佛祖統紀 7

English (machine translation) 7

Language: English

7.1

Compiled by the monk Zhipan of Donghu in Siming, Song dynasty, Jingding era

7.2

Records of the Nine Patriarchs of the Eastern Land, Part 3, Section 2 (This heading was omitted in the basic annals and is now supplied)

The Fifth Patriarch, the Venerable Guanding of Zhang'an (His master, considering this child to be extraordinary, named him after the highest stage of the bhūmis in order to encourage his progress) was of the Wu family, a native of Zhang'an in Linhai. When he was only three months old (born in the second year of Tianjia of Emperor Wen of the Chen), he could follow his mother in reciting the names of the Three Jewels. A monk passed by their gate and told his mother: 'This child is no ordinary person.' Hence he was named accordingly. At the age of seven, he entered Shejing Monastery, relying on Huizheng and memorizing ten thousand words daily. At twenty, he received full ordination. Naturally endowed with wisdom and understanding, he never forgot anything he heard once. Early in the Zhide era of the Chen (Chen Houzhu), he visited Zhiyi at Xiushan Monastery, received the methods of contemplation, and after studying and investigating for a long time, suddenly received approval. He became his attendant, following him wherever he stayed, and was able to comprehend all the Dharma teachings spoken. In the first year of Zhenming, he accompanied Zhiyi to stay at Guangzhai Monastery in Jinling to hear the lecture on the Lotus Sūtra. (The commentary on the Wenju says: 'At twenty-seven, he heard and received it in Jinling.') In the summer of the thirteenth year of Kaihuang of the Sui (Emperor Wen of the Sui), he received the Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra (Fahua xuanyi) at Yuquan in Jiangling. (He was then thirty-three; this is what is meant by 'Next, being in Jiangling, he reverently received the Xuanyi.') In the summer of the fourteenth year, he received the Perfect and Sudden Calming and Contemplation (Yuandun zhiguan) at Yuquan. (This is what is meant by 'One summer of expounding, two periods of compassionate rain.') As for lectures in other places, while listening and receiving them, he compiled them all into collections, amounting to over one hundred fascicles of larger and smaller works; that these were transmitted to those who had not yet heard them was entirely the master's achievement. In the first month of the eighteenth year, the master, together with Puming, carried Zhiyi's testamentary letter from Tiantai to Yangzhou to see the Prince of Jin and presented the Vimalakīrti Commentary (Jingming yishu). In the second month, the prince dispatched the envoy Wang Hong to escort them back to the mountain, held a feast for a thousand monks on Zhiyi's behalf, and began work on constructing Guoqing Monastery. In the first year of Renshou, when the Prince of Jin became Crown Prince, the master and Zhizao presented a memorial in Chang'an to offer congratulations and express gratitude for building the monastery. Zhang Heng, Right Supervisor of the Household, proclaimed an order inquiring about the miraculous events following Zhiyi's passing, to which he replied with five events (fully recorded in the Bailu). The Crown Prince, filled with mixed sorrow and joy, dispatched the Sanqi Changshi Zhang Qianzhen to the mountain to hold a feast for a thousand monks. In the fourth month of the second year, he dispatched Zhang Xie, an administrative assistant of Yangzhou, to the mountain to proclaim an order: Masters Daozhuang and Falun of Huiri Bodhimaṇḍa (in the Sui, monasteries were renamed bodhimaṇḍas; this monastery was in the Eastern Capital; the two masters appear in the Tang Further Biographies of Eminent Monks) were to lecture on the Vimalakīrti Sūtra in the Eastern Palace entirely using Zhiyi's commentary for judgment and interpretation; someone among the monastery assembly who thoroughly knew the Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra should be ordered to bring the commentary to the capital. The assembly nominated the master to accompany the envoy in response to the order. In the eighth month, an envoy was sent to escort the master back to the mountain. In the tenth year of Daye of Emperor Yang (he was then forty-five), he