[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Buddhist Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha) › [Taishō Tripiṭaka (Chinese Buddhist canon)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho) › [佛祖歷代通載](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2036) › 19.39 # 佛祖歷代通載 19.39 佛祖歷代通載 19.39 - **Language:** Classical Chinese ### [19.39](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2036.19.39) （二十七）　圓照禪師。諱宗本。生於管氏。常州無錫人也。體貌豐碩言無枝葉。十九師事蘇州承天永安道昇禪師。昇道價重叢林。歸之者如雲。本弊衣垢面。探井臼典炊爨。以供給之。夜則入室參。昇曰。頭陀荷眾良苦。亦疲勞乎。對曰。若捨一法不名滿足。菩薩實欲此生身證。其敢言勞。昇陰奇之。又十年剃髮受具。服勤三年乃辭。昇遊方遍參。至池陽景德謁義懷禪師。言下契悟。眾未有知者。甞為侍者而喜寢。鼻息齁齁。聞者厭之言於懷。懷笑曰。此子吾家精進幢也。汝輩他日當依賴之。無多談。眾乃驚。懷退居吳江壽聖。部使者李公復圭過懷夜話曰。瑞光虛席。願得有道衲子主之。懷指本曰。無逾此道人者耳。既至寺。集眾擊鼓。鼓輒墮。圓轉震響。眾驚却。有僧出呼曰。此和尚法雷振地之祥也。俄失僧所在。自是法席日盛。武林守陳公襄。以承天興教二剎命師擇居。蘇人留之益甚。又以淨慈堅請。移文喻道俗曰。借師三年。為此邦植福。不敢久古。本嘖嘖曰。誰不欲作福。眾識其意。聽赴之。元豐五年神宗皇帝闢相國寺六十四院為八。禪二律六。中貴梁從政董其事。驛召師主惠林。既至。上遣使問勞。三日傳旨就寺之門為士民演法。翌日召對延和殿問道。賜坐。即盤足跏趺。賜茶至舉盞長吸又蕩撼之。上問。受業何寺。對曰。承天永安。上悅其真。喻以方興禪宗宜善開導之旨。既退。上目送之。謂左右曰。真福惠僧也。後帝登遐。召入福寧殿說法。以師甞為先帝所禮。敬見之。不勝哀悼。以老乞歸林下。勅任便雲遊。所至不得抑令住持。升座辭眾曰。本是無家客。那堪任便遊。順風加櫓棹。舡子下楊州。既出都城。王公貴人送者車騎相屬。師臨別誨之曰。歲月不可把玩。老病不與人期。唯勤修勿怠是真相為。聞者莫不感涕其真慈善導若此。高麗僧統義天。以王子奉國命使于我朝。聞師道譽。請以弟子禮見師。問其所得以華嚴經對。師曰。華嚴經三身佛。報身說耶。化身說耶。法身說耶。義天曰。法身說。本曰。法身遍周沙界。當時聽眾何處蹲立。義天茫然自失。欽服益加。法道至本大盛。老居靈岩閉門頹然。而四方從者相望於道不釋也。元符二年十二月甲子。將入滅。沐浴而臥。門弟子環擁請曰。和尚道遍天下。今日不可無偈。幸強起安坐。本熟視曰。癡子我尋常尚懶作偈。今日特地圖箇甚麼。尋常要臥便臥。不可今日特地坐也。索筆大書五字曰。後事付守榮。擲筆憨臥。若熟睡然。撼之已去矣。門人塔全身於山中。閱世八十。坐五十二夏。 > 27. Chan Master Yuanzhao, taboo name Zongben, was born into the Guan clan, a native of Wuxi in Changzhou. His appearance was stout and solid, and his speech was plain and direct. At nineteen, he served Chan Master Daosheng of Chengtian Yong'an in Suzhou. Sheng's reputation for the Way was weighty in the monasteries, and people flocked to him like clouds. Ben wore tattered robes and had a begrimed face, drawing water from wells, operating pestles, and tending the cooking hearths to provide for the community. At night, he entered the room for instruction. Sheng said, 'Ascetic, bearing the burdens of the assembly is truly arduous; are you not fatigued?' He replied, 'If one dharma is abandoned, it is not called complete. The bodhisattva truly seeks to realise it in this very body; how could I dare speak of fatigue?' Sheng inwardly marvelled at him. After another ten years, he shaved his head and received full ordination, serving diligently for three years before taking his leave. Sheng went travelling to visit masters everywhere. Reaching Jingde in Chiyang, he visited Chan Master Yihuai; at a single word he attained awakening, though none in the assembly knew it. He once served as attendant and loved to sleep, his breath snoring loudly. Those who heard it found it distasteful and reported it to Huai. Huai smiled and said, 'This fellow is the banner of diligence in our house. In days to come, you people will rely on him; do not talk so much.' Only then was the assembly astonished. When Huai retired to Shousheng in Wujiang, Regional Inspector Lord Li Fugui spent the night conversing with Huai and said, 'The seat at Ruiguang is vacant. We wish to have a monk who possesses the Way to preside over it.' Huai pointed to Ben and said, 'None surpasses this man of the Way.' When he arrived at the temple, they gathered the assembly to strike the drum, but the drum suddenly fell down, rolling about with a thunderous roar. The assembly backed away in shock. A monk stepped forth and shouted, 'This is an auspicious sign that the Venerable's Dharma thunder will shake the earth!' In a moment, the monk was nowhere to be found. From then on, the Dharma assemblies flourished day by day. Prefect Chen Xiang of Wulin ordered the master to choose between presiding over Chengtian or Xingjiao. The people of Suzhou tried all the more persistently to detain him. Furthermore, when Jingci made a resolute request, they sent an official dispatch to explain to clergy and laity: 'We borrow the master for three years to plant blessings for this prefecture, not daring to detain him long.' Ben clicked his tongue and said, 'Who does not wish to create blessings?' The assembly understood his intention and allowed him to go. In the fifth year of Yuanfeng, Emperor Shenzong divided the sixty-four cloisters of Xiangguo Temple into eight—two for Chan and six for Vinaya. The palace official Liang Congzheng supervised the matter, and the master was summoned by courier to preside over Huilin. After he arrived, the