釋氏稽古略 2.275

2.275

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.