shilüe and the Wenyi zhuan).