wrote the two fascicles of the Profound Meaning of the Nirvāṇa Sūtra (Niepan xuanyi) and its twenty-fascicle commentary. At that time, at the end of the Sui, warfare broke out and bandits arose everywhere. The master's own preface states: 'Investigating the sacred text took a full five years. In which year was there no sight of military fire? In which month was there no sight of weapons? Eating wild greens and taking water-abstinence, on an icy bed and under snowy blankets—such were the hardships!' When the commentary was completed, it was cast into a blazing fire and did not burn. In his later years, the master lectured on the Lotus Sūtra at Chengxin Hermitage in Kuaiji. Contemporary people praised him with the saying, 'He surpasses Lang, overshadows Ji, exceeds Yun, and overtens Yin.' (Master Lang of Xinghuang, Huiji of Shanyin in the Qi who wrote a commentary on the Lotus, and Fayun of Guangzhai in the Liang who composed a commentary and lectured on the sūtra, all appear in the Tang Further Biographies of Eminent Monks; Master Yin is not clearly known.) In the commandery, Jizang of Jiaxiang had previously written a commentary explaining the Lotus Sūtra; hearing of Zhang'an's teaching, he ceased his lecturing, dispersed his assembly, bowed at his feet to request instruction, and deeply repented the errors of his previous works. On the seventh day of the eighth month in the sixth year of Zhenguan of the Tang, he passed away at Guoqing Monastery, at the age of seventy-two, with fifty-two rains retreats. When he first manifested illness, a strange fragrance filled the room. On the verge of passing away, he instructed his disciples: 'The Maitreya Sūtra states that when the World-Honoured One entered extinction, much renowned incense was burned, its smoke like clouds. You may now burn much incense; I am about to depart.' He then gave detailed testamentary instructions, his words and reasoning extremely earnest. Suddenly he rose, joined his palms as if in reverence, recited the names of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the Pure Land, and quietly passed away. Prior to this, in the first year of Zhenguan, his fellow student Zhixi said on his deathbed: 'I was born in Tuṣita and saw our late teacher Zhiyi. Among the rows of jeweled seats, all were occupied, with only one seat vacant. That deva said: "Six years from now, Dharma Master [Guan]ding will come to ascend this seat."' Calculating the years and determining the date, Zhixi was confirmed not to have been mistaken. On the ninth day of that month, he was interred on the south mountain of the monastery. While living at Guoqing, an old man fell ill, and a hundred medicines could not cure him. His son sought help from the master, who immediately burned incense and chanted the Lotus Sūtra; the sick man smelled the fragrance into his nostrils, and his illness was cured. South of Le'an Ridge in Xianju is Anzhou, where the mountain stream was swift and torrential, drowning people every year. The master vowed: 'If this stream becomes smooth and calm, I shall lecture on the sūtra here.' Within ten days, white sand surged up everywhere, as smooth as a jade mirror. He then lectured on the Suvarṇaprabhāsa and Lotus Sūtras to repay the spiritual kindness. Once, when he was lecturing on the Nirvāṇa Sūtra at Shejing Monastery, a band of bandits suddenly arrived; seeing at the monastery gate banners blazing like the sun and divine soldiers holding weapons over ten feet tall, the bandit mob was terrified and fled in disarray. The locals therefore called it Mountain Soldiers Monastery. Whenever he recited sūtras or sat in calm meditation, heavenly flowers would often drift down beside him. He authored: Essentials of the Eight Teachings, Alternative Biography of Zhiyi, one fascicle each; Commentary on the Contemplation of the Mind, two fascicles; Hundred Records of Guoqing, five fascicles; Profound Meaning of the Nirvāṇa Sūtra, two fascicles; Commentary on the Nirvāṇa Sūtra, twenty fascicles; Biography of Dharma Master Zhenguan, and Records of Nanyue, one fascicle each. The King of Wuyue petitioned for the posthumous title of Venerable Dhāraṇī Master. (Drawn from the Hundred Records, Biographies of the Nine Patriarchs, Biographies of Eminent Monks, and Notes on the Three Commentaries.)

