佛祖歷代通載 13.26

13.26

In this year, Grand Preceptor and Duke of the State of Yan Zhang Yue passed away. Yue was an eminent statesman of the Tang, and most of the imperial court's major compositions came from his hand. In composing prose his thoughts were refined and robust, and he was especially adept in the Buddhist scriptures. He was once banished to Yuezhou, where his poems became all the more plaintive and poignant; contemporaries said he received the aid of rivers and mountains. Throughout the realm people did not speak of his surname, but called him Duke Yan. He composed the 'Preface to the Engraved Stone Heart Sūtra', which reads: 'The myriad practices arise from the mind; the mind is the master of man. The three vehicles return to the One; the One is the ancestor of dharmas. Knowing that the mind has nothing to attain is true attainment; seeing that the One leaves nothing unpenetrated is mysterious penetration. The Tathāgata taught that the five aggregates are all empty; the person is fundamentally empty. The Tathāgata taught that the marks of all dharmas are empty; dharmas are also empty. Knowing the dharma illuminates emptiness; seeing emptiness abandons the dharma. Are not both this knowledge and vision themselves empty? Therefore, both concentration and wisdom abide within empty dharmas. Entering this gate is the luminous gate; travelling this path is the transcendent path. Were it not for one who practices profound prajñā, who could verify this?' Fuma Duwei Zheng Wanjun of Xingyang was a gentleman of profound arts; his learning was uniquely transmitted and his calligraphy achieved the status of a sage of cursive script. He then brandished his brush and carved the Heart Sūtra on stone, establishing a precious sanctuary of sagely goodness and initiating a splendid enterprise for the future. The Buddha spoke through markless non-reliance, for the Dharma is fundamentally unarisen; I transmit it through a mind without attainment, and now it is without extinction. The Way resides in writing, its meaning matching Heaven and Earth. When the Elder of the State Zhang Yue heard of it, he praised it, extolled the Buddhist work, and inscribed it on the joyous stone. He also composed 'Eulogy on the Two Dharma Halls of the Fachi Cloister, with Preface', which states: 'The Two Dharma Halls of the Sanguis [Three Refuges] Cloister to the west of Fachi were built by the elder of this cloister, Chan Master Chushang. The Chan Master’s surname was Peng, and his given name was Zhi. By nature profoundly filial, he ate nothing for seven days while observing mourning for his parents. With subtle words and esoteric practices, he set his will upon the Way and probed the mysterious, investigating the principles of the Yijing, Laozi, Zhuangzi, and Taiyi. He was skilled in regular script and mastered the styles of Zhong [Yao] and Wang [Xizhi]; his strokes were graceful and elegant, every hair-line fully visible, like breaking dried lotus stems or polishing veined stone—its crisp and flowing sinews and textures were certainly not achievable by mere human effort. Renowned scholars of the court and lofty recluses of the mountains, pioneers in the Buddhist current, admired him from near and far. In his later years he focused his mind entirely on Chan chanting, brushing off his lifelong achievements like discarded dust. He often sighed: 'The emperor and my parents permitted me to leave the householders' life; their rain-and-dew-like nurturing of me represents a single, uniform kindness. Following the Tathāgata's teaching, I establish this merit, hoping against hope to dedicate blessings to the Two Palaces [the Emperor and Empress], secretly aid the seven generations of ancestors, and ascend to the bodhimaṇḍa together with all beings.' Thereupon, the Sangui Hall was erected on the Guimao day, the full moon of the Zi month, in the first year of Chang'an, a Xinchou year; the Shanfa Hall was built on the Wuchen day, the full moon of the Chou month, in the first year of Kaiyuan, a Guichou year. The Chan Master’s maternal younger brother Renwan, his disciple Qiyi, and the novice Lingzhe truly provided strong assistance in these works.' He then wrote the eulogy: 'I respectfully address all the sons of the Buddha: / With single-minded, pure contemplation, / If you wish to seek the true, correct Way, / You should enter through the faculty of faith. / This is the Buddha's space-like mark; / This is the Dharma's subtle, wondrous light. / Concentration and wisdom are inseparable; / This is the Saṃgha's meaning of harmony. / The person is empty, and dharmas are also empty; / The two emptinesses are also empty. / Abiding the mind in the jewel of the three emptinesses / Is called the place of the Three Refuges. / Supreme is the Venerable Chushang, / Who established the Shanfa Hall! / Adorned with the variegated greens of the Buddhas of the three periods, / Embellishing the pure eye, / Able to exercise an unhindered mind / And universally enter into all things. / If one sees without being stained by form, / And knows without grasping consciousness, / This is called true seeing, / And is also called the knowledge of liberation. / The Buddha's vision is free from arising and ceasing; / All dharmas are uniformly like this.'