emperor dispatched envoys to convey regards. Three days later, an imperial decree directed him to expound the Dharma for scholar-officials and commoners at the temple gate. The next day he was summoned for an audience at the Yanhe Hall to inquire into the Way. Granted a seat, he immediately sat cross-legged in the lotus posture. When tea was bestowed, he lifted the cup, took a long draught, and swirled and shook it. The emperor asked, 'At which temple did you receive instruction?' He replied, 'Chengtian Yong'an.' The emperor was pleased by his authenticity, and instructed him that with the Chan school newly flourishing, he should guide people skillfully. After he withdrew, the emperor watched him leave and said to his attendants, 'He is truly a monk of blessing and wisdom.' Later, when the emperor passed away, he was summoned into the Funing Hall to expound the Dharma. Because the master had been honoured by the late emperor, the new sovereign received him with reverence and was overwhelmed with grief. Citing old age, the master begged to return to the forests, and an imperial decree permitted him to roam freely as the clouds, directing that wherever he went, he was not to be pressured into holding an abbacy. Ascending the seat, he took leave of the assembly: / 'I am originally a guest without a home, / How could I bear to wander wherever I please? / Catching the favourable wind, I ply the oars and sculls; / The little boat heads downstream to Yangzhou.' / Once he left the capital, the carriages and horses of the princes, dukes, and nobles who saw him off followed one after another. At parting, the master instructed them, saying, 'Time cannot be idly trifled with; old age and sickness make no appointments with anyone. Only cultivating diligently without negligence is genuinely beneficial.' Those who heard were moved to tears; his genuine compassion and skilful guidance were like this. The Korean Supreme Patriarch Ŭich'ŏn, as a royal prince fulfilling his country's mission as an envoy to our court, heard of the master's reputation for the Way and requested to meet him with the rites of a disciple. Asked what he had attained, he answered with the \*Avataṃsaka Sūtra\*. The master said, 'As for the Buddha of the Three Bodies in the \*Avataṃsaka Sūtra\*, is it spoken by the reward body, the transformation body, or the Dharma body?' Ŭich'ŏn said, 'It is spoken by the Dharma body.' Ben said, 'The Dharma body pervades all world-realms as numerous as the sands; where did the assembly crouch and stand at that time?' Ŭich'ŏn was utterly at a loss, and his admiration and submission deepened all the more. The path of the Dharma flourished greatly under Ben. In his old age he resided at Lingyan, closing his gate in quiet retirement, yet followers from all quarters gazed at one another on the road without cessation. On the jiazi day in the twelfth month of the second year of Yuanfu, when he was about to pass away, he bathed and lay down. His disciples gathered around, entreating him: 'The Venerable's Way pervades the world; today there must not be no verse. Please force yourself to sit upright.' Ben looked at them intently and said, 'Foolish boys, ordinarily I am too lazy to compose verses; what are you plotting today of all days? Ordinarily, when I want to lie down, I lie down; I cannot make a special effort to sit today.' Asking for a brush, he wrote in large script five characters: 'The later matters are entrusted to Shourong.' He threw down the brush and lay peacefully, as if sound asleep. When they shook him, he was already gone. His disciples entombed his whole body in a stupa on the mountain. He lived to eighty years of age and had sat for fifty-two summer retreats. > — English (machine translation) (machine translation) - [Previous: 19.38](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2036.19.38) - [Next: 19.40](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2036.19.40) - [Up: 19](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2036.19) ## Translations (1) - [English (machine translation)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2036~en-mt.19.39) — English, machine translation ## Linked texts (1) - [神僧傳](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2064.9.53) — Classical Chinese --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2036.19.39](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2036.19.39) · Pramāṇa