佛祖統紀 7.11

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.