釋氏稽古略 3.484

3.484

State Preceptor Shao: His name was Deshao, a son of the Chen clan of Longquan in Chuzhou. At age fifteen he left home, and at seventeen he was tonsured at Longgui Temple in his home prefecture. At eighteen he received the full precepts at Kaiyuan Temple in Xinzhou. During the Tongguang era of Emperor Zhuangzong of the Later Tang, he went on pilgrimage, first calling upon Chan Master Tong of Mount Touzi, and next visiting Longya and Shushan. In this manner he visited and trained under fifty-four good spiritual friends. At last he reached Fuzhou in Jiangxi and called upon Chan Master Fayan [Wen]yi. Weary of inquiry, he merely followed the assembly. One day a monk asked Fayan, “What is a single drop of water from the source of Cao[xi]?” Fayan replied, “It is a single drop of water from the source of Cao.” The Master heard this from beside the seat and was suddenly and completely enlightened. When he reported it to Fayan, Fayan said, “In the future you shall become the preceptor to a king and cause the ancestral Way to shine with great brilliance.” Soon he returned to his home circuit and traveled to Mount Tiantai. Beholding the traces left behind by Chan Master Zhiyi the Great Master, it felt like a past affinity. At first he stayed at Baisha. At that time, Hongchu, King Zhongyi of Wuyue, was a prince serving as prefect of Taizhou; admiring the Master's renown, he invited him to inquire about the Way. By this time, the second year of Qianyou, the king had already succeeded to the throne of Wuyue, and he sent an envoy to welcome the Master, extending the etiquette of a disciple and honoring him as State Preceptor. There was a śramaṇa, Yiji—that is, Dharma Master Luoxi—who transmitted the teachings of Zhiyi of Tiantai. He repeatedly said to the Master, “The teachings of the Great Master Zhiyi have receded far into the past, and ultimately most have been scattered and lost; only the Kingdom of Silla has a very complete set of texts. We pray that through your compassionate power, Venerable, you might obtain them.” The Master thereupon reported this to the King of Yue. For this purpose, the king dispatched an envoy bearing the Master's letter to that country, where they were fully transcribed and brought back. That the scriptures of the Tiantai school survive intact to this day is largely due to the Master's effort. The Master had a verse that went: “The summit of Tongxuan Peak is not of the human realm; / Outside the mind there are no phenomena—green mountains fill the eyes.” When Fayan heard this, he remarked, “This single verse alone can revitalize my school.” On the twenty-eighth day of the sixth month in the fifth year of Kaibao under Emperor Taizu of the Song, he gathered the assembly to bid farewell, and passed away seated cross-legged on Lotus Flower Peak, at the age of eighty-two, having been a monk for sixty-five years. The Master was the dharma heir of Chan Master Fayan [Wen]yi.