釋氏稽古略 3.128

3.128

Armillary Sphere of the Ecliptic: This instrument was modeled on the image of the spherical heavens, fully displaying the degrees of the lunar mansions and the celestial equator. Water was poured to strike a waterwheel and cause it to rotate automatically; in one day and night, the celestial movement completed a full revolution. Encircling the exterior were two rings adorned with the sun and moon, allowing them to traverse their courses: each day the heavens rotated westward by one full revolution, the sun traveled eastward by one degree, and the moon traveled thirteen degrees. A wooden chest served as the horizon, with half of the instrument situated below this ground level; the dark moon, light moon, new moon, and full moon were accurately indicated. Two wooden automatons were placed upon the horizon: before one was placed a drum, which automatically struck whenever an interval of one quarter-hour arrived; before the other was placed a bell, which automatically tolled whenever a two-hour period arrived (seen in the Old Tang History). The Emperor, in the Daming Palace, leisurely asked the master about the fortune and destiny of the dynastic altars. The master said, 'The imperial carriage will make a journey of ten thousand li; the altars of state will in the end obtain auspiciousness.' When An Lushan rebelled, the Emperor journeyed to Shu, reached the Wanli Bridge in Chengdu, and then returned. When Emperor Xizong died, his imperial younger brother Prince Ji was mature and virtuous, and all the ministers placed their hopes upon him; yet the palace commissioner Yang Fugong requested to enthrone his younger brother, King of Shou, Li Jie, and the Liang dynasty subsequently transferred the mandate. The master's words were thus verified. On the eighth day of the eleventh month of the fifteenth year of the Kaiyuan era, the master changed his clothes, sat upright, and passed away at the age of forty-five. The Emperor wept for him with extreme sorrow and suspended court audiences for three days. His reliquary shrine was kept for three weeks; his countenance remained serene. By imperial order he was buried on the Tongren Plain, and fifty myriad coins from the imperial treasury were disbursed to erect a stūpa. He was granted the posthumous title Chan Master Dahui. The Emperor personally composed the text for a stūpa stele and inscribed it upon stone. By imperial order, officials of the East Palace and below, as well as capital officials of the ninth rank and above, all escorted the cortege to the Tongren Plain, and a vegetarian feast was hosted at Lantian. In the third month of the sixteenth year of the Kaiyuan era, the imperial retinue visited the hot springs. The route passed by the master's stūpa; the Emperor halted the carriage and ordered ranked officials to announce the imperial intention of touring for pleasure, and bestowed fifty bolts of silk to be used for planting pines and cypresses in front of the stūpa. The master was a Dharma heir of Chan Master Puji of Mount Song. Puji was an heir of Shenxiu of the Northern School. Xiu was a collateral heir of the Fifth Patriarch. When the Monk Controller Zanning of the Song wrote the master's biography, he stated: 'The master accompanied the imperial carriage to Xinfeng; before the imperial carriage, he took leave of the Emperor and went east to Mount Song to pay respects to his root master, Chan Master Ji; he entered cessation at Wangji Monastery' (Old Tang History and the Biographies of Monks).