佛祖統紀 6.19.3

6.19.3

"[...] few are able to vanquish the māra of the Son of Heaven." When the morning star appeared, he saw a divine monk who said to him: "Subduing the foe and overcoming resentment may truly be counted as valor." (These two sentences come from the Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa-sūtra.) He then expounded the Dharma for him. The Master asked: "What Dharma-door is it that the Great Sage has spoken? How should it be studied, and how should it be propagated?" He answered: "This is called the truth of the One Reality (eka-satya). Study it through prajñā, and propagate it through great compassion. From this day forward, in your own practice and in helping others, I shall accompany you like shadow and echo." In the eighth year, the Master stayed for the summer retreat at Folong. That year chanced to have a crop failure, and the community all came and went as they pleased. The Master, together with Huichuo, planted sesame and gathered acorns (jù is large sesame seeds; xiàng are acorn cups, the nuts of the ze tree), being content in poverty without grief. In the second month of the ninth year, the emperor issued an edict stating: "The Chan Master is a preeminent hero of the Buddha-dharma, venerated by the masters of our time. His instructions embrace both monks and laypeople; he is the hope of the state. It is fitting to allocate the tax revenues of Shifeng County (Tiantai was named Shifeng during the Six Dynasties period; tiáo is levied taxation) to supply the expenses of the community, and to exempt two households of commoners to provide firewood and water." Thereupon the community gathered once again. In the fifth month of the tenth year, Xu Ling, Left Vice Director of the Department of State Affairs, memorialized the court concerning the Master's founding of a monastery, and the name Xiuchan was bestowed upon it (Mao Xi, Minister of Personnel, wrote the seal script title; it is now called Daci). Yuan Zixiong of Chen Commandery and Yu Chong of Xinye went up the mountain, arriving just as he was lecturing on the Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa. They concentrated their minds, observed the fast, and listened to the Dharma for consecutive days. Xiong saw that in front of the hall there was a lapis-lazuli mountain shining transparently; across the secluded stream on the northern side of the mountain stretched a rainbow bridge, and several tens of Indian monks, all holding incense burners in their hands, ascended the bridge and entered the hall. Xiong told this to Chong, but Chong said he did not see it. Xiong consequently resolved to rebuild the lecture hall. Tiantai bordered the sea, and the livelihood of the people was fishing. The Master used his own robes to exhort the people to ransom a weir to make it a pond for releasing living beings. At that time Ji Xu, Administrator of Linhai, invited him to lecture on the Suvarṇaprabhāsa-sūtra. When the fishermen heard the Dharma, they all came to love life and renounce killing. They gave up sixty-three fish weirs and dams along the rivers and streams, so that more than three hundred li all became Dharma ponds. Later, Xu returned to the capital, was implicated in an affair, and was imprisoned. As he was about to face execution, he thought of the Chan Master from afar, hoping he would extend salvation. That night, he dreamed of tens of millions of fish spitting bubbles to moisten one another. The next morning, an edict was issued pardoning Xu's offense (the release pond stele in the Bailu gives his name as Jishang'er, which is probably his style). When the Master finished lecturing on the sūtra, he took a boat out of the river mouth. Looking toward Mount Furong, with its peaks towering steeply and a solitary rock overhanging, the Master said: "Long ago I dreamed of journeying on the sea, and it was just like this." One day, auspicious clouds of five colors appeared, resembling a lunar halo, shading over the monastery from afar. A flock of sparrows chattered noisily and gathered flying under the eaves. The Master said: "The fish of the river have transformed into yellow sparrows and come to show their gratitude." In the first year of Zhide (under the Last Ruler of the Chen), the emperor ordered Xu Xiaoke, Libationer of the National University, to erect a stele and compose an inscription praising his merit and virtue (the text is recorded in the Bailu). In the second year, the Prince of Yongyang (Bozhi, the younger first cousin of the Last Ruler) was stationed at Dongyang (the Biezhuan says Ouyue, which is merely a general name for the whole circuit); he sent letters three times inviting the Master, who thereupon went. He personally performed the Fangdeng repentance, lecturing by day and meditating by night. The prince, his son Chen, and his family