釋氏稽古略 2.87

2.87

Chan Meditation in an Ancient Tree. Shi Huichi was the younger brother of Dharma Master Huiyuan of Mount Lu. In the second year of Long'an of Jin, he took leave of Master Huiyuan and entered Shu, staying at Longyuan Monastery in Jiazhou. Both clergy and laity revered him; those who ascended to Huichi's hall were said to have "ascended the Dragon Gate." Coming to this renzi year, the eighth year of Yixi, he gave his final admonition to his disciples and then entered absorption within a hollow tree at Longyuan. In the third year of Zhenghe of the Song, a wind broke the tree, and only then did Huichi emerge from absorption. Emperor Huizong composed three encomium gāthās for him, found under the Zhenghe era (from the Biographies of Eminent Monks and the Chronological Records).