釋氏稽古略 3.57

3.57

The Thousand-Year Upādhyāya Baozhang: A native of Central India in the Western Heavens. At birth his left hand was clenched in a fist; only when his hair was shaved at age seven did it open, hence his name Baozhang ('Precious Palm'). In the twenty-fourth year of the Jian'an reign of Emperor Xian of the Eastern Han, he came to this land. During the Wei and Jin dynasties he journeyed east. Traveling west, he entered Shu to pay homage to Samantabhadra, staying at Daci Monastery where he daily recited scriptures such as the Prajñāpāramitā. Someone composed a verse praising him: 'Ceaselessly his jade teeth grow cold, / As if a cold spring bursts forth in haste; / Sometimes, sitting at midnight, / Ghosts and spirits weep before his steps.' One day he said to the assembly: 'I have a vow to abide in the world for a thousand years,' hence people called him 'Thousand Years.' Next he traveled to Mount Wutai, then moved to live at Huayan on Zhurong Peak, Shuangfeng in Huangmei, and Donglin on Mount Lu. Soon he reached Jiankang just as Bodhidharma entered the Liang dynasty. Baozhang went to inquire into his tenets and attained awakening. Emperor Wu esteemed his monastic seniority and invited him to the inner court. Shortly thereafter he went to Wu. He had a verse that went: 'Meeting the Guide in the city of Liang, / I practiced Chan and understood the mind-ground; / Wandering through the two Zhe regions, / I have exhausted all the fine mountains and waters.' Drifting east with the current, from Qianqing he reached Tianzhu, went to Mao Peak, climbed Mount Taibai, traversed Mount Yandang, and rested among the seventy-two hermitages of Cui Peak. He ascended Chicheng, and rested at Yunmen, Fahua, Zhuji, Yupu, and Chifu Dayan. In the fifteenth year of the Zhenguan reign of Emperor Taizong, he returned to Hangzhou to settle at Feilai Peak; this is now Zhong Tianzhu Monastery. He had the lines: 'Having traveled across all four hundred prefectures of China, / This place is especially suited for a practitioner's wanderings.' Later he lived at Baoyan in Pujiang. By this time, on New Year's Day in the dingren year, the second year of Xianqing, he sculpted an image with his own hands; after nine days the image was complete. He asked his disciple Huiyun: 'Whom does it resemble?' Yun said: 'It is no different from the Upādhyāya.' He then bathed, sat cross-legged, and said to Yun: 'I have dwelled in the world for […] thousand and seventy-two years. Now I depart from the world. Listen to my verse: / Originally there is no birth or death; / Now I merely manifest birth and death. / Having attained the mind that can leave or stay, / In another life I shall return here again.' When he finished speaking, he passed away. Fifty-four years later, Elder Cifu came from Yunmen to the stupa site and bowed, saying: 'I hope the stupa doors will open.' After a short while, the stupa doors indeed opened; his bones were linked like chains, looking like yellow gold. Fu then carried them to Mount Qinwang to erect a stupa. During the Kaiyuan reign of Emperor Xuanzong, Huiyun's disciple Zongyi engraved a stone tablet recording his deeds (from the Record of the Transmission of the Lamp).