7.4

The appraisal says: Formerly, Zhiyi was sent by the Buddha to bestow upon our Cīnasthāna the purport of the Lotus Sūtra that he had personally heard on Vulture Peak. He thus unfolded the eight teachings and illuminated the three contemplations, giving full scope to his eloquence in preaching to accommodate those of matching capacity; this was proper. As for the responsibility of transmitting and propagating it in later generations, it was Zhang'an who attended at his right side, and with the talent of remembering everything upon a single hearing—(In ancient times Henan had Yibianzhao [One-Hearing Zhao], and Puzhou had Butingtai [Never-Listens Tai])—recorded them into treatises and commentaries to hand down to the future. His merit and virtue were nearly equal to that of Ānanda's compilation! Without Zhang'an, I fear the Way of Zhiyi would have ceased to be heard today.

7.5

The Sixth Patriarch, the Venerable Fahua, Zhiwei, had the family name Jiang and was a native of Jinyun in Chuzhou. His mother was of the Zhu clan. For generations his family had been Confucian scholars. At the age of eighteen, he became the head of students (an office of the commandery school) of his native commandery. His parents bade him return home to take a wife. On the road he met an Indian monk who said to him, 'Young man, what mind have you to violate your solemn vows of the past?' Thereupon he showed him his five vows, which said: 'First, I vow to maintain right mindfulness at the end of life. Second, I vow not to fall into the three miserable destinies. Third, I vow to take birth among human beings. Fourth, I vow to leave household life as a youth. Fifth, I vow not to be a monk of worldly fashion.' For in his previous life he had been Xu Ling, who had listened to Zhiyi expounding the sūtras and attained deep understanding, personally making these vows before Zhiyi. Having heard his vows, the Master did not return home, but went directly to Guoqing [Monastery] to place himself under Zhang'an as his teacher. After receiving the full precepts, he inquired after and received the essentials of the mind; both concentration and wisdom burst forth, and he immediately realized the Lotus Samādhi. In the first year of the Shangyuan reign of the Tang (Gaozong), wishing to divine an auspicious site to expound the Dharma and save people, he held his monk's staff and vowed, 'Wherever my staff comes to rest shall be my dwelling place.' His staff flew from Guoqing to Mount Putong on Cangling (the boundary between Taizhou and Wuzhou), some five hundred li away. Because it was narrow and could not accommodate a great multitude, he cast it into the air again, and it reached Mount Xuanyuan Liandan. Having arrived there, the Master cut away thorns, mowed the reeds, spread brushwood for a seat, and gathered stones as disciples. By day he expounded the teachings and by night sat in meditation, copying the scriptures of the canon by hand. He then named the place Fahua ('Lotus'). Before long, learners came like children [gathering around a father]: three hundred practiced meditation and seven hundred listened to the lectures. They were regularly divided into nine places for the retreat. The Master was seven feet tall, with an ancient and refined skeletal frame. Whenever he ascended the seat, a purple cloud covered his crown, shaped like a jeweled canopy. Birds perched at his side just like domestic fowl. The community suffered from a lack of water; he dug a stone well only three feet deep, which supplied a thousand people daily and never dried up, winter or summer. From Fahua to Shangban in Xianju (Xianju was an administrative district of Taizhou; 'ban' [阪] is the same as 'ban' [坂], meaning a slope; pronounced fan) was about eighty li. The Master traveled back and forth every day, yet was never slightly late for meals, meditation, or lectures. Everyone said he possessed the supernatural power of swift travel. On the twenty-eighth day of the eleventh month in the first year of the Yonglong reign, he sat cross-legged in the meditation hall and passed away. The extraordinary fragrance did not cease for seven days. (From the initial construction of the monastery in the first year of Shangyuan until his entering into extinction in the first year of Yonglong, it was merely seven years.) On that day, the multitude saw him pass away sitting in the monastery, while the people of Shangban saw the Master going to a donor's house. The arising and extinction of a perfect person are unfathomable like this. Although many received the Dharma from him, only Master Tiangong Wei was his true successor. During the reign of Emperor Taizong, his renown and virtue reached the imperial hearing; he was summoned and appointed Grand Master of Closing Court, and enfeoffed as a 'Great Master of the Four' (Elders pass down the tradition that the Tang had four Great Masters, meaning the Imperial Chariot Escort Great Master, the State-Protecting Great Master, while the other two have not been heard of. Now, investigating the biographies of monks of the Sui and Tang in detail, there is only the title of Imperial Chariot Escort, and of these officials there were four). The King of Wuyue requested the posthumous title 'Venerable Xuanda'. In the first year of the Huangyou reign of the Song dynasty, Wu Zhi, magistrate of Xianju, rebuilt the hall and courtyard at the site where he had transmitted the Way and enshrined his true image. That night, a tiger circled the hall three times and departed. In the fifth year of the Yuanfeng reign, Dharma Master Zhong, his descendant in the thirteenth generation, bowed in person to his relics, embellished his stūpa, and recorded his actual conduct, writing: 'The Master and Tiangong carried out their transformations at the same time; both received official titles and succeeded to the position of patriarch. If counted horizontally, they form only eight generations, but if distinguished vertically, there are nine generations. In ancient times, when the Tathāgata entered nirvāṇa, Ānanda compiled the teachings and produced two disciples: one named Śāṇavāsa and one named Madhyāntika. Although they dwelt in different countries, their teaching and transformation were the same. Therefore, in the transmission of the Dharma treasury, they are horizontally arrayed as twenty-three, and vertically distinguished as twenty-four. Now, when Zhiyi manifested extinction, Zhang'an compiled the teachings and produced two disciples, also at the same time. When Ānanda compiled the teachings, King Ajātaśatru sent offerings for one summer retreat; when Zhang'an compiled the teachings, Emperor Yang sent offerings for ten years. Tracing the stream back to its source, Zhiyi is like a Buddha in the eastern land; Zhang'an is similar to Ānanda; the two Weis are also like Śāṇavāsa and Madhyāntika; and Emperor Yang's external protection is identical to King Ajātaśatru. How could one not believe this?' To this day, no spring grass grows on the old site where the Master used to sit in meditation.

