釋氏稽古略 3.178

3.178

Mazu: Chan Master of Jiangxi (Dharma name Daoyi) was a native of Shifang County in Hanzhou. His surname was Ma, hence he was called Mazu ('Patriarch Ma'). He entered the monastic life at Luohan Monastery in his home district. He received tonsure under Venerable Tang of Zizhou, and the complete precepts from Vinaya Master Yuan of Yuzhou. During the Kaiyuan era of Xuanzong, he practiced samādhi in the Nanyue mountains. Meeting Venerable Huairang, who initiated him, he immediately received the mind-seal. He first moved from Mount Foji in Jianyang to Linchuan (now Fuzhou Route in Jiangxi), and next reached Mount Gonggong in Nankang. In the fourth year of Dali of Daizong, he was registered at Kaiyuan Monastery in Zhongling. At that time, the circuit surveillance commissioner Lu Sigong, hearing of his reputation, admired him and received his doctrine in person. Thereupon, students from the four quarters gathered like clouds beneath his seat. The surveillance commissioner of Hongzhou asked the master, 'Is it proper to consume wine and meat, or is it proper not to consume them?' The master said, 'If you consume them, it is your Excellency's salary; if you do not consume them, it is your Excellency's blessing.' The vice-censor had an awakening. The master had one hundred and thirty-nine inner disciples, each becoming the lineage leader of a region, whose transformations were inexhaustible. Up to this first month of the fourth year of Zhenyuan, the master climbed Mount Shimen in Jianchang. While walking in meditation within the forest, he saw that the cave valley was level and spacious, and said to his attendant, 'My decaying body shall return to this earth in the coming month.' Having spoken, he returned. Soon afterward he showed illness. The abbot inquired, 'Venerable Sir, how has your health been recently?' The master said, 'Sun-face Buddha, Moon-face Buddha.' On the first day of the second month he bathed, sat cross-legged, and passed away. In the eighth year of Yuanhe of Xianzong, he was posthumously conferred the title Chan Master Daji ('Great Serenity'), and his stupa was named Great Ornamentation Stupa (seen in the Jingde Chuandeng lu).