釋氏稽古略 3.178

3.178

馬祖　江西禪師（法名道一）漢州什邡縣人。姓馬氏。故稱馬祖。出家本邑羅漢寺。依資州唐和尚落髮。渝州圓律師授具足戒。玄宗開元間習定南嶽山中。遇讓和尚度之。即得心印。始自建陽佛跡嶺遷臨川（今江西撫州路）次至南康龔公山。代宗大曆四年。隸名鍾陵開元寺。時連帥路嗣恭聆風景慕。親授宗旨。由是四方學者雲集座下。洪州廉使問師曰。喫酒肉即是。不喫即是。師曰。若喫是中丞祿。不喫是中丞福。丞有省。師入室弟子一百三十九人。各為一方宗主。轉化無窮。師至是貞元四年正月中登建昌石門山。於林中經行。見洞壑平坦。謂侍者曰。吾之朽質。當於來月歸茲土矣。言訖而回。既而示疾。院主聞和尚。近日尊候如何。師曰。日面佛月面佛。二月一日沐浴。跏趺而逝。憲宗元和八年賜諡大寂禪師。塔曰大莊嚴之塔（見景德傳燈錄）。

Mazu: Chan Master of Jiangxi (Dharma name Daoyi) was a native of Shifang County in Hanzhou. His surname was Ma, hence he was called Mazu ('Patriarch Ma'). He entered the monastic life at Luohan Monastery in his home district. He received tonsure under Venerable Tang of Zizhou, and the complete precepts from Vinaya Master Yuan of Yuzhou. During the Kaiyuan era of Xuanzong, he practiced samādhi in the Nanyue mountains. Meeting Venerable Huairang, who initiated him, he immediately received the mind-seal. He first moved from Mount Foji in Jianyang to Linchuan (now Fuzhou Route in Jiangxi), and next reached Mount Gonggong in Nankang. In the fourth year of Dali of Daizong, he was registered at Kaiyuan Monastery in Zhongling. At that time, the circuit surveillance commissioner Lu Sigong, hearing of his reputation, admired him and received his doctrine in person. Thereupon, students from the four quarters gathered like clouds beneath his seat. The surveillance commissioner of Hongzhou asked the master, 'Is it proper to consume wine and meat, or is it proper not to consume them?' The master said, 'If you consume them, it is your Excellency's salary; if you do not consume them, it is your Excellency's blessing.' The vice-censor had an awakening. The master had one hundred and thirty-nine inner disciples, each becoming the lineage leader of a region, whose transformations were inexhaustible. Up to this first month of the fourth year of Zhenyuan, the master climbed Mount Shimen in Jianchang. While walking in meditation within the forest, he saw that the cave valley was level and spacious, and said to his attendant, 'My decaying body shall return to this earth in the coming month.' Having spoken, he returned. Soon afterward he showed illness. The abbot inquired, 'Venerable Sir, how has your health been recently?' The master said, 'Sun-face Buddha, Moon-face Buddha.' On the first day of the second month he bathed, sat cross-legged, and passed away. In the eighth year of Yuanhe of Xianzong, he was posthumously conferred the title Chan Master Daji ('Great Serenity'), and his stupa was named Great Ornamentation Stupa (seen in the Jingde Chuandeng lu).