7.6

The appraisal says: The world says that Xu Ling made five vows before Zhiyi, and having changed his life-form was able to leave home, study the Way, realize the Lotus Samādhi, and succeed to the patriarchal throne. Now, examining the text of the vows in detail, how could it be that his intention was not profound yet what he attained was even superior? They simply do not know that at the identical assembly on Vulture Peak, all attained entry. Therefore, by the power and function of sovereignty, they could either manifest the body of an official or display the appearance of a monk. The former Xu Ling and the present Fahua: their great expedients benefited beings, and they arose in accordance with their vows. How could one compare them to those who receive retribution based on the blessings of worldly officialdom? This meaning has two aspects, the provisional and the real; only those who understand the teachings can know it.

7.7

The Seventh Patriarch, the Venerable Tiangong, Huiwei, had the family name Liu and was a native of Dongyang in Wuzhou. At the age of wearing his hair in tufts, he deeply abhorred this wearying life, and thereupon entered the empty gate, shaving his hair and receiving the full precepts. Hearing that Fahua was greatly propagating the Way of Tiantai, he went there to receive instruction, intently dedicating himself to the methods of meditation. Striving day and night solely in the Dharma gate of the threefold contemplation, he suddenly attained awakening. People of the time saw that he had deeply entered Master Wei's inner chamber, and thereupon called him 'Lesser Master Wei'. Later he returned to dwell in Dongyang, living deep in the valleys and rarely mingling in human affairs. After Fahua entered extinction, those who came to his gate to seek the Way were beyond count. The only one to whom he specifically transmitted the Dharma was Zuoxi. During the reign of Emperor Gaozong, the Master, together with Fahua, was enfeoffed as Grand Master of Closing Court and Great Master of the Four. The King of Wuyue requested the posthumous title 'Venerable Quanzhen'.

7.8

The appraisal says: Some, seeing Master Liang's statement in the general rules of his lineage that the two Weis 'transmitted it in silence and their teaching was not practiced', then conclude that they were taciturn, without words, and merely sat in realization. However, this remark of Master Liang's was meant to magnify the grandeur of Jingxi's composing texts and propagating the Way, and thus he expediently assigned weight to one and lightened the other. In essence, lecturing on the sūtras and sitting in meditation were never not practiced side by side. Were it not so, for what purpose would a thousand people have listened and studied under Fahua, and countless people have sought the Way under Tiangong? From this we know that to say their teaching was not practiced is an overstatement.

