佛祖歷代通載 18.55

18.55

（二十一　甲子　八一）　是年汾陽善昭禪師示寂。生俞氏。太原人也。器識沈邃不緣飾。有大志。於一切文字。不由師訓自然通曉。年十四父母俱喪。孤苦厭世相。薙髮受具杖策遊方。所至少留。不喜觀覽。或譏其不韻。昭嘆曰。是何言之陋哉。從上先德行脚。正以聖心未通馳求決擇爾。不緣山水也。師歷諸方見老宿七十一人。皆妙得其家風。尤喜論曹洞。石門徹禪師者。蓋其派之魁奇者。昭作五位偈示之曰。五位參尋切要知。纖毫纔動即差違。金剛透匣誰能曉。唯有那吒第一機。舉目便令三界靜。振鈴還使九天歸。正中妙挾通回互。擬議鋒鋩失却威。徹拊掌稱善。然終疑臨濟兒孫別有奇處。最後至首山。問百丈卷席意旨如何。曰龍袖拂開全體現。昭曰。師意如何。曰象王行處絕狐踪。於是大悟言下。拜起而曰。萬古碧潭空界月。再三撈摝始應知。有問者曰。見何道理便爾自肯。曰正是我放身命處。服勤甚久。辭去遊湘衡間。長沙太守張公茂宗。以四名剎請昭擇之而居。昭笑一夕遯去。北抵襄沔寓止白馬。太守劉公昌言聞之造謁。以見晚為嘆。時洞山谷隱皆虛席。密議歸昭。太守請擇之。昭以手揶揄曰。我長行粥飯僧。傳佛心宗非細職也。前後八請堅臥不起。淳化四年首山歿。西河道俗千餘人協心削牘遣沙門契聰迎請。住持汾州太平寺太子院。昭閉關高枕。聰排闥而入讓之曰。佛法大事。靜退小節。風穴懼應讖。憂宗旨墜滅。幸而有先師。先師已棄世。汝有力荷擔如來大法者。今何時而欲安眠哉昭矍起握聰手曰。非公不聞此語。趨辦嚴吾行矣。既至宴坐一榻足不越閫者三十年。天下道俗慕仰不敢名。同曰汾州。并汾地苦寒。昭罷夜參。有梵僧振錫而至。謂昭曰。會中有大士六人。奈何不說法。言訖升空而去。昭密記以偈曰。胡僧金錫光。請法到汾陽。六人成大器。勸請為敷揚。時楚圓守芝號上首。叢林知名。龍德府尹。李侯與昭有舊。虛承天致之。使三反不赴。使者受罰。復至曰。必欲得師俱往。不然有死而已。昭笑曰。老病業已不出院。借往當先後之何必俱耶。使曰。師諾則先後唯所擇。昭令饌設且俶裝曰。吾先行矣。停箸而化。閱世七十有八。坐六十五夏。

