佛祖歷代通載 22.36

22.36

（七）　至元三十年。杭州徑山雲峯和上示寂。師名妙高。句之長溪人。父諱鼒家。世業儒。母阮。夢池上嬰兒合爪坐蓮華心手捧得之。覺而生師。因名夢池。神采秀徹。嗜書力學。尤耽釋典。固請學出世法。父母以夢故不定奪。俾從吳中雲夢澤公受具戒。師銳意求道。首參癡絕冲。冲曰。此兒語纚纚有緒。吾宗瑚璉也。尋又見無準於徑山。準尤器愛。擬以侍職處。師嘆曰。懷安敗名。吾不遍參諸方不止也。遂之育王見偃溪。即請入侍室。掌職藏鑰。一日溪舉。譬如牛過窓櫺。頭角四蹄俱過了。因甚尾巴過不得。師劃然有省。答曰。鯨吞海水盡。露出珊瑚枝。偃溪可之。會師遷南屏。携師與俱。尋住南興大蘆。遂為嫡嗣。遷保安江陰教忠霅川何山。雲衲四來。三堂皆溢。蔣山虛次直指僉議無以易師。朝旨從之。歷十有三載。眾踰五百。德祐乙亥年。被兵革。軍士有迫師求金者。師曰。此但有寺有僧。無金與汝。俄以刃擬師。師延頸曰。欲殺即殺。吾頭非汝礪刀石。辭氣雍容了無怖畏。軍士感動擲刃去。丞相伯顏公見師加敬。舍牛百齋糧五百。寺賴以濟。顏公又戒諸將。此老非常人比。宜異目待之。以故寺得無恙。至元庚辰。雙徑延請。師懇辭再三。乃前寺罹回祿。草創纔什一。師悉力興建。且捐衣盂自為僧堂眾寮。不十年悉復舊觀。戊子春。魔事忽作教徒譖毀禪宗。師聞之嘆曰。此宗門大事。吾當忍死以爭之。遂拉一二同列趨京。有旨大集教禪廷辨。上問禪以何為宗。師奏。淨智妙圓體本空寂。非見聞覺知思慮分別所能到。宣問再三。師歷舉西天四七東土二三。達磨諸祖南能北秀。德山臨濟棒喝因緣。大抵教是佛語。禪是佛心。正法眼藏涅槃妙心。趣最上乘。孰過於禪。詞指明辯餘二千言。又宣進榻前與仙林。諸教徒返復論難。林問。禪宗得法幾人。師云。從上佛祖天下老和上。盡恒河沙莫窮其數。林云。只這是誰。師云。含元殿上更覓長安。又問。如何是禪。師打一圓相。林不省。師曰。只這一圈透不過。說甚千經萬論。林辭屈。上大說。眾喙乃熄。禪宗按堵如初。陛辭南歸。示眾云。我本深藏岩竇。隱遯過時。不謂日照天臨。難逃至化。又云。衲帔蒙頭萬事休。此時山僧都不會。徑山輪奐甫備。延燎復盡。師謂眾曰。吾負此山債耳。遂竭力再建。匯殿坡為池。他屋皆易置佳處。五年而成。癸巳六月初。小參訓飭學者。十七日書偈而逝。師生於嘉定己卯二月十七日。壽七十五。臘五十九。葬於寺西之居頂菴。