7.9

The Eighth Patriarch, the Venerable Zuoxi, Xuanlang (sharing his upper and lower characters with the taboo name of the Holy Ancestor of the reigning dynasty), had the courtesy name Huiming. He was a native of Dongyang in Wuzhou, of the Fu clan, and a sixth-generation descendant of the Mahāsattva of Shuanglin. His mother, of the Ge clan, conceived him upon sensing an extraordinary dream (he was born in the eighteenth year of the Zhenguan reign of Emperor Taizong of the Tang). Once born, he never cried like an infant; whenever he saw people, his face was filled with joyful smiles. At the age of nine (the second year of the Yonghui reign of Emperor Gaozong), he pursued his studies at Qingtai Monastery, reciting more than seven sheets of sūtra text daily. In the second year of the Ruoyi reign of Empress Wu of the Tang (at the age of fifty), he shaved his head and received the precepts. Hearing that Tiantai was vigorously propagating cessation and contemplation, he went there to study. Before long, he comprehended the central tenets of this one house without remainder. He always practiced the ascetic practices with the eighteen requisites, relying on rock caves to establish a monastery, facing a row of emerald peaks with an azure stream winding to the left; thus he styled himself 'Zuoxi' ('Left Stream'). He often said, 'Springs and rocks can wash away obscurity and darkness; clouds and pines can make one forget body and world.' He constantly dwelt in quietude in a single room, considering it to possess the expanse of the Dharma realm. His mind never departed from samādhi, and his mouth never tasted medicine; in his advanced age he was just as in his prime. He crumpled paper for clothing and scooped from the stream to drink. When he washed his bowl, troops of monkeys vied to hold it; when he chanted the sūtras, flocks of birds circled above. He dwelt in seclusion in the forest valleys, finding deep joy in it. One day, a blind dog reached the mountain, howled lengthily, and prostrated on the ground. The Master performed repentance on its behalf; within ten days, both its eyes were bright. Whenever he knelt upright in prayer, he vowed to be born in the inner courtyard of Tuṣita; in the brief moment of gathering his thoughts, he suddenly elicited relics falling from the sky. (During the Tianbao reign a stūpa was built to house and enshrine them. When the Huichang persecution destroyed the monasteries, the monks sealed and concealed them. In the sixth year of the Kaibao reign of the present dynasty, a stūpa was rebuilt to enshrine them at the southeastern corner of his home mountain.) In the sixteenth year of the Kaiyuan reign, the prefect Wang Zhengrong repeatedly invited him to enter the city, hoping to draw near to the joy of the Dharma; the Master did not wish to go teach, and declined on the grounds of illness. He was a fellow disciple of Zhenjue of Yongjia. He once sent a letter inviting Jue to dwell in the mountains; Jue replied in over a thousand words, containing the phrase: 'Clamor is not in the marketplace; quietude is not in the mountain.' (The present Yongjia ji contains the 'Letter in Reply to a Friend'. In recent times, when Zuoxi was residing in the mountain, Qingmu printed the two letters on the mountain, and prefaced them, saying: 'Zuoxi and Yongjia shared the same Way. Zuoxi's words were not born of ignorance; he was merely trying to provoke him. Yongjia's words were not a rebuke; he merely had an explanation to make. This is something ordinary people cannot understand; to argue to the contrary is delusion.') The monastery where the Master lived did not face directly south. Wishing to move the hall and statues, which was arduous work, he directed it with his walking staff; the workmen followed his orders, and before long, the old structure stood augustly. The mountain springs frequently ran dry, which the multitude considered a hardship; he raised his staff and struck the rock, and a spring gushed forth. He once built two stūpas, and for all the painting work, fragrant decoction was boiled and no ox glue was used (this followed the method for painting images from the various Avalokiteśvara dhāraṇī sūtras). On the nineteenth day of the ninth month in the thirteenth year of the Tianbao reign, he summoned his disciples and said to them: 'My Way of the six identities is complete; among the ten thousand practices, there is nothing to be attained. The precepts are the root of the mind; take them as your teacher.' He then sat upright and bade eternal farewell. He was eighty-two years of age, with thirty-one Dharma years. A disciple dreamed that he was dwelling in the fourth level of a jeweled pavilion; on awakening he told his neighbor, whose dream was also in concord. At that time, it was taken to represent the inner courtyard of the Benevolent One in the Fourth Heaven. After his cremation, the disciples divided his relics into two portions: one stūpa was on the western plateau of Zuoxi, honoring the bequeathed system of the semblance Dharma; one stūpa was on the eastern plateau of Dongyang, consoling the later longing of the townsfolk. Li Hua, director of the bureau of honors, composed an inscription for him, saying: 'Twelve people received the Dharma; his true successor was Jingxi. Those who transmitted the Way to Silla were Beop-yung, I-eung, and Sun-yeong.' He composed the Outline of the Lotus Sūtra in two fascicles, and revised the Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra. The King of Wuyue requested the posthumous title 'Venerable Mingjue'.

