釋氏稽古略 2.275

2.275

天台智者大師　此年至建康。禪師諱智顗。字德安。生荊州華容陳氏。年十八出家。初謁大蘇山慧思禪師。即示普賢道場。為說四安樂行。大師誦法華經。至藥王品曰。是真精進。是名真法供養如來。乃悟法華三昧。獲旅陀羅尼。見靈山一會。儼然未散。及辭思遊化。思曰。汝於陳國有緣。往必利益。至是乙未年抵建康瓦棺寺。創弘禪法。僕射徐陵尚書毛喜等貴望並稟禪旨。甞夢登高山見一僧以手招之。是年九月至天台山。定光出迎曰。憶昨相招否。大師驚異而禮之。乃創菴行道。陳宣帝詔師還都居光宅寺。隋文帝開皇九年陳國滅。大師乃憩廬山。開皇十一年晉王廣任總江淮。十一月二十三日於楊州總管金城。請大師設僧會。授菩薩戒。奉師號曰智者。久之還廬山。晉王再請出山。為蕭妃救患。建齋七日行光明懺。疾瘳再還廬山。過衡峯屆荊部留王泉寺。開皇十七年十一月二十四日歸寂於台山石城寺。壽六十七。僧臘四十。大師造大寺三十六所。命寫經一十五藏。著經疏百餘卷。造金銅土木等像八十萬軀。度僧一萬五千人。五十餘州道俗受菩薩戒者不可勝紀。大師謂法華為一乘妙典。開方便之權門。示真實之妙理。會眾善之小行。歸廣大之一乘。遂出玄義。曰釋名辯體明宗論。用判教相之五重也。後世宗之曰天台教。

Great Master Zhizhe of Tiantai. In this year, he arrived at Jiankang. The Chan master's taboo name was Zhiyi, and his courtesy name was De'an. He was born into the Chen clan of Huarong in Jingzhou. At the age of eighteen, he left home. At first he visited Chan Master Huisi of Mount Dasu, who immediately revealed to him the Bodhimaṇḍa of Samantabhadra and preached the four practices of ease for his sake. As the Great Master was reciting the Lotus Sūtra, when he reached the "Chapter on the Bodhisattva Bhaiṣajyarāja" which says, "This is true vigor; this is called the true offering of Dharma to the Tathāgata," he then awakened to the Lotus samādhi and attained the dhāraṇī of revolving contemplation. He saw the single assembly at Vulture Peak, solemn and not yet dispersed. When taking leave of Huisi to wander and teach, Huisi said, "You have karmic ties with the state of Chen; going there will certainly bring benefit." In this year, the yiwei year, he arrived at Waguan Monastery in Jiankang and began to propagate the Chan teachings. Eminent nobles such as Left Administration Supervisor Xu Ling and Minister Mao Xi all received the Chan tenets from him. He once dreamed that he climbed a high mountain and saw a monk beckoning to him with his hand. In the ninth month of this year, he arrived at Mount Tiantai. Dingguang came out to welcome him, saying, "Do you recall my beckoning to you yesterday?" The Great Master was astonished and bowed to him. Thereupon he established a hermitage and practiced the Way. Emperor Xuan of Chen summoned the master to return to the capital and reside at Guangzhai Monastery. In the ninth year of the Kaihuang era of Emperor Wen of Sui, the state of Chen was destroyed. The Great Master then rested at Mount Lu. In the eleventh year of the Kaihuang era, the Prince of Jin, Yang Guang, assumed the overall command of the Jiang and Huai regions. On the twenty-third day of the eleventh month, in the general administration office of Jincheng in Yangzhou, he invited the Great Master to establish a monastic assembly, administered the bodhisattva precepts, and bestowed upon the master the title "Zhizhe" (the Wise One). After a long while, he returned to Mount Lu. The Prince of Jin once again invited him to come out of the mountain to save Consort Xiao from illness. He held a vegetarian feast for seven days and practiced the repentance of Golden Radiance; when the illness was cured, he returned again to Mount Lu. Passing through Hengfeng, he arrived at Jingbu and stayed at Yuquan Monastery. On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month in the seventeenth year of the Kaihuang era, he passed into quiescence at Shicheng Monastery on Mount Tiantai. His lifespan was sixty-seven, and his monastic age was forty. The Great Master built thirty-six large monasteries, ordered fifteen copies of the Tripiṭaka to be transcribed, composed over a hundred fascicles of scriptural commentaries, made eight hundred thousand gold, bronze, clay, and wooden statues, and ordained fifteen thousand monks. The monastics and laity of over fifty prefectures who received the bodhisattva precepts from him were beyond count. The Great Master considered the Lotus to be the wondrous scripture of the One Vehicle, which opens the expedient provisional gate, reveals the wondrous truth of reality, gathers the minor practices of diverse virtues, and directs them into the vast One Vehicle. Thereupon he produced the Mysterious Meaning, dividing it into: explaining names, discerning the substance, clarifying the tenets, discussing the function, and classifying the characteristics of the teachings, which are the fivefold profound meanings. Later generations took him as their patriarch, calling it the Tiantai teaching.