(21. Jiazi, 81) In this year, Chan Master Shanzhao of Fenyang showed his passing. He was born into the Yu family and was a native of Taiyuan. His capacity and understanding were profound, free from artificial embellishment, and he harboured great aspiration. In all written texts, he attained spontaneous comprehension without relying on a teacher's instruction. At the age of fourteen, both his parents died. Solitary and grieving, he grew weary of worldly phenomena, shaved his head, received the full precepts, and took up his staff to travel as an itinerant monk. Wherever he arrived, he lingered little, disliking sightseeing. Some mocked him for lacking cultural refinement. Zhao sighed and said, "How vulgar is such talk! When the ancient worthies of old went on pilgrimage, it was precisely because their sage-minds were not yet penetrated that they galloped in pursuit of decision; it was never for the sake of mountains and rivers." The Master visited seventy-one senior masters across various regions, wonderfully grasping the style of each house. He was particularly fond of discussing Caodong. Chan Master Che of Shimen was an outstanding figure of that lineage. Zhao composed a verse on the Five Ranks and showed it to him, which said:
"When investigating the Five Ranks, you must know with utmost care;
The slightest stir of a hair's breadth is an immediate error.
Who can comprehend the vajra piercing its scabbard?
Only Nezha commands the foremost pivot.
Raising an eye makes the three realms still;
Shaking a bell turns the nine heavens back.
Subtly embraced in the straight, it penetrates mutual integration;
If deliberation turns to sharp points, its majesty is lost."
Che clapped his hands and praised it, yet he still harboured doubts that the descendants of Linji possessed some other unique feature. Finally, he went to Shoushan and asked, "What was the meaning of Baizhang's rolling up the mat?" [Shoushan] replied, "The dragon's sleeve brushes open, and the entire body appears." Zhao asked, "What is your intention, Master?" [Shoushan] said, "Where the elephant king walks, the tracks of foxes are severed." Thereupon he experienced great awakening upon these words. He bowed, stood up, and said:
"For ten thousand kalpas, the moon in the realm of empty space on the jade-green pool;
Only after fishing for it again and again should one truly know."
Someone asked, "What principle did you see that caused you to acknowledge it yourself?" He replied, "It was precisely the place where I cast down my body and life." Having served diligently for a long time, he took his leave and wandered through Xiang and Heng. Zhang Maocong, the prefect of Changsha, offered Zhao four renowned monasteries to choose from as his residence. Zhao laughed, and one evening he fled away. Heading north, he reached Xiangmian and lodged at Baima. Prefect Liu Changyan heard of him, came to pay a call, and sighed that they had met so late. At that time, Dongshan and Guyin both had vacant abbeys. There was a secret deliberation to entrust them to Zhao, and the prefect requested that he choose. Zhao waved his hand in jest and said, "I am merely a wandering monk who eats porridge and rice. Transmitting the Buddha-mind school is no minor office." Although invited eight times before and after, he lay firmly and would not rise. In the fourth year of Chunhua, Shoushan died. More than a thousand clergy and laity of Xihe coordinated their efforts, carved wooden petitions, and sent the śramaṇa Qicong to welcome and invite him to take up the abbacy of the Prince's Cloister at Taiping Temple in Fenzhou. Zhao shut his gates and rested with his head high. Cong kicked open the door, entered, and rebuked him, saying, "The Buddha-dharma is a great matter; quiet withdrawal is a minor integrity. Fengxue feared fulfilling the prophecy and worried that the ancestral lineage would fall into ruin. Fortunately, there was our late master; now our late master has already departed this world. You have the strength to shoulder the great Dharma of the Tathāgata—what time is it now that you wish to sleep in peace?" Zhao startled up, grasped Cong's hand, and said, "Were it not for you, I would never have heard these words. Make haste and prepare my departure." After arriving, he sat in peaceful meditation upon a single couch, his feet not stepping across the threshold for thirty years. The world's clergy and laity admired and revered him, not daring to speak his name, but collectively calling him "Fenzhou." The region of Bing and Fen was bitterly cold, and Zhao suspended the evening assemblies. A monk from Tianzhu arrived shaking his staff, and said to Zhao, "There are six mahāsattvas in your assembly; why do you not expound the Dharma?" Having finished speaking, he ascended into the sky and left. Zhao secretly recorded it in a verse, saying:
"The golden staff of the foreign monk gleamed;
He came to Fenyang to request the Dharma:
'Six men will become great vessels;
I urge and invite you to expound it.'"
At that time, Chuyuan and Shouzhi were regarded as the foremost leaders, well known throughout the monasteries. Li, the Prefect of Longde, had an old acquaintance with Zhao and vacated Chengtian [Temple] to invite him. The emissary went back and forth three times, but Zhao would not proceed. The emissary was punished, returned again, and said, "I must have you come with me, Master; otherwise, there is only death." Zhao laughed and said, "I am old and ill, and have already ceased leaving the monastery. If I were to go, we could simply go one before the other; why must we go together?" The emissary said, "If you consent, Master, whether earlier or later is entirely up to you." Zhao ordered food to be served and prepared his luggage, saying, "I will go first." He set down his chopsticks and passed away. He lived seventy-eight years, with sixty-five summer retreats.