釋氏稽古略 3.279

3.279

Chan Master Caoshan of the Fuzhou Circuit in Jiangxi was named Benji. He was born to the Huang family of Putian in Quanzhou. In his youth he pursued Confucian studies. At the age of nineteen, he went to Lingshi in Fuzhou to leave home. At twenty-five, having taken the precepts, he called on Dongshan. Dongshan asked, "Ācārya, what is your name?" The master said, "Benji." Dongshan said, "What about that one?" The master said, "It is not named Benji." Dongshan deeply valued him as a vessel. From then on he entered the abbot's room; having tarried for several years, he then took his leave. Dongshan thereupon secretly transmitted to him the宗旨 of the Dongshan lineage. He went straight to Caoxi to pay homage at the stupa of the Sixth Patriarch, and then returned to Jishui. The multitude, drawn to the master's reputation, invited him to inaugurate Dharma teachings. Because the master aspired to emulate the Sixth Patriarch, he named the mountain Cao. Soon afterward, encountering the turmoil of bandits, he went to Yihuang. A faithful layman named Wang Ruoyi donated the Hewang Daoist Abbey and invited the master to assume the abbacy. The master changed "Hewang" to "Heyu." From this, his Dharma assembly flourished greatly, and students gathered like clouds. The lineage of Dongshan reached its height with the master. On the fifteenth day of the sixth month in the first year of Tianfu of Zhaozong, he addressed the assembly, saying, "Caoshan will set out on foot tomorrow at the chen hour (7–9 a.m.)." When the time came, he burned incense, sat peacefully, and passed away, aged sixty-two, with a monastic age of thirty-seven. His whole body was buried on the western slope of the mountain. By imperial decree he was posthumously titled Chan Master Yuanzheng, and his stupa was named Fuyuan. Ji was the heir of Chan Master Dongshan Liangjie; Jie was the heir of Yunyan Sheng; Sheng was the heir of Yaoshan Yan; Yan was the heir of Shitou Qian; Qian was the heir of Qingyuan Si; and Si was the heir of the Sixth Patriarch, Chan Master Dajian (Records of the Transmission of the Lamp).