釋氏稽古略 3.233

3.233

隨州大洪山（隷山南江北道陝州路豫州域）慈忍靈濟大師。名善信隆興（江西洪州）張氏。憲宗元和中隷洪州開元寺僧籍。參馬祖一禪師。密契心要。敬宗寶曆二年抵隨州太湖山側居焉。屬時亢旱鄉人張武陵具羊豕以祈湖龍。師見而悲之曰。害命濟命。重增乃罪。可且勿殺。小須三日。吾為爾祈。師即入山北之巖穴宴坐冥禱。雷雨大作。數日後武陵迹而求之。師方在定。武陵即施其山興建精舍。以二子給侍左右。學侶依嚮遂成法席。至是太和元年五月二十九日。師密語龍神曰。吾前以身代牲輟汝血食。今捨身償汝可享吾肉。即引刀截右膝復截左膝。門人奔持其刀。白液湧流儼然入寂。山南東道奏上其狀。帝嘉之賜所居額幽濟禪院。石晉天福中改為奇峯寺。宋神宗元豐元年。又改曰靈峯寺。哲宗元祐二年九月。詔改為十方禪寺。移洛陽少林寺長老報恩住持（寺記碑文）師嗣馬祖一禪師（傳燈）。

Great Master Ciren Lingji of Mount Dahong in Suizhou (subordinate to the Shanzhou Circuit of the Yuzhou territory in the Shannan Jiangbei Circuit) was named Shanxin, of the Zhang clan of Longxing (Hongzhou in Jiangxi). During the Yuanhe era of Xianzong, he was registered as a monk at Kaiyuan Temple in Hongzhou. He studied under Chan Master Mazu Daoyi and intimately accorded with the mental essentials. In the second year of Baoli of Jingzong, he arrived beside Mount Taihu in Suizhou and resided there. At that time, during a severe drought, a local villager named Zhang Wuling prepared sheep and pigs to pray to the dragon of the lake. When the master saw this, he felt compassion and said, 'To harm life in order to relieve life only multiplies your sin. You should not slaughter them; wait a mere three days, and I will pray for you.' The master then entered a rock cave north of the mountain, sat in meditation, and prayed silently. Thunder and rain poured down profusely. Several days later, Wuling tracked his traces and sought him out; the master was just then in meditative absorption. Wuling promptly donated his mountain, constructed a monastery, and sent his two sons to attend upon him left and right. Students flocked to him, and it thereby became a teaching hall. Coming to this, on the twenty-ninth day of the fifth month of the first year of Taihe, the master whispered secretly to the dragon spirit: 'Previously, I substituted myself for the sacrificial beasts, depriving you of blood food. Now, giving up my body to repay you, you may feast upon my flesh.' He then took a knife and cut off his right knee, and then cut off his left knee. His disciples rushed to seize the knife, but white fluid gushed forth, and he solemnly entered tranquility. The Shannan Dongdao circuit reported his deeds to the throne, and the emperor, commending him, bestowed upon his residence the plaque 'Youji Chan Cloister.' During the Tianfu era of the Later Jin, it was renamed Qifeng Temple. In the first year of Yuanfeng of Emperor Shenzong of the Song, it was again renamed Lingfeng Temple. In the ninth month of the second year of Yuanyou of Emperor Zhezong, an edict renamed it Shifang Chan Temple, and Baoxian, an elder of Shaolin Temple in Luoyang, was transferred to serve as abbot (Temple Record and Stele Inscription). The master was a dharma heir of Chan Master Mazu Daoyi (Transmission of the Lamp).