釋氏稽古略 4.176

4.176

雪竇　明州雪竇山禪師。名重顯。字隱之。太平興國五年四月八日生遂寧府李氏。幼依益州普安院仁銑上人出家。受具出蜀浮沈。荊渚間。甞典賓大陽北遊至復州。北塔祚禪師愛師精銳。留止五年盡得其道。將造錢塘。值曾學士於淮南。曾以書薦師於靈隱珊禪師。師至陸沈已三年。曾公奉使浙西訪師於靈隱。堂僧千餘人無識之者。檢床曆物色得之。曾問向所附書。師袖而納之。曾大笑。珊益以奇之。師出世蘇州翠峯。遷明州雪竇。宗風大振。至是皇祐四年六月十日（一作七月七日）沐浴。出杖屨衣盂散及徒眾。攝衣北首而逝。壽七十三。夏五十。全身塔于寺之西塢。賜號明覺大師。得法上首。天衣懷禪師等。師暮年悲學者尋流失源。作為道日損偈曰。三分光陰二早過。靈臺一點不揩磨。貪生逐日區區去。喚不迴頭爭奈何。其敷揚宗旨妙語偈頌。遍播叢林。師嗣智門祚。祚嗣香林遠。遠嗣雲門偃禪師（傳燈）。

Xuedou: Chan Master of Mount Xuedou in Mingzhou, named Chongxian, courtesy name Yinzhi, was born into the Li family of Suining Prefecture on the eighth day of the fourth month in the fifth year of Taiping Xingguo. In his youth he went to Superior Renxian of Pu'an Monastery in Yizhou to leave home. Having received full ordination, he left Shu and drifted along the waters around Jingling. Once, while serving as guest master at Dayang, he traveled north to Fuzhou. Chan Master Zuo of the Northern Pagoda appreciated the Master's keen diligence and kept him for five years, where he fully attained his way. As he was about to set out for Qiantang, he met Academician Zeng in Huainan. Zeng recommended the Master with a letter to Chan Master Shan of Lingyin. By the time the Master arrived, he had remained hidden there for three years. When Lord Zeng, on an official mission to western Zhejiang, visited the Master at Lingyin, among the more than one thousand monks in the hall, none knew him. Searching through the bed rosters, they located him by his appearance. Zeng asked about the letter he had sent previously; the Master produced it from his sleeve and presented it. Zeng laughed heartily, and Shan regarded him as all the more extraordinary. The Master assumed abbacy at Cuifeng in Suzhou and moved to Xuedou in Mingzhou, greatly revitalizing the tradition of the school. By this point, on the tenth day of the sixth month in the fourth year of Huangyou (one source says the seventh day of the seventh month), he bathed, brought out his staff, sandals, robes, and bowl to distribute among his disciples, gathered his robes, and passed away facing north. His age was seventy-three; his monastic age, fifty. His entire body was placed in a stupa in the western valley of the monastery. He was granted the title Great Master Mingjiao. Among those who attained the Dharma, the leader was Chan Master Huai of Tianyi and others. In his twilight years, the Master grieved that learners sought the stream and lost the source, and composed a verse on "the Way diminishing daily": "Two-thirds of time have already slipped away, / Yet the single point of the spiritual terrace has not been polished. / Clinging to life, one scurries about day by day; / Though called, they will not turn back—what can be done?" His wondrous words, gāthās, and verses expounding the essential tenets were spread throughout the monasteries everywhere. The Master was the dharma heir of Zuo of Zhimen; Zuo was the dharma heir of Yuan of Xianglin; Yuan was the dharma heir of Chan Master Yan of Yunmen (*Chuandeng [lu]*).