釋氏稽古略 3.499

3.499

Yongming: Chan Master of Yongming Monastery in Hangzhou, named Daqian, a native of Hezhong Prefecture, surnamed Wu. At first, he called upon Chan Master Fayan Yi. Fayan asked him: "Outside of your visits and inquiries, what scripture do you read?" The Master replied: "The Avataṃsaka Sūtra." Fayan asked: "Which gate subsumes the six aspects—universality, particularity, identity, difference, integration, and disintegration?" The Master replied: "The text is in the 'Ten Grounds' chapter. According to principle, all worldly and transworldly phenomena possess the six aspects." Fayan said: "Does emptiness also possess the six aspects or not?" The Master was bewildered and had no reply. Fayan said: "You ask me." The Master then asked: "Does emptiness also possess the six aspects or not?" Fayan said: "Emptiness!" The Master was thereupon enlightened. On another day, because men and women came to the monastery, Fayan asked the Master: "The Vinaya says that the sound of hairpins and bracelets through a wall is called a violation of the precepts. Is seeing gold and silver intermingled, with vermilion and purple crowded together, a violation of the precepts or not?" The Master said: "What a fine path of entry!" Fayan said: "Hereafter you will have five hundred monastics, and be honored by kings and lords." Soon afterward, the Master made his bows, took leave, and rested his staff at an ancient monastery in Quzhou, reading through the Great Canon of Scriptures. In this first year of Guangshun, King Zhongyi of Wuyue, Hongshu, invited the Master into his residence to receive the bodhisattva precepts, conferring upon him the title of Chan Master Cihua Dinghui. He constructed a great monastery on the South Mountain named Huiri Yongming and invited the Master to reside there. The Master requested that the Arhats below the pagoda be transferred to the new monastery, which matched a prior dream of the king; thereupon the two characters "Yingzhen" were added to the Master's title. The Master passed into quiescence in the fifth year of the Xiande era of the Zhou. The Master was the dharma heir of Chan Master Fayan Yi.