7.10

The appraisal says: The prefect Zhang Chengqi recorded his conduct, saying: 'The Master taught people untiringly and did not wait for a crowd to lecture. A single uttarāsaṅga served him for over forty years, and a single niṣīdana remained unchanged throughout his life. His food had no duplicate flavors, and his dwelling was always in a side room. Unless investigating sūtras and treatises, he would not light a single lamp in vain; unless paying homage to the sacred countenance, he would not take a single step in vain. He never spoke a single sentence of Dharma for the sake of profit; he never received a single hair's worth of wealth on account of the Dharma. Consequently, he drew dragon-elephants from distant regions and elders from neighboring territories, who vied to advance before him, filling the gate and packing the room, just as the winter sun and summer shade arrive of themselves without being summoned.' ('Die' [耋] is pronounced tie, meaning eighty years old.)

7.11

The Ninth Patriarch, the Venerable Zhanran of Jingxi, was surnamed Qi. His family had resided for generations in Jingxi of Jinling. People of the time revered his Way and therefore took it as his title. His family originally studied Confucianism; thus his early studies were precociously completed. Among children, he was extraordinary and possessed the ambition to transcend the worldly. At the age of seventeen (born in the second year of the Jingyun reign of Emperor Ruizong, reaching seventeen in the fifteenth year of the Kaiyuan reign of Emperor Xuanzong), he traveled to the right bank of the Zhe River to seek the Way. Meeting Fangyan of Jinhua, he was instructed in the methods of calming and contemplation (śamatha-vipaśyanā). In the eighteenth year of the Kaiyuan reign, he first studied under Zuoxi (being twenty years of age at the time). Zuoxi spoke with him and recognized him as a vessel for the Way. Zuoxi once said to the Master: 'What dreams have you had?' He answered: 'The other night, I dreamt that, wearing monastic robes and tucking two wheels under my arms, I was traveling across a great river.' Zuoxi said: 'Aha! Ought you not to ferry the multitude of beings across the abyss of birth and death using the two methods of calming and contemplation?' Thereupon, wearing a layman's robe, he received the teachings of doctrine and contemplation. In the seventh year of the Tianbao era, he first took off his scholar's robes and donned the saṃghāṭī (at the age of thirty-eight, receiving instruction at Jingle Temple in Junshan township, Yixing; the scholar's gown is the plain clothing of a Confucian, and the saṃghāṭī is translated as 'great robe', consisting of twenty-five strips). Soon after, he went to Kuaiji to study under Vinaya Master Yi, thoroughly investigating the Vinaya Piṭaka. After a long time, he expounded calming and contemplation at Wumen. After Master Zuoxi passed away in the Kaiyuan era, the Master carried the esoteric treasury and alone steered it through the southeast. He said to his disciples: 'How difficult it is for the Way to be practiced! I know it. The consummate beings of antiquity, in stillness, contemplated its return, and in movement, responded to things; abiding in neither, they stepped onto the great path. People of today either dissipate themselves in emptiness or cling fast to existence. Damaging themselves and damaging others, the application of the Way is not vitalized. If one wishes to take the correct path, whom else could they turn to if not me?' Thereupon he broadly opened up the wondrous Dharma and comprehensively arrayed the myriad practices, gathering all appearances entirely into the uninterrupted. Relying on the written word to achieve contemplation, he guided speech and silence to return to the source. He then transmitted what had been handed down by the patriarchs, authoring subcommentaries that amounted to several hundred thousand words, causing the round and sudden teachings of this single lineage to all return to orthodoxy. He often reflected that in the more than a hundred years since Zhiyi refuted the northern and southern schools, all those who studied Buddhism claimed to promote both samādhi and