7. In the thirtieth year of Zhiyuan, Upādhyāya Yunfeng of Jingshan in Hangzhou demonstrated quiescence. The master’s name was Miaogao, a native of Changxi in Goulian. His father's taboo name was Zijia, and his family had practiced Confucianism for generations. His mother, née Ruan, dreamt of an infant at the edge of a pond sitting with palms joined in the center of a lotus, which she received and held in her hands. Upon waking, she gave birth to the master, and hence he was named Mengchi. His spirit and demeanor were elegant and penetrating; he was fond of books and applied himself to study, being especially engrossed in Buddhist scriptures. He steadfastly requested to study the transmundane Dharma. Because of the dream, his parents could not make a decision, but allowed him to receive full ordination (upasampadā) from Master Yunmengze in Wuzhong. The master resolved keenly to seek the Way, first studying under Chijue Chong. Chong said: 'This youth speaks with fluent lucidity; he is the jade vessel of our lineage.' Soon afterward, he also visited Wuzhun at Jingshan. Wuzhun regarded and cherished him especially, intending to place him as an attendant. The master sighed: 'Attachment to ease destroys one’s name. If I do not visit masters everywhere, I shall not stop.' Thereupon, he went to Yuwang and met Yanxi, who immediately invited him to enter his chamber of attendants, assigning him charge of the keys to the scriptorium. One day, Yanxi brought up: 'Just as an ox passes through the window lattice—its head, horns, and four hooves have all passed through; why is it that its tail cannot pass through?' The master had an instantaneous awakening and replied: 'When the whale swallows the sea water completely, the branches of coral are exposed.' Yanxi approved of him. It happened that Yanxi moved to Nanping and took the master with him. Soon the master took up residence at Dalu in Nanxing, thereby becoming Yanxi's direct lineage heir. He moved through Bao'an, Jiaozhong in Jiangyin, and Heshan in Zhichuan. Cloud-robed monks arrived from the four quarters, and the three halls were all overflowing. When Jiangshan became vacant, direct nominations and general deliberations found no one to replace the master, and the imperial court complied with this. He remained there for thirteen years, and the assembly exceeded five hundred. In the yihai year of the Dexiu era, military conflicts occurred. There was a soldier who coerced the master, demanding gold. The master said: 'Here there is only a monastery and monks; there is no gold to give you.' Soon the soldier pointed a blade at the master. The master stretched out his neck and said: 'If you wish to kill, then kill. My head is not a whetstone for your blade.' His speech and demeanor were composed and graceful, completely free of fear. Moved, the soldier threw down the blade and departed. When Grand Councilor Boyan met the master, he treated him with increased respect, donating one hundred oxen and five hundred supplies of provisions, on which the monastery relied to be sustained. Lord Yan also admonished the generals: 'This elder cannot be compared to ordinary people; you should treat him with special regard.' For this reason, the monastery remained unharmed. In the gengchen year of Zhiyuan, Shuangjing extended an invitation to him. The master earnestly declined repeatedly. Because the previous monastery had suffered a fire, and the initial reconstruction was only one-tenth complete, the master exerted all his effort in rebuilding, and even donated his robes and alms bowl to build the monk's hall and communal quarters himself. In less than ten years, it was completely restored to its old appearance. In the spring of the wuzi year, demonic disturbances suddenly arose as doctrinal adherents slandered the Chan school. Hearing of this, the master sighed: 'This is a great matter for our lineage. I must risk death to contest it.' Thereupon, he drew along one or two colleagues and hastened to the capital. An imperial decree was issued to assemble the doctrinal and Chan masters for a court debate. The Emperor asked: 'What does Chan take as its core teaching?' The master reported to the throne: 'Purity of wisdom is wondrously round, and its substance is inherently quiescent. It cannot be reached by seeing, hearing, perceiving, knowing, thinking, or discriminating.' His Majesty inquired repeatedly. The master enumerated the four times seven masters of India and the two and three patriarchs of the East, Bodhidharma and the various patriarchs, Huineng of the South and Shenxiu of the North, as well as the causes and conditions of the stick and shout of Deshan and Linji. In essence: the doctrinal teachings are the Buddha’s words, while Chan is the Buddha’s mind. The treasury of the eye of the correct Dharma and the wondrous mind of nirvāṇa aspire to the Supreme Vehicle; what can surpass Chan? His words and arguments were clear and distinct, running over two thousand words. Furthermore, he was summoned before the couch to debate back and forth with Xianlin and various doctrinal adherents. Xianlin asked: 'How many people have obtained the Dharma in the Chan school?' The master said: 'From the Buddhas and Patriarchs above to the old venerables of the world, exhausting the sands of the Ganges, their number cannot be calculated.' Lin said: 'Who is just this one?' The master said: 'Atop the Hanyuan Hall, why seek Chang'an again?' He asked again: 'What is Chan?' The master drew a circle. Lin did not comprehend. The master said: 'Unable to penetrate this single circle, why speak of thousands of sutras and myriad treatises?' Lin's arguments were exhausted. The Emperor was greatly delighted, and the clamor of the assembly was silenced. The Chan school was settled and undisturbed as before. Taking leave of the throne to return south, he instructed the assembly: 'I had originally hidden deep in rocky crags, passing the time in seclusion. I did not anticipate that the imperial sun would shine down upon me, making it difficult to escape the supreme transformation.' He also said: 'Covering my head with a patchwork robe, all worldly affairs cease. At this time, this mountain monk understands nothing at all.' When the splendor of Jingshan was newly completed, a spreading fire consumed it all once more. The master said to the assembly: 'I owe a debt to this mountain.' Thereupon, he exhausted his efforts to rebuild it again. He excavated the slope of the hall into a pond, and other buildings were all relocated to fine sites. It was completed in five years. At the beginning of the sixth month of the guisi year, he held an informal assembly to admonish and instruct the students. On the seventeenth day, he wrote a gāthā and passed away. The master was born on the seventeenth day of the second month in the yimao year of Jiading. His age was seventy-five, and his monastic age was fifty-nine. He was buried at the Juding Hermitage to the west of the monastery.