members all received the pure precepts. The Last Ruler asked his ministers: "Among the Buddhists of today, who is the most eminent?" Xu Ling replied: "The Chan virtue of the Chan Master of Waguan is lofty and surpassing; the Prince of Yongyang personally sits at his feet facing north. We pray that Your Majesty summon him back to the capital to broadly propagate the Great Dharma." In the first month of the third year, imperial envoys were sent three times consecutively, but the Master declined each time on grounds of illness (the three edicts are all preserved in the Bailu). In the third month, the emperor further decreed that the prefecture and commandery urge and invite him (the Bailu contains the edict to Dongyang; at that time the Great Master was still staying in Dongyang). The prince urged the Master, saying: "The sovereign has humbled himself in reverence; I pray that you visit him now. If a single word proves beneficial, the four classes of living beings will rely on it forever." The Master, having no choice, went. Arriving in Jinling, he temporarily stayed at Lingyao. In the fourth month, he was summoned to the Taiji Hall to open the title of the Da zhidu lun and the title of the Renwang bore jing, after which he returned to the monastery to proceed with the lectures. At that time, the hundred seats were on the left (the Dharma masters of the high seats) and the five noble ranks on the right (the five orders of nobility: duke, marquis, earl, viscount, and baron). Huixuan, Huikuang, and Huibian were all commissioned by edict to raise difficult questions. The Son of Heaven attended the assembly to hear the Dharma, and all the civil and military officials showed the utmost reverence. At that time, many monks and nuns were idle without vocation, and it was debated at court that all those who failed the examination on the scriptures should be made to return to lay life. The Master admonished them, saying: "Devadatta recited ten thousand words a day, yet could not avoid falling into the deep; (the Zhidu lun states that Devadatta recited sixty thousand clusters of Dharma, yet together with King Ajātaśatru committed the five inexpiable offenses and fell alive into hell. This was a manifestation of great expedient means, but the Great Master cited this out of an intention to protect the Dharma through expedients;) Panthaka remembered only a single gāthā, yet attained the four fruits. (The Dharmapada Avadāna says that Panthaka was dim and obstructed, so the Buddha gave him a single gāthā: 'Guard the mouth, restrain the mind, let the body do no wrong; a practitioner like this will cross over the world.' Suddenly his mind opened and he became an arhat.) In serious discourse, how could cultivating the Way depend on extensive recitation?" The Last Ruler was greatly pleased and immediately stopped the scrutiny and dismissals. Because Lingyao was cramped, the Master wished to seek another quiet retreat. Suddenly he dreamed of a man whose entourage was solemn and dignified, who called himself Guanda and invited him to dwell at Sanqiao. The Master said: "Guanda was the Dharma name of Emperor Wu of the Liang; Sanqiao is the site of Guangzhai." When the Last Ruler heard this, he welcomed the Master to reside there. He also issued an edict saying: "Our state has traditionally held lectures on the Renwang jing twice a year. We look up to and entreat you to expound this sūtra once more in the Taiji Hall." That month, the emperor visited Guangzhai Monastery to give up his body in great donation, listened to the lecture on the Renwang jing, and personally made three prostrations. Empress Shen requested a Dharma name, and the Master answered with Haihui (Ocean of Wisdom). In the first month of the fourth year, the Crown Prince requested the Bodhisattva precepts; from the Crown Prince down, all received the precept rules (in the Nan shi his name is Shen; in the text requesting precepts in the Bailu, his name is Yuan; it is likely that on receiving the precepts, he changed to this name). In the first year of Zhemning, the Master lectured on the Lotus Sūtra at Guangzhai. At that time, Zhang'an attended the lectures (the title note of the Wenju states: 'At twenty-seven years of age, he heard and received it at Jinling; at sixty-nine, he added to and edited it at Danqiu'). In the first month of the second year, the Sui attacked the Chen, conquering the state, and all Jiangnan submitted to the Sui. Because of the warfare and chaos of the times, the Master took up his staff and went to Jing and Xiang (zhàng in the falling tone means to lean on; in the departing tone, it means the staff one leans on; here it has the sense of supporting oneself. Cè means a bamboo staff; in the Han dynasty Deng Yu leaned on his staff to follow Emperor Guangwu. Jingzhou is Hubei).