wisdom, and to illuminate the One Vehicle in its entirety, without initially having the defect of a single wheel or a lone wing. Yet since the Tang, those who transmitted the robe and bowl arose from Yuling, and those who discussed the Dharmadhātu and elucidated names and characteristics flourished in Chang'an. These three all had conduct in the Way that was towering, with their reputations spreading into the imperial palace, becoming models for emperors; thus they were able to aggrandize their learning and establish their own lineages. However, in their reliance on the sūtras, promotion of the treatises, and doctrinal classifications, they had no proper destination. Those who lectured on the Huayan revered only their own Buddha; those who read Yogācāra did not acknowledge other sūtras; and as for the special transmission outside the teachings, it was nothing but arbitrary personal opinion. The Master traced back their doctrines, debating and criticizing them in works such as The Gold Spatula and The Model of Meanings, which were all akin to Mencius's words honouring the Way of Confucius and refuting Yang Zhu and Mozi. Those who understood remarked that had Jingxi not been born, the round meaning would have been submerged forever. Between the Tianbao and Dali eras (under the three reigns of Xuanzong, Suzong, and Daizong), the imperial court issued three summons, but he declined them all on grounds of illness and did not rise. The Master initially resided in Lanling. Once, together with forty renowned monks from the Jiang-Huai region, he paid homage at Mount Wutai. Hanguang, a disciple of Tripiṭaka Master Amoghavajra, reported to the Master: 'Recently, when I traveled with Amoghavajra through Tianzhu, I met an Indian monk who said: "I have heard that in the Great Tang there are doctrinal traces of Tiantai by which one can distinguish the partial and the round, discriminate the heterodox and the orthodox, and illuminate calming and contemplation. Could they be translated and brought to this land?"' When the Master heard this, he sighed and said: 'One might say that the Central Kingdom has lost the Dharma and seeks it in the four directions' (Zuozhuan: Confucius said, 'When the Son of Heaven loses his officers, the learning resides among the four barbarian tribes.' The Preface to the Biographies of the Eastern Barbarians in the Hou Han shu states, 'When the Central Kingdom loses ritual, it seeks it among the four barbarian tribes'). In his later years, he returned to the peak of Tiantai. He wore coarse cloth and stayed on a single couch, instructing others by personal example without wearying in his advanced years. Amidst major wars and great famines, his students became ever more numerous, looking toward his chamber as their refuge. On the fifth day of the second month in the third year of the Jianzhong era (under Dezong), he manifested illness at Folong. He said to his disciples: 'The Way has no location, and the nature has no physical substance. Life or death, their principle is one and continuous. I shall return my bones to this mountain; my retribution is exhausted this evening. I must speak of the Way with you and make an end of it. Indeed, the signlessness of a single thought is called emptiness; the complete presence of all dharmas is called provisionality; being neither identical nor different is called the middle. In ordinary beings, these are the three causes; in sages, they are the three virtues. When burning a wick, the first and last moments share the same appearance; when wading through the sea, the shallow and deep are of different currents. Benefiting oneself and benefiting others lies merely in this. Bear it in mind!' Having finished speaking, he leaned on his table and passed away. His age was seventy-two, with forty-three monastic years. His disciples enshrined his whole-body stūpa at the southwest corner of the domain of Zhiyi's burial mound. He authored: Subcommentary on the Lotus (Fahua shiqian), Subcommentary on the Words and Phrases (Wenju ji), Supplementary Practices of the Great Calming and Contemplation (Zhiguan fuxing), and Search for the Profound in the Great Calming and Contemplation (Zhiguan