釋氏稽古略 3.371

3.371

龍湖　邵武龍湖禪師。名普聞。唐僖宗第二子也。幼不茹葷。長無經世意。僖宗鍾愛之。僖宗中和元年黃巢亂。帝幸蜀。親王宗室皆逃亡。師斷髮逸遊。謁石霜諸禪師問。如何是教外別傳。諸曰待案山點頭。即向汝道。師因省悟。依止數年乃請遊山。諸曰。逢乾即止。遇陳便住。遂辭行過邵武抵大乾。遙望山顛欝然深秀問父老。彼有居者否。老曰有一陳嗣者。久隱其中。師至嗣遂分坐同住。師廬茅谷口。陳乃去之。庵址存焉。其寶乘禪院者師茅廬基也。僖宗文德元年三月。師乃擲錫杖於山。杖止處建立道場。緇素嚮心遂成巨剎。一日有老人來前曰。我龍也。家於此山。行雨不職將有天罰。願師救護。師曰。汝可易形來。俄一小蛇在座。師引之入淨瓶。良久風雷挾座山巒搖震。達且開霽。蛇自缾出。老人來謝曰。非師法力則腥穢此地矣。觀師道場闕水。當以報德。遂斸地成穴。湧泉衍溢乃為一湖。在今半山是曰龍湖。至是貞明四年一日。師集眾僧曰。吾將他適。以院事付聰教二禪人。乃說偈曰。我逃世難來出家。宗師指示箇歇處。住山領眾三十年。對人不欲輕分付。今日分明說似君。我斂目時齊聽取。既而跨虎凌晨抵信州開元寺。龍湖僧追之。師曰。山中已有聰禪師。吾不復歸矣。故龍湖無開山祖師塔。惟有跨虎庵基。為古今之證。勅諡圓覺禪師。五燈會元謂師示寂於龍湖殆非也。師嗣潭州石霜禪師慶諸。諸嗣道吾宗智。智嗣藥山儼禪師。諸吉州人。姓陳氏。

Longhu: Chan Master Longhu of Shaowu was named Puwen, the second son of Emperor Xizong of Tang. In his youth, he did not eat meat, and when grown, he had no interest in worldly affairs. Xizong loved him deeply. In the first year of Zhonghe of Xizong, during the rebellion of Huang Chao, the Emperor went to Shu, and the imperial princes and clan members all fled. The Master cut his hair and wandered freely. He visited Chan Master Shishuang Zhu and asked: "What is the separate transmission outside the teachings?" Zhu said: "Wait until the front mountain nods its head, then I will explain it to you." The Master was thereupon awakened. He relied on him for several years and then requested to go on a pilgrimage in the mountains. Zhu said: "When you encounter Qian, stop; when you meet Chen, stay." Thereupon he took his leave, passed through Shaowu, and arrived at Daqian. Gazing from afar at the mountain peak, which was lush, deep, and elegant, he asked an elder: "Is there anyone living there?" The elder said: "There is a certain Chen Si who has long hidden there." When the Master arrived, Si shared his seat and lived together with him. The Master built a thatched cottage at the mouth of the valley; Chen then departed, and the foundation of his hermitage still remains. The Baocheng Chan Cloister is the site of the Master's thatched cottage. In the third month of the first year of Wende of Xizong, the Master threw his monastic staff into the mountain; where the staff stopped, he established a bodhimaṇḍa. Monks and laity directed their hearts there, and it thus became a great monastery. One day, an old man came before him and said: "I am a dragon. My home is in this mountain. In making rain, I have failed in my duty and am about to suffer heavenly punishment. I pray that the Master will rescue and protect me." The Master said: "You may change your form and come." Presently, a small snake appeared beside his seat. The Master guided it into his pure water vase. After a long while, wind and thunder engulfed the seat, and the mountain peaks shook violently. At daybreak, the weather cleared. The snake emerged from the vase, and the old man came to give thanks, saying: "Had it not been for the Master's spiritual power, this place would have been covered in blood and foulness. Seeing that the Master's bodhimaṇḍa lacks water, I shall repay your virtue." He thereupon dug into the ground to form a hole; a gushing spring overflowed and became a lake. Located halfway up the mountain today, it is called Dragon Lake (Longhu). Reaching this point, one day in the fourth year of Zhenming, the Master gathered the assembly of monks and said: "I am about to go elsewhere." He entrusted the monastery's affairs to the two Chan practitioners Cong and Jiao, and then spoke a verse:
"I escaped worldly tribulations and came to leave the household life;
The ancestral teacher pointed out a resting place.
Dwelling in the mountains and leading the assembly for thirty years,
To people I was unwilling to pass it on lightly.
Today, I state it clearly for you:
When I close my eyes, listen all together."
Soon afterward, straddling a tiger at dawn, he arrived at Kaiyuan Monastery in Xinzhou. The monks of Longhu pursued him. The Master said: "There is already Chan Master Cong in the mountain; I will not return again." Therefore, Longhu has no pagoda for its founding ancestral master; there is only the foundation of the Straddling-Tiger Hermitage, serving as evidence from antiquity to the present. He was imperially bestowed the posthumous title Chan Master Yuanjue. The Wudeng huiyuan states that the Master showed quiescence at Longhu, which is probably incorrect. The Master was the dharma heir of Chan Master Qingzhu of Shishuang in Tanzhou; Zhu was the heir of Daowu Zongzhi; Zhi was the heir of Chan Master Yaoshan Yan. Zhu was a man of Jizhou, with the surname Chen.