souxuan ji), each in ten fascicles; Words and Phrases of Calming and Contemplation (Zhiguan wenju) in one fascicle, delivered for Director of the Bureau of Honours Li Hua; General Purport of Calming and Contemplation (Zhiguan dayi) in one fascicle; the separately circulated Ten Non-Dual Gates of the Subcommentary; The Gold Spatula (Jingangpi); The Model of Meanings of Calming and Contemplation (Zhiguan yili); The Meaning of the Three Contemplations; Commentary on the Latter Part of the Nirvāṇa Sūtra; Record of Reciting Sūtras with the Mind Contemplated; Protocol for Conferring the Bodhisattva Precepts; and Essentials of the Mind from Beginning to End, each in one fascicle; Abridged Commentary on the Vimalakīrti (Lüe Jingming shu) in ten fascicles and its Record (Ji) in three fascicles; Record of the Expanded Commentary on the Vimalakīrti (Jingming guangshu ji) in six fascicles; Revised and Settled Commentary on the Nirvāṇa Sūtra in fifteen fascicles; the Syllabus of the Words and Phrases and the Syllabus of Calming and Contemplation, each in six fascicles; Core Framework of the Huayan (Huayan gumu) in two fascicles; Auxiliary Ritual for the Lotus Samādhi and Auxiliary Ritual for Contemplation of the Mind, each in one fascicle; and Auxiliary Ritual for the Vaipulya Repentance in two fascicles. His disciple Liang Su composed the stele inscription for the Master and evaluated him, saying: 'When sages do not arise, there must emerge renowned individuals of their age. From Zhiyi's transmission of the Dharma to Zhāng'ān, and from Zhāng'ān through two generations down to Zuoxi, the illumination of the Way was as if dimmed, waiting for the Master to shine forth. Riding upon this jewel vehicle, there was a magnificent revival. Truly, thirty-nine persons received instruction and mastered it personally, while of the scholar-officials of high rank and elevated fame, several tens more bowed their bodies to receive his teachings' (The Records of the Grand Historian, 'Hereditary House of Confucius', states: 'The disciples were about three thousand, and seventy-two personally mastered the six arts.' Here, 'received instruction and mastered it personally' refers to mastering the path of doctrine and contemplation; the claim by some that it refers to manifesting supernormal powers in the flesh is devoid of sense). Wu-Yue thrice requested the posthumous title 'Venerable Yuantong'. Early in the Yuanyou era of the present dynasty, Dharma Master Zhong of Yongjia sent a disciple to sweep the stūpa. The weeds and brambles were so overgrown that it could not be identified. Thereupon, consulting Liang's stele, he searched and found it a hundred paces from the Great Master's burial ground. Its shrine was already empty, with only a piece of frankincense inside. That night, he dreamt that the Mountain God of Xuanbi said to him: 'Yesterday, the heavenly deities sent many beings to take away the whole body. There is no need to hesitate.' Thereupon, on the old foundation, they erected a stone stūpa to mark it.

7.12

The appraisal states: Commentaries (shu) are to expound the sūtras, and subcommentaries (ji) are to explain the commentaries. It is precisely because of this that the essential meaning first attains consummate appropriateness, and later generations are enabled to uphold the orthodox explanations. How great are the texts of the Shiqian, Miaole, and Fuxing! In their capacity to bring forth the Way of Tiantai, who would not call his meritorious deeds abundant? Had there not been Jingxi, then the followers of Cien and Nanshan, who engaged in arbitrary disputation thereafter, would have been able to run rampant and mislead the multitude. The Master's words say: 'If one wishes to take the correct path, whom else could they turn to if not me?' Truly is this so! It is a precious instruction. The main record mentions that several tens of scholar-officials received his instruction; thus we know that in those days the Confucian masters and gentlemen who studied this Way were so numerous. Today, we hear only of three or four, such as Liang and Li. How regrettable!

7.13

Fozu tongji, Fascicle 7 (End).

Linked texts (1)

佛祖統紀 — 志磐, Classical Chinese